Emission Management Process

The environment management application component helps companies to stay compliant with emissions-related environmental regulations. The solution covers the processes and sub-processes of managing compliance scenario activities to ensure compliance. These processes enable you to create and incorporate a strategy of managing environmentally-related data from data collection, sampling, calculation, and aggregation of emissions into the daily operations within your companies.

The emissions management process supports the day-to-day operations, starting with data collection through validation and reporting.

The data collection is typically done by the operations / sites using workflow data collection tasks or mobile devices. It is also possible to have automated data flow.

Data can be uploaded in the following way:

• Through Excel mass upload

• Manually, there is a mobile app available

• Through interfaces, for example, from process control systems

As soon as the data is captured, data validations can start. The built-in validation tools can provide insights into the raw data captured and the visibility of what is still missing or tasks that are overdue. Any data changes, comments, or deviations can be captured and there is full auditability.

The data can already be automatically aggregated and calculated based on predefined rules. This depends on the setup of the location-aggregation and calculation.

If there is missing data or a data-quality related problem, the solution allows for a deviation to be captured to track what data problems were found and what was done about it. This can be done at any point in time. Deviations can also be created automatically if there are limit exceedances. The exceedance that needs to be reported to authorities can also be investigated with deviations and corrective actions can be assigned as a part of the investigation.

Basic / Master data is a prerequisite for the emissions management process and some data is used in defining the scenario; you can also create new data as per your requirement.

In this process, a location structure has to be created in the system. Without a single location, the emissions management process cannot be triggered. The environment manager has to ensure that the required master data is correctly created in the system.

The first step in the process is to identify and prepare the compliance requirements in the system. This is the task for the environment manager in the company. Depending on the requirement purpose, the environmental manager can create a process for the following:

• Regulation

• Permit

• Policy

Manage the regulations that are applicable for your operations.

Add the legal requirements in a hierarchy and add environmental limits, regulatory lists, and equations.

The compliance requirement details provide support for the environmental manager in defining or using from the example content delivery by SAP:

• Environment Limits

  Limit Checks are important to demonstrate the compliance. Limit definitions are flexible and easy to define. An icon indicator is showing at glance the limit check result.

  Define environmental limits by providing a name, a type such as 'upper, lower, or range limit,' the subject and unit of measure. It is possible to define a limit value and a warning value.

• Regulatory Lists

  Maintain regulatory list data, such as emission factors, which can be used for Emission calculation at a later stage. Depending on the substance and the pollutant used, you must provide the applicable emission factor.

• Equations

  Equations can be defined within the compliance requirement and can be used for calculating emissions for multiple locations by referencing in a Compliance Scenario.

  Each equation has associated header data (Name and Description), a results table, and input variables.

  The equation result can have multiple intermediate and final results, and each equation can be reused with different type of data (used in calculation or in aggregation).

They can be used later in the compliance scenario.

When the compliance requirements are identified and created in the system, the environment manager can document all emissions-related activities into a compliance requirement. The next step in the process is that the environmental manager starts planning the emissions by creating and setting up the activities in the required compliance scenarios.

The compliance scenario is the object, which supports the execution of one or more compliance requirements. The main goal of a compliance scenario is to define and plan various types of activities such as data collection, samplings, calculations, and location-based aggregation as well as tasks.

In the process steps, the environmental manager has to perform the required steps to complete the planning. The respective compliance scenarios for the main location and the subordinate locations have been created.

The next step in the process is calculation and aggregation, which is based on collected and aggregated data, as well on as the input from the regulatory lists assigned to the compliance requirement.

The Data Collection activity is defined by assigning Environmental Limits and responsible persons to perform the measurement. The actual assignment of the persons is done on the location that has been assigned to the Compliance Scenario.

In addition, the schedule of the data collection can be maintained.

The Respective Sampling activity can be implemented within the Compliance Scenario. A Sampling Name and Sampling Subject are the mandatory attributes that are required together with the chemical property of the Sampled Subject.

Sampling Overview and Definition Details can be accessed directly from the Compliance Scenario.

Each calculation has a setup section that allows the Environmental Manager to maintain in the system the name and description. The environmental limits can be optionally referenced for the particular calculation result. Each calculation result can be monitored through Monitor Calculated Data.

The Calculation Setup Detail displays the calculation setup overview, the output of the calculation and the input variables used in the calculation.

The input variables should also be mapped to relevant data sources to get their values / units.

The environment manager can use this activity to acquire aggregated values for your environmental data for the purposes of environmental assessments and reporting to authorities. You can create and manage activities in the system for the aggregation of data based on your location structure. Your location-based aggregations use as input data collections, sampled data, and calculated data stored in your locations. The aggregation results depend on your recorded environmental data which was approved by an environmental manager for your location structure, and on the chosen mathematical function that governs the running of the aggregation itself.

The environmental technician records the missing data in case manual entries are required. Using the link from the received e-mail or directly using the My Data Collection app, the user can then enter values for various data collection activities.

In the process step, the environment manager can check the environmentally related data and identify if there are any issues with the data.

The Monitor Data App can be used to approve, replace, invalidate, or create deviation for warning / exceeded data.

Data can also be imported using Microsoft Excel within the Monitor Data App.

Warnings and Limit Exceedances have to be approved manually before they can be consumed in a calculation.

Monitor Data App provides a graphical view of the data.

Collected and calculated data is automatically compared to associated limits in a compliance scenario and flagged, if exceeded.

Limit warnings and exceedances are displayed in the Data Issues - Exceedances and Warning app.

Tabular View of the same data can be also used in the Monitor Data app.

In this process step, the environment manager can forecast future emissions and can compare forecasted emission data against the environmental limits.

The environment manager can forecast emission data based on past emission data with the help of predictive learning algorithms and statistical methods. Additionally, it is possible to compare the forecasted emission data against the environmental limits. By getting an early indication of future deviations or noncompliance, the environment manager can plan proactively to avoid potentially unwanted events.

In the process step, data is prepared and exported to review, store, or report environmentally-relevant information.

The Environmental Data Explorer enables the Environmental Manager to monitor the environmental data (collected, calculated, sampled, or aggregated) at a given location and below in a hierarchy.

The main concept of the tool is to provide the possibility to the Environmental Manager to check, verify, and analyze the data using flexible filters.

The Environmental Explorer provides a functionality to export the data to the following:

• Spreadsheet

• File-based Report

There are few profiles delivered by the standard that could be directly used or can be used as templates and bases for custom file-based reports.

In the process step, the environmental manager starts monitoring the data on a plant level and performs checks against company goals about compliance with applicable environmental limits.

The environmental manager concludes that there are deviations from the environmental limits and deviation records have to be created to further investigate the causes. A deviation record is an event of violation of specific environmental requirements.

When the deviations have been identified, they can be created as records in the system and a proper investigation can be performed and documented in the system. The environmental manager can use this procedure to review and complete deviation records that have been created for inconsistent environmentally related data. During the review and completion process, you can check the information that is already available for the deviation and change it if necessary. The deviation object is technically an incident object with the specific group deviation. It does not require a fully implemented incident management component. However, for the deviation processes, a corresponding incident management configuration is required. Moreover, some of the steps of the review and completion procedure remain the same.

Within the deviation record, all related tasks, which support the analysis of the deviation can be defined and triggered. The data needs to be approved prior to the task completion.

Based on the monitoring and analysis of incoming monthly emission data, a deviation incident can be created for the data where company goals are not met. A deviation incident for a selected data record (collected or calculated data) can be created and an investigation can be triggered to analyze the reason for it as part of another process. A deviation record is an event of violation of specific environmental requirements.

The created deviation is a category of incident in which an investigation process can be triggered to support the analysis of the cause for the exceedance. The deviation includes the documentation of the concerned data points and the investigation, creation of reports as well as the coordination of corrective and preventive actions.

The deviation includes the documentation of the concerned data points and the investigation, creation of reports as well as the coordination of corrective and preventive tasks. A deviation investigation can be performed to determine the causes that led to the deviation. Depending on legal or organization-specific requirements, an investigation can include different investigations steps, for example, a root cause analysis or lessons learned.

The data records need to be approved for further processing in a calculation.

You can define actions and notifications that must be implemented in response to a deviation. This includes starting processes that trigger their implementation in SAP Environment, Health, and Safety Management or integrated components.

The data records need to be approved for further processing in a calculation.

When all corrective tasks have been completed, the current analysis of the data issues is completed. The emissions management process does not stop by completing the defined tasks. The implementation of the compliance requirement continues and all activities running in the compliance scenario will continue its execution depending on the defined timeframe.

Like the regulatory and permit compliance process, the emission management process has similar functional components. The process consists of the main functional components:

• Compliance Requirement

• Compliance Scenario

• Task Management

To be environmentally compliant, a given location (or a piece of equipment) must adhere to certain requirements - these may be part of the documents (regulations or permits) issued by the global environmental agencies or of the policies issued by the companies. These documents consist of conditions and requirements that are relevant for various industries or businesses and are organized into a given order (such as chapters, subchapters, parts, subparts, paragraphs). The functional components related to the compliance requirement support the environment manager in creating the compliance registry in the system.

The compliance scenario consists of components that mainly support your organization for all the environmental activities at a given location in the company. The solution provides the possibility of assignment of compliance requirement to the respective locations; supports the data collation process; helps in organizing the sampling process. The environment manager is also supported in scheduling the identified compliance tasks.

Using the common process for managing tasks in SAP Environment, Health, and Safety Management on SAP S/4HANA, the environment manager is supported with specific My Inbox for completing compliance tasks, monitoring the tasks execution using, for example, the Task Calendar app.