Working in a Deeper Shade of Green

"It's part of a whole revolution in government, particularly in the environmental realm, away from being punitive and trying to catch people after the fact, to more of a partnership model," says Enterprise Value Awards judge Doug Barker, vice president and CIO of The Nature Conservancy in Arlington, Va. "They're working with the community to make Pennsylvania a more livable state. It's really a win-win. The bottom line is this system will help prevent pollution, and that's in the best interest economically and in all ways for citizens, industry and government."

An Uphill Battle

The story begins in 1995, when former Gov. Tom Ridgeanother Pennsylvanian tapped by the Bush administration, now serving as director of the Office of Homeland Securitytook office and discovered that no one knew how many companies and governmental agencies were complying with environmental rules and regulations. "There was no measuring stick, there was nothing," says DEP Secretary David Hess, talking on his cell phone as he travels through the green hills of Pennsylvania, known as much for their beauty as for the harsh mining and manufacturing that the state's economy relies on. "You can't manage a program without information as basic as who is complying with the laws."

At that time, each of the department's programs had its own systems, some of which were more technically sophisticated or widely used than others. After conducting an inspection of a manufacturing facility, for instance, a DEP employee might enter the results in a computer spreadsheet, write something down in a ledgeror not make detailed notes at all. That meant that someone who monitored, say, drinking water had no easy way to know if an organization had outstanding violations related to other kinds of pollution or in other parts of the state. Decisions to write a ticket or issue a new permit were made based more on gut instinct than on information.

So the department embarked on a $20 million project that eventually would be known as eFACTS: Environment, Facility, Application, ComplianceCompliance Tracking System. The goal was to create integrated monitoring and management tools that would let employees manage their workflow, generate complex reports and view information spatially. As an added benefit, officials realized that much of that information could then be put online so that citizens who wanted to learn about pollution in their neighborhoods wouldn't have to sort through a dozen paper files at their local DEP office. Alles zu Compliance auf CIO.de