Aerial View of Mackay, Queensland, Australia
Business Background
Mackay Regional Council is located halfway between Cairns and Brisban and lays close to the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday Islands. The Mackay area is one of the fastest growing regions in Queensland, covering the areas of the former Sarina and Mirani shires and Mackay city. Founded in 1869 and is historically known as the sugar capital of Australia, Mackay is also a thriving mining hub.
Business Challenge
Similarly, to so many others, Mackay Regional Council used to use a combination of spreadsheets and manual forms to record, analyse and store environmental monitoring data in multiple locations. Like so many others, they soon realised that this approach was very time consuming and that the integrity of the data was at risk. Soon enough, the Mackay environmental team began searching for a more effective and secure way to manage environmental data.
”The selection function save me a lot of time when it comes to my statutory reporting on drinking water and environmental compliance.
Adele SwantonWaste Services Environmental Officer - Mackay Regional Council
Business Solution - Monitoring Environmental Performance
Mackay originally installed the MonitorPro solution as an application to manage data for potable and waste water quality testing. The testing procedure includes an on-site laboratory, which is run through a laboratory information management system (LIMS), however, MonitorPro is designed to automatically interact with the LIMS system to create a comprehensive overview of all water monitoring within the region. Mackay could now manage water data in one central location, which made interpretation and analysis easier and of higher accuracy.
Seeing the benefits MonitorPro delivered for water monitoring management, it was decided to expand the system to also include monitoring data for other purposes. Mackay Regional Council has 8,000 sample points related to landfill, drinking water and sewage management responsibilities, which are all monitored with different frequencies. The types of sample points include reservoirs, pumping stations, waste transfer stations and storage facilities, which of course demand a variety of data types, such as material type, flows, volumes, weight, and location and so on.
”The training and technical reports I have received from EHS Data are very helpful. I find the program very intuitive and I have been able to further develop and expand on the data we capture.
Adele SwantonWaste Services Environmental Officer - Mackay Regional Council
Business Key Benefits
1. One Centralised Source of Data
Mackay Regional Council is now using MonitorPro to manage monitoring data across several departments within council. The highly flexible structure of MonitorPro means that all this information with different frequency, format and origin can be managed in one single, central database.
2. Integrated Systems
This has greatly improved efficiency and provides a confidence in the integrity of the data using an accredited data management system. The seamless link to the LIMS systems means that all data exported from the laboratory can now be validated through MonitorPro leading to greater co-operation between the council departments. MonitorPro allows analysis and reports to be selected more freely and compliance checking means that an automated email alert is sent to relevant staff when a breach is detected.
3. Automated Reporting
Using touchpads for data collection, operators are now able to collect data in the field using the MonitorPro system, even when the user is offline. Data is later uploaded to the database when access to the network/system/server is available.
4. Tailored to meet requirements
Mackay regional council also use MonitorPro to collect all electricity use in the council, thus saving over $10,000 on system costs and by using of the powerful calculation tools in MonitorPro they now plan to use the system for a carbon footprint.
About MonitorPro
The complete, professional environmental data monitoring solution, MonitorPro is the IT solution trusted by environmental teams worldwide to manage their environmental compliance and data collection. MonitorPro is a web-based or locally hosted solution for the collation of ALL sources of environmental data, where it is generated by loggers, laboratories, weather stations, calculations, or other data repositories. MonitorPro is the first EHS Software solution to receive an MCERTS accreditation from the Environmental Agency.
About EHS Data
EHS Data is a world leading UK based software company providing Environmental Data Management Solutions to over 1,000 sites in 40 countries worldwide. For over 20 years, our versatile software solution, MonitorPro, has helped organisations save time, improve planning, quality control, site analysis and reporting to manage environmental obligations and sustainability.
ISO 27001
EHS Data is ISO 27001 certified.
A Carbon Negative Business
In 2020, EHS Data attained Carbon negative status and is committed to maintaining this status each year.
