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Q&A With Cority: Getting Real About Retail EHS Compliance

Hear from one of our leading software solutions partners, Cority, on how technology is transforming the industry.

Environmental, health, and safety (EHS) compliance programs require a complex approach to cultural change and performance enhancement—all driven by data. Hundreds of commercial software offerings aim to help customers manage various aspects of their programs by consolidating their data into a single enterprise-scale platform. The maturity of corporate compliance programs and new drivers, such as ESG, have further emphasized the value of these platforms.

Whereas some heavily regulated industries (e.g., chemical and oil and gas) adopted software solutions years ago, many other industry sectors are now seeing the value in their investment—including retail. APTIM’s environmental compliance team supports retailers with implementing these systems, integrating them into organizational workflow, and maximizing their utility as a compliance tool.

In this article, we discuss how the retail sector is approaching investment in EHS software solutions with Product Marketing Managers Isha Varma and William Palmer from Cority, one of the world’s leading enterprise EHS software providers. Cority delivers industry-leading technology to empower those who transform the way the world works.

Within the retail market, how widespread is the use of enterprise EHS software solutions?

The use of enterprise EHS compliance software platforms are becoming increasingly widespread within the retail sector. While the retail industry accounted for only 3% of total global EHS software spend in 2022 ($41 million USD), Verdantix expects the sector to experience a higher-than-average 12% compound annual growth rate through 2027, surpassing overall EHS software market growth. This shift highlights the increasing focus organizations within the sector are placing on regulatory compliance, safety, and sustainability.

What are the three biggest drivers for retail companies investing in EHS software? 
  1. Compliance: New regulations require retail companies to report financial-grade EHS data as part of corporate disclosures. Reliance on manual data collection and calculation methods introduces risk of errors and omissions that can increase potential legal liability.
  2. Stakeholder Demands: Investors increasingly regard workplace injuries as an indicator of uncontrolled financial risk, impacting potential investment. Moreover, customers are prioritizing brands who visibly demonstrate their investment in systems to safeguard workforce health and wellbeing.
  3. Productivity Gains: Organizations recognize the value that an integration software application can offer to blend EHS and sustainability data together. These apps surface insights to support better decision making, workflow optimization, and stronger workforce engagement.

What are common obstacles your customers face when implementing an EHS software solution?  
  1. Sponsorship: Firms struggle to secure executive level buy-in to ensure proper project resourcing and support for internal change management.
  2. Governance: Companies often lack sufficient project governance to ensure adherence to scope, schedule, and budget, resulting in scope creep that impacts project delivery.
  3. Change Management: Many firms enter projects without a strong change management strategy that often results in internal workforce resistance that impacts user adoption and program sustainability.
  4. Lack of IT Involvement: Many companies err in proceeding with EHS software projects without involvement of their IT teams. This often leads to issues with system integration, data security, and user accessibility.

How do implementation partners like APTIM support your software?

Cority partners with industry-leading EHS and ESG service providers and consultancies, like APTIM, to complement our teams and expand our global support, scale, and sustainability. They deliver consulting, advisory, and training services to ensure our clients maximize the return on their software investment.

APTIM helps deliver a full set of implementation services to complement their responsible business platform, CorityOne, including implementation, change management, business process analysis, design, project scoping, project management, system configuration, data mapping, interface design, testing, and user training.

How is AI impacting your business, platform, and the future of EHS compliance?

Cority believes that AI shouldn’t replace humans, but rather enhance and augment their capabilities to solve problems and deliver value. Cority’s approach to AI for EHS compliance is centered on four key use cases:

  1. Task Assistance: automating repetitive tasks and functions and streamlining workflows to increase user efficiency
  2. Insights & Artifacts: detecting, interpreting, and classifying data and surfacing insights to guide decision making
  3. Expert Support: collecting and interpreting complex data and providing prescriptive guidance for specialized applications
  4. Personalization & Engagement: curating a more personalized and engaging experience for every user

To explore how Cority’s EHS compliance software can benefit your business, connect with APTIM’s environmental compliance team.

About Cority

Cority gives every employee, from the field to the board room, the power to make a difference—reducing risks and creating a safer, healthier, and more sustainable world.

For over 35 years, Cority’s people-first software solutions have been built by EHS and sustainability experts who know the pressures businesses face. Time-tested, scalable, and configurable, CorityOne is the responsible business platform that combines datasets from across the organization to enable improved efficiencies, actionable insights, data-driven decisions, and more accurate reporting on performance. Trusted by 1,400 organizations worldwide, Cority deeply cares about helping people work toward a better future for everyone. To learn more, visit cority.com.

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