Providing Permit Compliance Assurance for Vulcan Materials

Project Summary/Opportunity

Vulcan Materials is the nation’s largest producer of construction aggregates and a major producer of aggregate-based construction materials, including asphalt and ready-mixed concrete. With operations spanning 23 states across the US, Vulcan Materials is committed to enhancing environmental and safety compliance.

To strengthen its commitment to compliance, Vulcan Materials partnered with Montrose Environmental Group to implement Benchmark Gensuite (Benchmark), a cloud-based software solution designed for compliance management. This collaboration focused on utilizing Benchmark’s Compliance Calendar application to streamline the development of actionable compliance tasks for various annual environmental permits. Montrose provided expert support to ensure the system met Vulcan’s operational and regulatory needs effectively.

Challenge

Permits are written in complex legal language, making it difficult for front-line staff to understand what is required to comply. Vulcan operates many facilities throughout the US, each holding several environmental permits. Translating every permit into actionable tasks to load into the Compliance Calendar was achievable but would require a high level of effort and cost Vulcan Materials over $1M.

Our Role

Since Vulcan operates similar facilities across each state, the permits for these facilities tend to be consistent within the same state. Montrose completed a pilot project to translate these permits, successfully demonstrating our ability to convert a specific permit type in each state into straightforward, actionable tasks. These tasks could then be applied across similar facilities within states that share the same permit types. Once validated, the process could be carried out across all Vulcan operations.

Outcome

With actionable tasks loaded into the Compliance Calendar for each facility and each state’s permit type, front-line staff drove compliance. Montrose reduced the project’s overall cost to under $100K, allowing more time for teams to focus on their core responsibilities and compliance-related risks with improved efficiency.