In the competitive business world, obtaining sectoral and environmental permits is a critical step for any company, regardless of its sector, be it mining, energy, services, or manufacturing.
However, this process can be a real headache, especially when it comes to managing a multitude of permits and regulations. Not having an organized and efficient solution can lead to countless obstacles, from lack of follow-up to loss of crucial documentation.
In these cases, what can be the solution? In this article, we explore the solutions and answers that technology can provide, with its ability to improve management and efficiency, emerging as an invaluable ally in permitting.
Every company, regardless of its industry, must deal with various permits and regulations. Each of these permits can involve multiple activities and sub-regulations. In the case of mining, these can number between 300 and 500. If rejected at the end of the process, the company must resubmit the file, correcting all the objections the regulatory body has found in the project.
Companies still use manual methods such as spreadsheets to manage this overwhelming amount of documentation. Problems arise when personnel turnover occurs; information must be backed up and rigorously updated. Conceptually, all management and documents are part of the "Institutional Memory" that every company must build over time.
The situation is further aggravated by the need for more clarity regarding the number and type of permits required for specific projects. Also, how the company is organized and the methodology used to address this issue need to be revised, which can result in the loss of critical documents and delays in obtaining permits.
These problems can trigger fines and penalties, and in the worst case, infinite delays in obtaining approvals or the stoppage of the project, resulting in substantial economic and time losses, affecting the company's reliability and its profits or sales (changes in expected profitability).
The dilemma is apparent: Do you dedicate staff to manage this documentation manually, or do you leverage technology to simplify the process?
This approach changes from industry to industry and company to company. Some sectors, such as power generation, have opted to have a permitting area. This area coordinates and oversees all permit management at each project stage. It involves identifying the necessary permits, defining the steps to obtain them, and compiling the background information needed to apply.
On the other hand, some companies still need a specific permitting area. Instead, they usually assign the responsibility to environmental areas. In this approach, information tracking and permitting planning can be messier, and there is often a need for more clarity about how many permits are needed and what they are.
The use of a technology platform for permissions management offers several significant advantages, where all managers work in a distributed but collaborative manner on the same application:
The technology not only streamlines the management of sectoral permits but also enables the monitoring and planning of external permitting actions. The solutions also have a permit base that facilitates the user's management, as it indicates the "step-by-step" for management.
To close, obtaining sectorial and environmental permits is an inherent need of every company and cannot be overlooked. These new information processing platforms have proven to be an effective solution to address internal permit management challenges, improving information organization and control. Although they cannot influence the response times of authorities, they allow companies to always have clarity on their status, avoiding delays and fines.
Ultimately, technology-based permit management does not replace personnel but makes them more efficient and provides greater traceability, transparency, and control in a process crucial for business development.
Request a demo of M-Risk's Permit Management solution and discover how our clients manage more than 5,000 environmental permits in one place.