New regulations can result in trepidation or even outright hostility from the companies and industries most directly affected by them. Sometimes mandates are unfunded, and changes needed for compliance can impact the bottom line. Against this backdrop, however, regulatory changes can mean relevance to new customers for some solutions providers and an opportunity to innovate for others. Alleviating the pain of organizations facing new regulatory standards is a way to be a hero.
Power-generating utilities that utilize coal-fired power plants are facing new regulations. Late last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a new rule governing wastewater discharge from such plants. New Effluent Limitation Guidelines are now in effect, and plant operators are looking at the need to reduce discharge of common operational byproducts such as mercury, arsenic, selenium and sulfate to very low levels. By 2023, all plants must be in compliance, and some must be compliant much sooner.
Do you have a solution to help alleviate their pain? If you do, you need to equip your sales call to affected operators or consulting/engineering firms with relevant data and case studies. Get your materials in order, and—if you really want to stand out—get a handle on how you can help your prospects to pay for their upgrades.
As regulations across industries become increasingly strict, new solutions will be required, greater collaboration among solutions providers will be essential, helping prospects to find ways to pay for their path ahead will be a differentiator and relationship-building with the affected players should start well before a final rule is published.
Flint Moving Forward
Now you have an opportunity to apply your company’s technical expertise to some of the challenges facing Flint, Mich. The City of Flint has issued a bid for engineering/consulting services for the purpose of improving the water system and ameliorating the issues that have plagued it over the past several months. It is a potentially big opportunity: Flint is looking for a company to manage large-scale improvements of its system. The deadline to respond is April 14, 2016. Feel free to contact me using the information below for more details.
Jason Wuliger is co-founder and vice president of SplashLink.com. Wuliger can be reached at [email protected] or 440.497.0047.
