Soil testing is important because of the legacy by industry, agriculture and horticulture of contamination in New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Soil testing is important because of the legacy by industry, agriculture and horticulture of contamination in New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Two New Zealand companies, Entuitive and Hill Laboratories, have partnered on new software Evalu8 to improve environmental data management within the contaminated land sector through faster, more accurate reporting.
Hill Laboratories, founded in Hamilton, is New Zealand's largest independently-owned analytical testing laboratory and the largest soil and water testing laboratory in the country. According to the Ministry of the Environment, "The past use of chemicals (hazardous substances) in industry, agriculture and horticulture has left a legacy of soil contamination in New Zealand."
"Therefore, it's important for environmental consultants to provide high quality data and reports to share with clients, to ensure the risks from contaminated land are minimised," says Hill Laboratories CEO, Dr Jonno Hill.
Hill Laboratories CEO Dr Jonno Hill. Photo / Supplied
Entuitive co-founder Tom Davies led the development of the new Evalu8 software, combining his 15 years' experience as an environmental consultant and his work bringing Entuitive's other award-winning software to market to produce Evalu8.
"We are the only New Zealand company making a software for this application, and have decided to move away from the typical subscription approach to allow access for businesses of all sizes.
"With the launch of Evalu8, we've created a software tailored to the New Zealand market that takes into account our unique way of looking at environmental contaminants here," says Mr Davies.
Entuitive co-founder Tom Davies. Photo / Supplied
Dr Hill says supporting the software launch is an alliance of two Kiwi innovators intent on improving the contaminated land sector.
"Since I found out about Entuitive's plans for Evalu8, we've been working closely with them for almost a year, as we both saw a need to make soil testing and reporting easier for our environmental clients.
"This partnership means that we can provide our customers with the latest in testing and reporting technology, so they can interpret their testing results and make important decisions related to their land and soil use quickly."
Mr Davies says the software was developed through close relationships with a number of contaminated land consultants.
"This ensured that what we developed was what the market wanted and could use.
"The feedback we received through this process has allowed us to build a powerful software programme that manages and processes analytical data considerably quicker than what is currently being done."
There are over 9000 national and international guidelines related to land contaminants, and the Ministry for the Environment sets a hierarchy of these guidelines for the sector to follow.
"Evalu8 automatically applies this hierarchy so users can measure against the appropriate guidelines and make decisions based on the resulting reports," says Mr Davies.
By joining forces, the two companies have created an integrated process so that data from Hill Laboratories' testing is transferred instantly into the Evalu8 system, reducing the possibility of human error.
"Understanding the risk to human health and the environment from analytical results is important regardless of the scale of an operation, and the project-based cost reduces overheads for small businesses," says Mr Davies.
