Within the limit
Recorded with its calibration status and reported in the return.
Evidence kept for inspection.Software · permitted sites, cited
Environmental monitoring software for permitted sites
Environmental monitoring software captures and checks the monitoring a permitted site must carry out, from periodic stack tests to continuous emission monitors, and turns it into permit returns and inventory submissions.
The permit, not the software, sets what is measured and how; this page sets out the standards a tool must meet, then lists 11 EHS platforms in their own words.
What the software does
What does environmental monitoring software actually do? Five jobs, from analyser to return
A permitted site monitors because its permit tells it to, so the software’s first job is to hold the permit conditions and the monitoring they require.
The Environment Agency says permits set the measurement methodology, monitoring frequency and reporting procedures, and that monitoring should use recognised standards wherever possible.
This is a different product from a corporate carbon inventory, covered on carbon emissions tracking software; the regime itself is explained on environmental permitting and air emissions.
- 1
Capture
CEMS readings through the DAHS, and periodic test reports from MCERTS contractors.
- 2
Validate
Apply the EN 14181 calibration and flag invalid or missing periods.
- 3
Compare
Check results against the permit’s emission limit values.
- 4
Report
Permit returns, Pollution Inventory submissions, UK ETS data.
- 5
Evidence
Keep certificates, calibrations and corrective actions for inspection.
Periodic or continuous
Periodic tests or continuous monitors? The permit decides, MCERTS sets the bar
The Environment Agency recognises two approaches: periodic measurement at intervals, and continuous emission monitoring systems, which measure automatically all the time.
MCERTS is the Agency’s certification scheme for instruments, monitoring and analyses, and stack testing under it needs EN ISO/IEC 17025 and MCERTS-certified personnel.
For continuous monitors, the Agency’s standards page names EN 14181 for certification, calibration and ongoing quality assurance, and EN 17255-4 for the data acquisition and handling system.
So the software question is whether a platform takes DAHS output as it is, keeps the calibration status beside each reading, and flags invalid periods rather than filling them.
Read the detailed guidance and references
Predictive emissions monitoring systems, which model emissions from process data, are allowed as an alternative and follow CEN TS 17198, according to the same page.
For low-risk medium combustion plant, the Agency’s guidance allows CEMS instead of periodic measurement only where the CEMS meets MCERTS.
The four Agency documents are gathered in the monitoring stack emissions collection.
Stack monitoring to EA standardsExplore
Stack monitoring to EA standards
Periodic
Measurements at intervals, such as every three months.
Stack monitoring to EA standards
CEMS
Automatic, continuous measurement, in situ or extractive.
Stack monitoring to EA standards
MCERTS
The Agency’s scheme for instruments, monitoring and analyses.
Stack monitoring to EA standards
EN 14181
Certification, calibration and ongoing QA of CEMS.
Stack monitoring to EA standards
EN 17255-4
Quality assurance of the data acquisition and handling system.
Medium combustion plant
When does your plant need a permit? Two dates, from its thermal input
A medium combustion plant is one with a rated thermal input of 1 megawatt or more but less than 50, under Schedule 25A.
An existing plant greater than 5 MWth needed its permit by 1 January 2024 and has had to meet its emission limit values since 1 January 2025.
An existing plant from 1 to 5 MWth needs its permit by 1 January 2029, and the limit values apply from 1 January 2030.
The calculator beside this gives both dates for your plant, because the commonest error is quoting the permit date for the limit values, or the other way round.
Existing medium combustion plant · your two dates
| Duty | From |
|---|---|
| Hold an environmental permit | 1 January 2029 |
| Meet the emission limit values | 1 January 2030 |
An existing plant from 1 MWth up to and including 5 MWth.
Sources: SI 2016/1154 reg 12(1A) and Schedule 25A ¶¶2(1), 6(3)–(4). A new plant needs its permit before it operates. England and Wales only. Nothing is stored or sent.
Returns and inventories
Is the Pollution Inventory automatic? No: it follows a notice
Regulation 61 lets the regulator require information by notice, and treats compiling an inventory of emissions as one of its functions.
So the Pollution Inventory reaches a site because it received a notice, typically as a Part A(1) permit holder, not because it holds any permit.
Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate inventories under their own laws, so a group with sites across the UK reports to more than one system.
A UK ETS installation also submits a verified emissions report for each calendar year by 31 March, and the excess emissions penalty sits in article 52 of the scheme order.
Three inventories, three lawsExplore
Three inventories, three laws
England and Wales
The Pollution Inventory, through a regulation 61(1) notice.
Three inventories, three laws
Scotland
SPRI, under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018.
Three inventories, three laws
Northern Ireland
Its own inventory, administered by NIEA and DAERA.
Three inventories, three laws
UK ETS
A verified emissions report for each calendar year by 31 March.
What is exposed
What does a poor compliance record cost? Up to three times next year’s charge
Band A
95%Of the subsistence charge, 0 pointsBand C
110%10.1 to 30 pointsBand E
150%60.1 to 149.9 pointsBand F
300%More than 150 pointsThe Environment Agency scores every permit breach over the calendar year and puts the site in a band from A to F.
The band multiplies the next year’s subsistence charge, from 95% for a site with no points to 300% for band F.
Monitoring requirements are permit conditions, so a tool that flags an exceedance or a gap the day it happens gives the operator the most time to act and record what it did.
A result
from the stack
from the stack
Above the limit or invalid
Flagged, investigated and corrected, with the action recorded.
Breaches are scored over the year.The vendors
Which platforms handle environmental monitoring? 11 EHS vendors, in their own words
Every vendor this site files under EHS, alphabetically, which ranks nothing, each linked to its own site and its profile here.
The registry covers 73 vendors across all categories, read 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026.
11 vendors · ehs
“Benchmark Gensuite is a unified EHS management software platform built on a single architecture—connecting safety, environmental compliance, and operational risk across every site”
“One AI-enabled EHS software platform to drive performance across employee health, safety, quality, environmental, and sustainability”
“Dcycle is an ESG software platform founded in 2020 that helps companies collect, manage, and govern sustainability and non-financial data”
EcoOnline sells software to manage EHS and compliance.
“Enablon is Wolters Kluwer’s integrated software platform for environment, health and safety, PSM, and enterprise oversight, with ESG capabilities embedded as part of a broader risk approach”
“Manage safety, compliance, ESG, sustainability and operational risk from a platform built to keep programs reliable across sites, teams and operational change”
“Ideagen Carbon Accounting is an AI-powered solution designed to address complex multi-region ESG reporting challenges in carbon accounting”
“Bring safety, environment, and quality workflows into one connected platform”
IsoMetrix sells software to “manage their environmental, health, safety, sustainability, and social risks”.
“Digitally handle occupational safety, quality, sustainability, and environmental management”
“Sphera unifies risk, safety and sustainability into a single enterprise-wide view — connecting intelligence across operations, products and supply chains”
Alphabetical, which ranks nothing.
Each description is the vendor’s own words from its own site, read 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026; prices appear only where the vendor publishes one.
No product here has been tested by this site.
These EHS platforms bring long experience of permitted operations; ask each whether it takes DAHS output directly and how it holds MCERTS certificates.
11 EHS vendorsExplore
11 EHS vendors
Filed under EHS
11 vendors in this site’s registry.
11 EHS vendors
Alphabetical
The order ranks nothing.
11 EHS vendors
Their own words
What each vendor says about itself, read 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026.
11 EHS vendors
DAHS feed
Not recorded in the registry: ask how CEMS data arrives.
The permit decides what a site must measure, and the monitoring record is what stands between a reading and a breach.
That is the sentence to put to the site’s board or operating committee.
Takeaways
Environmental monitoring software, in five facts
| Fact | What it means for a tool |
|---|---|
| The permit sets method, frequency and reporting | Load the permit conditions first. |
| MCERTS is the Agency’s certification scheme | Hold certificates for instruments, personnel and labs. |
| EN 14181 covers CEMS quality assurance | Keep calibration status beside each reading. |
| The Pollution Inventory follows a reg 61 notice | Track which sites have received one. |
| Compliance bands multiply charges up to 300% | Flag exceedances and invalid periods as they arrive. |
Next: check your plant’s dates above, then read environmental permitting and air emissions for the full regime.
This site has tested no products
Nothing on this page is a rating, ranking or recommendation of any product.
Frequently asked
Environmental monitoring software, answered
What is environmental monitoring software?
Software that captures, checks and reports the monitoring a permitted site must carry out: stack emissions from periodic tests or continuous monitors, discharges, waste and the other conditions in its permit.
It feeds permit returns, Pollution Inventory submissions and, for some sites, the UK ETS emissions report.
Who sets environmental monitoring requirements?
The permit.
The Environment Agency says permit applications must include monitoring proposals and permits set the measurement method, the monitoring frequency and the reporting procedures.
In England and Wales this sits under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016.
What is MCERTS?
The Environment Agency’s Monitoring Certification Scheme, which it describes as being for instruments, monitoring and analyses.
For stack emissions, organisations meeting MCERTS need EN ISO/IEC 17025 and MCERTS-certified personnel, among other requirements.
What is the difference between periodic monitoring and CEMS?
Periodic monitoring takes measurements at intervals, such as every three months, with samples analysed on or off site.
Continuous emission monitoring systems measure automatically and continuously, in the stack or by extraction to an instrument nearby.
Which standard covers CEMS quality assurance?
EN 14181, which the Environment Agency says covers the certification, calibration and ongoing quality assurance of CEMS for every determinand.
The data acquisition and handling system follows EN 17255-4.
What is a medium combustion plant?
A combustion plant with a rated thermal input of 1 megawatt or more but less than 50 megawatts, under Schedule 25A of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016.
When must an existing medium combustion plant have a permit?
By 1 January 2024 if it is greater than 5 MWth, and by 1 January 2029 if it is 1 to 5 MWth.
The emission limit values apply a year later in each case: 1 January 2025 and 1 January 2030.
Is the Pollution Inventory automatic for every permit holder?
No. Its legal basis is a notice: regulation 61 lets the regulator require information by notice, and compiling an inventory of emissions is treated as one of its functions.
In practice the Environment Agency issues regulation 61(1) notices to Part A(1) permit holders and certain other sites.
Does the Pollution Inventory apply in Scotland?
No. Scotland runs the Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory under its own regulations, and Northern Ireland its own inventory.
All feed the UK pollutant register, but the duties are separate.
How does compliance scoring affect costs?
The Environment Agency scores permit breaches over the calendar year and places each site in a band from A to F. The band multiplies the next year’s subsistence charge, from 95% for band A to 300% for band F.
Does a UK ETS installation need monitoring software?
It must monitor under its monitoring plan and submit a verified emissions report for each calendar year by 31 March, and ultra-small emitters still monitor.
Software helps hold the data and the evidence the verifier will ask for.
Has this site tested any environmental monitoring software?
No. This page is built from the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016 and Environment Agency guidance, and the vendor list quotes only what each vendor says about itself.
Sources
Primary sources
Every statement on this page traces to the provision listed here.
Vendor descriptions are cited on each vendor’s profile to the vendor’s own page.
Checked against 15 sources fromlegislation.gov.ukEnvironment AgencySEPADAERADepartment for Energy Security and Net ZeroGHG Protocol (WRI, WBCSD)
- legislation.gov.ukEnvironmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016, SI 2016/1154, regulation 1(2)
England and Wales only.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2016/1154, regulation 12(1A)
When an existing medium combustion plant must hold a permit.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2016/1154, Schedule 7 — Part A installations
How the Industrial Emissions Directive is applied.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2016/1154, Schedule 25A — medium combustion plant
The 1 to under 50 MWth definition and the emission limit value dates.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2016/1154, regulation 61
The notice power behind Pollution Inventory reporting.
- Environment AgencyMonitoring stack emissions: guidance for selecting a monitoring approach
Periodic monitoring or CEMS; the role of MCERTS.
- Environment AgencyMonitoring stack emissions: standards for continuous monitoring and sampling (updated 13 January 2026)
EN 14181 for CEMS, EN 17255-4 for DAHS, CEN TS 17198 for PEMS.
- Environment AgencyMonitoring stack emissions: low risk MCPs and specified generators (updated 20 January 2026)
CEMS as an alternative to periodic measurement, if MCERTS-certified.
- Environment AgencyMonitoring stack emissions: environmental permits (collection)
The four guidance documents together.
- Environment AgencyAssessing and scoring environmental permit compliance
Bands A to F, and the charge multiplier that follows.
- SEPAScottish Pollutant Release Inventory
Scotland’s separate inventory, under its own regulations.
- DAERAPollution inventory reporting guidance (Northern Ireland)
Northern Ireland’s separate inventory.
- Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroParticipating in the UK ETS
Verified emissions report by 31 March; small emitters still monitor.
- legislation.gov.ukGreenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Order 2020 (SI 2020/1265), article 52
The excess emissions penalty.
- GHG Protocol (WRI, WBCSD)A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
The corporate inventory, a different product category from permit monitoring.