Thinking on your feet - using mobiles to cut CO2

Lewisham Council claims it has reduced its carbon footprint by rolling out a mobility strategy. That means PDAs and pocket PCs, really.

Lewisham Council distributed mobile devices to its team of 200 field workers. This enabled them to receive jobs on their device without having to return to the depot to collect job schedules. The devices used were Windows Mobile Powered Pocket PCs with TaskMaster application which integrates directly in to the London Borough of Lewisham’s Customer Relationship Management System.

Field workers are no longer travelling to and from the depot every day and this has reduced fuel costs.  The use of PDAs to receive job information has also led to a large reduction in the use of paper. With fuel costs reduced by £5,500 per annum and paper costs by £6,000 per annum, Lewisham has lowered its carbon footprint by 18.2 metric tonnes per annum. The solution has also had direct business benefits; staff productivity has increased and margins of error have decreased.  Tenants are receiving a better quality service since response times are now shorter (max 10-15 minutes).