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greenAgenda
Route optimiser software
saves time and money
Hampshire TileWarehouse has cut its fuel bills by 10%
and saved an hour a day by adopting Postcode Anywhere’s
route-optimisation technology.
Route Optimiser is a web-based service for commercial
vehicles that uses route planning algorithms to calculate
shorter, more efficient routes for travelling salespeople,
couriers and delivery vehicles. No downloads are required and
the service works on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no contracts
or hidden fees.
Simon Bond, IT Manager at Hampshire TileWarehouse
trialled the system on just one delivery vehicle and was
impressed by its affordability, ease of use and effectiveness.
He said: “Postcode Anywhere’s Route Optimiser services
seemed a fraction of the price of other route optimiser
software. Looking at the various competitor products on the
market we would have certainly incurred other set-up costs
when integrating them into our legacy system that could have
been quite substantial.”
He added: “Route Optimiser is a perfect fit for our future
strategic plans. It didn’t involve major, expensive deployment.
It simply integrated into our legacy system, at the touch of
a button. All provided templates have been really easy to use
and so compatible with our infrastructure. In fact it seems to
intuitively mirror our own system, which is great.”
Bond now plans to roll the technology out to the entire
fleet, eliminating the need to plot delivery routes manually.
“The drivers trialling it have been really impressed as we
simply hand them a daily optimised route delivery schedule
and away they go. The service is completely user-friendly,
which means that no one has to adapt to any major changes
when the service is rolled out fleet-wide,” he said.
“The benefits of using the service during the trial period
have already been significant in saving fuel and time.We’ve
saved an hour per day and cut diesel consumption by over
10% when trialling it with one vehicle. Just imagine how much
we will save when we
adopt it fleet-wide!”
www.routeoptimiser.com
Now is the time for
LED street lighting
White LED street lighting is good
for public safety and good for public
finances, according to the results of an
independent trial in 12 of the world’s
largest cities. The two and a half
year LightSavers trial found that LED
lighting produced energy savings of up
to 85%, whilst improving visibility and
making residents feel safer.
The Climate Group report,
Lighting
the Clean Revolution: The Rise of LED
Street Lighting andWhat it Means for
Cities
, also found that LED lighting was
more durable, with a failure rate of 1%
over 6,000 hours, compared to around
10% for conventional lighting.
The Climate Group is now calling on
Governments to make a rapid transition
to low carbon lighting. Lighting is
responsible for 19% of global electricity
use and 6% of global greenhouse gas
emissions (source:
Light’s Labour’s Lost
(2006)
, OECD/IEA).
www.TheCleanRevolution.org/
lighting-the-clean-revolution
Light bulb moment
Panasonic is racking up design awards for its retro-look
LED light bulbs. Following Golds in the 2011 Good Design
Award in Japan and the 2012 iF Product Design Award in
Germany, it has now won a Gold Award in the Industrial
Designers Society of America-sponsored International
Design Excellence Awards 2012. Panasonic claims that its
20W and 40W equivalent LED bulbs provide virtually the
same light colour, brightness and
light distribution as conventional
clear incandescent light bulbs,
while consuming up to 84%
less energy and lasting as much
as 40 times longer.
Ikea to fund tree
planting
Ikea is extending its three-year relationship
with theWoodland Trust for a further two
years, during which time it hopes to raise
an additional £1 million for the charity’s
‘Trees for the Community’ scheme, which
aims to plant 1 million trees by the end
of 2013. Half the money will come from
customers who will be invited to donate
the value of a tree (£1) at store checkouts
and half from Ikea’s ‘Foot of Forest in your
local community’ campaign. Under the
scheme, Ikea family members can activate
a contribution from IKEA with every
swipe of their membership card. IKEA
has donated £1.3 million pounds to the
Woodland Trust since 2008.
Heroes wanted
The Energy Saving Trust is calling for entries to its 2012 Fleet Hero Awards. Now in their seventh year, the
awards honour public and private organisations in England that are successfully reducing fuel bills and lowering
carbon footprints through better transport policies and more efficient use of their fleets, as well as companies
that supply money- and fuel-saving products or services. The awards are free to enter: all that’s required is a
250-word entry outlining why your organisation should win. The deadline is August 17, 2012. Find out more at
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/england/Transport/Business/Fleet-Hero-Awards.
São Sebastião Cathedral in
Rio de Janeiro illuminated by
Philips LED lighting
Sustainable
Editor’s Choice Award
Panasonic