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Success Story - VC Saves 60,000 Business Miles and 11 Tonnes of CO2, in 1 year!

Yorkshire Forward adopts Green Strategy

Yorkshire Forward is one of 9 Regional Development Agencies in the UK. Yorkshire Forward helps the local economy of Yorkshire and the Humber to grow by building a Regional Economic Strategy, in an attempt to build a world class economy, while also reducing social and economic disparities.

The Requirement
Yorkshire Forward implemented an Environmental Management System into its working routine to reduce its impact on the environment.

The Environmental Management System team were tasked with finding new, more efficient ways of working in an attempt to make their working practices more ‘green’. They highlighted the number of business miles that staff had to travel as a key area which needed to be improved.

With offices in Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Wath and York, Yorkshire Forward had to find a way to conduct interdepartmental meetings to the same standard as staff were accustomed.

Michael Smith, Head of Sustainable Development at Yorkshire Forward, said: “At Yorkshire Forward we have put in place an Environmental Management System (EMS). This means that we have a policy to ensure we identify our significant environmental impacts and commit to reducing their impact on the environment.”

“When we examined our significant impacts, we decided it would be within our scope to reduce the number of business miles travelled."

The Solution
After meeting with Direct Visual, Yorkshire Forward decided that one solution to their problem was videoconferencing. Videoconferencing gives staff the same presentation capabilities as are available when meeting in person.

The solution chosen was a selection of TANDBERG 880 MXP and T platform systems, with Duo Video and MultiPoint capabilities.

This system allows staff to conduct all internal meetings without the need to travel, and being one of TANDBERG’s entry systems, it is both affordable and of exceptional quality.

The Customer Benefits
As a result of the implementation of videoconferencing, Yorkshire Forward has managed to cut both travel times and costs, and significantly reduce their Co2 emissions.

The videoconferencing systems are used regularly at internal and auditing meetings and to communicate with partners and associates across the globe and the inward investment team at Yorkshire Forward has been able to have videoconference meetings with foreign investors.

Why Direct Visual?
Michael Smith said: “As Yorkshire Forward is the regional development agency, we have a commitment to the regional economy. This means that where possible we try to use local businesses and suppliers to meet our needs. Within the region we felt that Direct Visual gave us the best value for money. ”

“We found that Direct Visual’s service and support is of a very high quality. They have helped with our in-house marketing of the videoconferencing equipment, in order to improve its use. They are also keen to help us trouble shoot any problems we have so that the ‘fear factor’ is taken away from new users.”

The Future
Mr Smith said: “Direct Visual has also introduced us to TMS which we will be viewing in the near future. This will enable the equipment to be remotely set up, again helping to reduce the fear factor among users who may have had a bad experience in the past.”

“We also plan to implement a system in a videoconferencing only room so we can monitor its use more closely and to encourage it to be used as widely as possible.”

The Facts
By using videoconferencing during the 2004/05 period Yorkshire Forward saved 60,000 business miles and over 11 tonnes of CO2 emissions.