Green business practices honoured

06-06-2008

by Emmet Ryan

A new awards ceremony rewarding green business practices will be held in Dun Laoghaire on Friday.

The inaugural Field Services Awards are being held at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire and presided over by local Green Party TD Ciaran Cuffe. "It's great to see business leading the way towards a paperless office. Many businesses are benefiting from going green and giving themselves a competitive advantage by doing so. Business initiatives that use fewer resources are a valuable tool to help protect the environment for future generations," said Cuffe.

Awards are being presented across five categories: Best Health and Safety Implementation, Green Service Initiative of the Year, Largest Measured Productivity Improvement, Most Innovative Approach to Mobile Technology, and Service Leader of the Year.

"The aim of the awards is to reward firms that are at the forefront of the green agenda," Greg Connolly, senior project manager with Advanced Field Solutions told ENN. The mobile solutions firm is one of the sponsors of the events along with Vodafone and O2.

The Dublin-based firm has saved the equivalent of over 2 million sheets of A4 paper in 2008 through implementing a green strategy. "Businesses are recognising the increased importance of the green agenda," said Connolly. "Their interest is primarily commercial but there are also the political requirements for firms to act in a more socially responsible manner."

The firm provides mobile solutions to field-based service workers which enable them to cut down on the amount of paper-based administration they need to do.

"The Advanced Field Solutions system has allowed us substantially reduce our administrative overheads," said Gerry Gordon, customer provision manager with BT Ireland. "By reducing the paper trail of our day-to-day activities it allows us concentrate on utilising our engineer's time more effectively to grow our business," he said.

Advanced Field Solutions identifies firms' interest in partaking in eco-friendly business practices as a market with substantial potential for growth. The Field Services Awards are being held in part to recognise the growth in the market to date.

"Profit from green has been one of the main elements to our company's success and today we wanted to recognise the very best practice being demonstrated by other Irish service companies," said Declan Foley, managing director of Advanced Field Solutions. "By adopting mobile solutions for field workers, companies have seen productivity increase between 15 and 25 percent and this business case speaks for itself."