Smart City Lighting

 lantern is, who installed it and when. Crews used an iPad to scan the barcode which registered onto Edinburgh’s asset management system, which in turn communicated with Telensa. As each luminaire was installed, the team checked and initiated the dimming requirements of the new lanterns, aligning them to design levels, immediately gaining the energy consumption saving.

While a CMS is not a new system or new technology, it is the first city-wide in Scotland, and the adoption of detailed contract planning has assisted in the successfully delivery of the project. Jack Keillor, project manager at Currie & Brown said: “This project has delivered what it set out to deliver. The project has reduced street lighting energy consumption by approximately 60 per cent compared to the baseline year and has seen CO2 reduced by 75 per cent (helped by a reduction in the energy company’s reduction in their energy factor) with the same baseline. The City of Edinburgh Council has also avoided energy consumption costs of almost £3.8m to the end of March 2022. The project was also delivered under budget, with a strong safety record and all in the backdrop of Brexit and a global pandemic. So, winning this award is truly the icing on the cake.”

Award-winning solution

Working in a city with UNESCO World Heritage Site status, contractors Amey faced many challenges, but collaborative working with both Edinburgh council and the supply chain quickly overcame these issues and kept the project running on time.

Councillor Scott Arthur, Transport and Environment Convener, said: “This award is testament to the hard work of all those involved in this major project, as well as the value it will deliver in terms of energy efficiencies, cost savings and lowering the city’s CO2 emissions. “These are the kind of innovations we need to see to meet the Council’s net zero 2030 aims

Attention to heritage detail

At the end of 2021, Georgian replica streetlights were switched on in Edinburgh’s Scotland Street, made famous by the Sandy McCall Smith ‘44 Scotland Street’ series of episodic novels. The project was completed through a partnership between Edinburgh World Heritage and the City of Edinburgh Council, “The new lighting’s authentic design has improved the architectural landscape of the street and enhanced, in a modest way, the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site. Additionally, there is the practical benefit of improving night-time visibility for residents and road users alike. This project perfectly demonstrates how heritage and city improvement can go hand in hand, creating a more beautiful but also more liveable city for Edinburgh’s residents.”

and provide a greener, more welcoming city for future generations.”

In addition to the financial and environmental advantages of the project, communities across the capital have seen the benefits of this initiative. The lighting system in the Colinton and Trinity Tunnels has been upgraded allowing residents and visitors greater visibility and access. A new staff car park has been constructed at the Marie Curie Hospice on Frogston Road West.

Community benefits

Electrical maintenance has been undertaken at The Yard in Bonnington to support their work with disabled children while Kirkliston Scout Hall has benefitted from the installation of external lighting. Wester Hailes Education Centre has also had its garden area upgraded and refurbished. Nick Powell,

account director for Amey’s street lighting business, said: “Working in collaboration with the City of Edinburgh Council has been the key to the success of this contract partnership which started in June 2018. The upgrade programme will have seen the team install Collaborative working between Edinburgh Council and the supply chain kept the project running on time and within budget over 55,000 LED lights which has delivered £54 million worth of savings over a 20-year period through reduced maintenance, energy consumption and carbon taxation. Fully immersing ourselves in the communities in which we operate we’ve also been able to deliver a successful community programme which has seen the team volunteer their time at community days, career fairs, Christmas gift and foodbank collections as well as upgrading a play area for children with both physical and mental disabilities – activities our team are proud to have been involved with.”L FURTHER INFORMATION

https://tinyurl.com/2czwy4kv

Advertisement Feature Light and dark – getting the balance right

As more and more councils are declaring climate emergencies, environmental issues and impacts are increasingly becoming a key factor in the decision-making process. It’s vital that we put sustainability front and centre of everything we do, and work hard to minimise the impact of the built environment on the natural world. However, we also need to be mindful of maintaining a safe environment for the people who use and inhabit these places. Clare Thomas, Head of Applications and Solutions at Urbis Schréder, looks at the balance we need to strike when it comes to lighting public spaces

Public concern about light pollution, especially in ecologically sensitive areas, is growing and it is an important topic to tackle. Poorly implemented public lighting schemes can waste energy, affect our view of the night sky and cause nuisance that can have an impact on both people and the wider ecosystem. Skyglow interrupts the natural rhythms of the world, and poorly designed lighting can cause significant distress to some nocturnal species.

As a result, lighting is a topic everyone has an opinion about - which is why the ‘French Law’ was implemented in 2018. Driven by politicians rather than lighting professionals it legislated that, depending on location, the focus should be on providing the right type and quality of light, at the right time, with control.

Good practice

Some of that good practice has been adopted in the UK and is well covered by ILP Guidance Note 01/21 – The Reduction of Obtrusive Light, which looks at measures to minimise obtrusive light, sky glow, glare, light spill and nuisance light. In addition, an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) was set up to help promote ‘good’ lighting. Dark skies are important to both people and our environment, and the APPG makes the point that we don’t yet fully understand the impact lighting (particularly LED) has on people, fauna or flora.

In fact, the effect of LED lighting on our ecology is becoming more widely documented. A report from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology: Ecological Issues and Dark Skies published in August 2020 (and widely reported in the media), compared moth caterpillar numbers across both lit and unlit sites in the Thames Valley over the previous three years and suggested there was a direct correlation between LED lighting and a reduction in numbers.

Bats are a European protected species, meaning they are fully and legally protected under law and there is clear evidence that lighting, particularly LED, can have a negative impact on their populations. Not all bat species are equally affected by lighting, but in essence, the best lighting solution for bats is no lighting at all.

There are many ways in which we can reduce the impact of lighting on the environment and we’ve all had involvement with schemes that have needed mitigations to meet ecological requirements. Missing columns from a scheme to prevent lighting from affecting known foraging routes, or monochromatic solutions, or using louvres on column mounted luminaires to make sure that there is no spill away from the lit route, or even using low level lighting such as bollards are all possible options.

However, the best way to minimise ecological impact is to not have lighting at all. But, if we are providing it, for example on a dedicated pedestrian or cycle route, isn’t it important to think about the human users too? Don’t we need to have better surround lighting to ensure good visibility and engender a feeling of safety? And shouldn’t we consider whether the lighting approach we’re taking is really inclusive, for example it is suitable for older people or users who may have sight impairment? But how do we judge what to prioritise?

Thinking differently

I think that ultimately, there is no single right or wrong answer and a ‘one size fits all’ approach, whether standards, contracts or technology may not be the best and most sustainable way to do things. Instead, we need to think differently so we can take a more holistic approach and get the right balance between human safety and environmental benefit. In each instance, I think we should be asking the following questions: If we need to provide lighting, do we understand the users and tasks? Remember, the lighting needs to work for everyone using the space; Do we understand ecological concerns and how these can balance with the needs of the people we’re providing lighting for? Do we understand the context of the lighting within the space and the services it may be supporting, for example wayfinding, safety and security or active mobility? Are we using technology as an intrinsic part of the scheme, or because it’s ‘new’? Any technology we’re proposing should both support the scheme and deliver long term value. Is the scheme sustainable, because it can adapt to changes in both standards and usage over time? Does it encourage people to use the space?

Fundamentally, it’s about great, connected design. Make the Logical choice and talk to us about making the right connections. L

FURTHER INFORMATION logic@urbis-schreder.com www.urbis-schreder.com

Helping local authorities deliver sustainable highway solutions

In a bid to cut carbon emissions and save on electricity costs, many councils are now opting for energysaving LED street lighting - a key way for local authorities to improve reliability while reducing ongoing maintenance costs.

LEDs allow councils to reduce costs dramatically, by potentially thousands of pounds each year, with energy consumption halved, improved reliability and reduced ongoing maintenance, as well as adaptable lighting enabling dimming and colour options.

VolkerHighways is a UK leader in the delivery of street lighting and electrical services, delivering long-term lighting term maintenance services for local authorities. The business thrives on finding sustainable solutions for its clients and has been supporting them with the switch to LEDs for the past six years.

An expanding client base

VolkerHighways’ work is reflected in its high levels of repeat business and performancebased contract extensions, as well as its expanding client-base over recent years. Working with Oxfordshire County Council, the business is currently replacing over 35,000 units to LEDs as part of its large-scale LED programme, which will save the council thousands of pounds each year. This year alone, the business is moving forward with 25,000 LED conversions in Oxfordshire.

In the last six years, VolkerHighways has converted in excess of 120,000 street lights to LEDs across all its contracts.

VolkerHighways’ capability is built upon the experience of its teams and their local knowledge, providing a full turnkey solution, from the design and installation of street lighting, to ongoing maintenance. They provide a fully integrated approach, working seamlessly with premium manufacturers to ensure that the latest technological advances, best value for money and sustainable solutions are brought to their clients.

VolkeHighways’ works comprise mass LED upgrades, electrical connections of CCTV, speed cameras and traffic enforcement equipment, architectural and feature lighting and central management systems.

Electric Vehicle Charging

The Government is also continuing its sustainable boost across the electric vehicle charge point (EVCP) industry and has announced £20m of funding for the Onstreet Residential Chargepoint scheme in 2022/23. This is great news for VolkerSmart Technologies, the smart city initiative of VolkerHighways, one of the UK’s leading installers and maintainers of EVCP.

VolkerSmart Technologies has been listening to the market, and is an approved EVCP designer, installer and maintainer on four industry frameworks, delivering solutions for the public sector. Having already built collaborative relationships with many local authorities, and with a wealth of experience in completing works in array of environments, VolkerSmart Technologies is a go-to provider.

The business has installed over 2,500 EVCP and is responsible for the repair and maintenance of a further 2,000.

As a member of the National Electrical Registration Scheme (NERS), VolkerSmart Technologies can deliver independent connections to metered and unmetered local DNOs. This in-house capability brings the benefit of reducing the time required for electrical installations, for street lighting and EVCP, while mitigating programme risk.L

FURTHER INFORMATION

www.volkerhighways.co.uk www.volkersmarttech.co.uk enquiries@volkerhighways.co.uk

Advertisement Feature Breaking down the barriers to digital transformation

Robert Lindsey, managing director of Certes IT Service Solutions, explores the different barriers to digital transformation, unpicking how organisations can strengthen strategies to ensure successful outcomes

Digital transformation has become an increasingly common ‘buzzword’ for IT leads. However, while adoption has accelerated in recent years, for many organisations, digital transformation strategies are regularly outpaced by business demands.

In a recent study, 55 per cent of senior finance, HR and IT business leaders reported digital transformation strategy is often outpaced by business demands. This is widening the digital acceleration gap, where business needs change rapidly, and the necessary technology, processes and culture to support this struggle to keep pace.

This is especially the case for much of the public sector – even prior to the pandemic – with Deloitte reporting how 70 per cent of government officials across 70 countries believe their digital capabilities lag behind those of the private sector.

The impact of COVID-19

The Coronavirus pandemic widened this gap further, acting as a catalyst for investment in infrastructure, as people responded to the restrictions by strengthening virtual connections to stay in touch with one another. This saw digital transformation shift from a choice to a necessity for businesses looking to keep pace with today’s changing world. It became an imperative for any business to survive in the long-term. It’s no longer just a technology issue – it’s a business issue.

Therefore, senior management, across finance, HR and IT, now focus on using digital transformation to improve employee experience and team retention by breaking down data silos to drive automation. However, many CIOs – who hold the ‘key’ to data-led digital transformation – are overwhelmed by the pace of change, with only 42 per cent of IT leaders being confident in their team’s ability to adopt cloud technologies without legacy constraints.

Resource challenges

Amid the ‘great resignation’, resource constraints is the biggest barrier to digital transformation. This is particularly true for the public sector, with only 26 per cent of employers suggesting they’ll award basic pay increases to existing teams. This is seeing increasing recruitment and retention challenges, recruitment strategies shift to upskilling existing teams and advertising more flexible roles.

With less available talent, many digital transformation initiatives are failing. The cyber security and IT workforce shortages present key concerns, with every new internet-connected technology impacting an organisation’s cyber security risks. In the public sector, organisations are handling personal data, meaning ensuring safe adoption and implementation of new digital systems is even more critical. With more vacancies than people in unemployment, it’s a candidate’s job market – making it difficult for the public sector to match or better private sector offers within their budgets.

Ongoing impact of IR35

Alongside resource challenges, is the ongoing impact of the IR35 legislation, which continues to create issues for organisations reliant on long-term contractors. Since it was introduced in April 2017, hard data suggests IR35 has created an uphill struggle for organisations recruiting IT contractors delivering digital transformation projects.

Older regulations, such as the Data Protection Act, continue to influence digital transformation projects, and the debate of strengthened regulation on the horizon threatens longterm digital transformation strategies.

Build strategic partnerships

In order to overcome barriers to digital transformation, building partnerships with consultants and IT solution-based managed service providers is key. They’ll often have connections with resources – reducing the time taken to embed new, security-cleared talent from 3-12 months to 10-15 days.

The knowledge and experience they have in delivering similar digital transformation projects will help you to anticipate obstacles before they happen, always looking one step ahead in your project’s journey.

Create a change leadership team

Too often, organisations try to engage in digital transformations without involving the people who’ll be doing the work – which is a recipe for failure. An internal change leadership team ensures your vision is created by those who are connected with the inner workings of your organisation – increasing its chances for success.

Align strategies with goals

Before embarking on your digital transformation pathway, ask ‘why are we doing this?’. Your strategy must be aligned with your business goals to be successful in the long-term. This is integral to empowering employees to succeed, improving customer experiences and increasing overall revenue.

Stay agile

Above all else, your strategy needs to stay agile. With technology changing rapidly, scaling faster than most organisations realise, digital transformation strategies often need to adapt to capitalise on new opportunities when they arise. Stay open to new processes and different ways of doing things, and don’t be afraid to change traditional practices if there’s a better way.

Certes IT Agility Ability™ is designed to enable digital transformation through on demand IT solution-based managed services. By sharing knowledge and expertise, we deliver successful outcomes, with visibility and control at every stage of your project lifecycle. L

FURTHER INFORMATION

www.certes.co.uk 01675 468 968

Prescribing the Right Solutions for Public Sector Digital Transformation

Digital agreement tools can empower local and national government employees to create, innovate, and collaborate. Daniela Becker, Area Vice President EMEA, at DocuSign, explores how DocuSign eSignature can quickly and easily re-define public sector work practices

The public sector is the engine room of the UK economy, delivering goods, services, and administration to citizens, residents, and enterprises. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports there are currently 5.7 million people employed in the UK’s public sector - accounting for nearly a sixth of all those in paid work (September 2021).

Whether working across national or local services, such as NHS healthcare, education, social housing, or even public transport, all segments face similar challenges. Outdated IT infrastructures and work practices mean a great deal of money is spent annually on paper, as well as the manual processing of documents. Furthermore, cutbacks and squeezed departmental budgets are adding additional pressures to those sectors keen to explore new ways of working.

A digital transformation of public sector responsibilities can readily help deliver smarter, quicker, and safer services to the public. DocuSign digital solutions are tailored to help public sector departments execute contracts and agreements with ease, while at the same time making security of individual data and identity a priority.

Patients and people rather than paper

When organisations consider digital transformation, it emphasises simplicity, ease of use, and clear time saving benefits. DocuSign eSignature is an essential part of this change, helping public sector organisations connect and automate how they prepare, sign, act on, and manage contractual and legal agreements.

For example, a city-centre hospital can share electronic consent forms with patients, which can be completed on a patient’s phone and returned at the tap of a button. Alternatively, a local authority can look to streamline its approach to contract agreement with third-party suppliers, including RFPs and similar procurement documents. This can readily be achieved using a library of pre-approved, customisable, and securely shared templates. Whatever the usage case, 82% of digital agreements are often completed in less than a day, and 49% in less than 15 minutes – delivering speed and ease of use to the organisation.

With the growth of remote working and the ‘Anywhere Economy’, public sector employees are increasingly working apart from colleagues, customers, and patients. DocuSign eSignature can ensure that digital processes continue to be quick and efficiently handled, as forms can be digitally and remotely signed in a secure and legally valid manner.

Other benefits include greater visibility of the audit chain, so housing officers can see if a client has accepted a housing placement, for example, or procurement teams can ensure that senior managers have counter signed purchase agreements.

The continued use of digital services can also directly help to reduce the reliance on paper usage within an operation, supporting sustainability reforms and reducing ongoing costs. To date, DocuSign and its customers have saved more than 6 million trees, 55 billion sheets of paper, 22 billion litres of water and eliminated more than 2 billion kgs of waste - purely by embracing digital agreement activities.

Securely shape and seal the right kind of agreements every time

DocuSign eSignature includes a host of features that enable public sector departments to simply go beyond the signing of agreements. For example, DocuSign eWitness enables users to identify one or more individuals to authenticate the execution of important documents. It can be used in a wide variety of public sector settings, such as student services carrying out greater identity checks around enrolments, or social services facilitating adoption protocols, quickly and securely speeding up the processes around multi-party identification.

DocuSign eWitness is simple to set up, configure and share, accelerating the contract process at all touch points, while simultaneously providing courtadmissible evidence thereby reducing risk. Once all documents have been signed, a Certificate of Completion is created containing evidence about the signing and witnessing parties, including address, email address, IP address and time stamps.

By tapping into the tools within eSignature, users can improve turnaround times of agreements, but also see a reduction in the cost of printing, and therefore sending of documents. For example, Lambeth Council uses DocuSign eSignature across a range of its services, from HR for employment agreements, to the neighbourhood housing teams for housing tenants and tenancy agreements, helping deliver cost savings and greater efficiencies.

Furthermore, the Council also uses DocuSign eSignature to embed an official electronic seal when it executes documents, helping to securely deliver extra identification around the signing process. The digitisation process allows for visibility of the seal when contracts are sealed – something not possible when documents were scanned. As a result, the council has seen a 1,300% increase in DocuSign usage, accelerating the entire contract process. The organisation has also seen a 90% reduction in the use of paper, saving taxpayers a considerable amount of money.

As more public sector services are moved online, digital transformation is no longer an option but a priority. By choosing to digitise procedures, the public sector can cost-effectively speed up processes, improve public engagement, and save resources and taxpayer money.

DocuSign eSignature is often seen as the first step on any public sector digital transformation journey. It seamlessly overcomes the barriers that prevent employees, and their clients, from being able to quickly and securely act and respond to any given contractual situation – all with speed and relative ease. L

Daniela Becker, Area Vice President EMEA, DocuSign

FURTHER INFORMATION

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