Reduce, reuse, recycle. We are all increasingly aware of the need to be more environmentally conscious and to focus on reducing wasteful consumption and carbon emissions. Energy for Sustainable Development (www.esd.co.uk) is a consultancy that specialises in helping organisations to define policies and implement projects that mitigate climate change.

ESD was established in 1989 and has over 120 staff working throughout the UK, continental Europe and Africa. In the area of carbon emissions, ESD helps organisations to prepare for the low carbon economy of the future.

One of ESD’s current major projects involves working with the Carbon Trust to assist local authorities throughout the UK to reduce carbon emissions in line with the requirements of the Local Authority Carbon Management programme. Local authorities can play a leadership role in reducing carbon emissions by more effectively managing energy use in council buildings, street lighting, landfill waste and vehicle fleets.

ESD required an intranet to connect their worldwide workforce and an extranet that would enable local authorities to access the latest information and best practice guidance on carbon management and enable them to monitor their overall performance against targets. ESD selected SORCE to provide their intranet/extranet solutions and their decision was immediately vindicated with the delivery of the first working extranet site within 4 working days.

Helen Lock, one of ESD’s consultants, commented, “Our consultants work on customer projects across the globe. In fact, one of our rapidly growing markets is China. The SORCE intranet will provide an invaluable information and collaboration resource that our employees can access from any location in the world.”

ESD selected SORCE based on their experience with deploying corporate intranets and extranets, and the potential of SORCE to deliver an end-to-end solution for improving the management of communications, collaboration, business processes and management reporting of critical success metrics such as key performance indicators (KPIs).

Helen added, “The first extranet for the local authority carbon management programme was delivered incredibly quickly using SORCE. I am amazed at the quality of what they have been able to deliver in such a short time.”

John Nicklin, Business Development Director at SORCE, commented, “The SORCE intranet and extranet is an ideal solution for environmentally aware organisations such as ESD. Being able to rely on one reliable online information resource for all current policy, procedure and best practice documentation makes everyone more productive and also eliminates unnecessary printing of documents that can now be readily viewed online at any time from any location via the SORCE intranet and extranet.”