The following is taken from our feature in Croydon Digital.
Once upon a time London was nicknamed The Big Smoke, thanks in no small part to The Great Smog of 1952, and to be honest, the nickname wouldn’t seem too out of place today either! The capital certainly has a problem with pollution, and despite some encouraging efforts in the last few years such as the Ultra Low Emissions Zone, it is a problem that has been allowed to go unchecked for far too long. One of the key reasons we founded EMSOL was to help businesses and organisations tackle pollution. We recognised that many people wanted to take action, but they weren’t how.
We are looking to work with like-minded institutions and organisations who are serious about tackling the issue of harmful emissions across London, and the impact they can have on the local community. This is why we were delighted to team up with Croydon Council in a bid to take action against harmful pollutants affecting people and businesses across the city.
Why Croydon?
Croydon has long been a borough we’ve wanted to work with because we love the fact that it is a tech hub that always strives to support innovation. Croydon Council has been concerned with managing environmental impact, and has sought to establish the city centre as an Air Quality Management area. We admire their ambition and their efforts to try to transform Croydon into the most sustainable borough in London. This is an approach we can definitely get behind, and is one of the reasons why we chose to make ourselves a key part of Croydon’s journey towards a more sustainable future.
Innovation & Collaboration
Innovation and collaboration are the things that we are most excited by, and we feel like our collaboration with Croydon Council is the perfect way of taking this forward. Croydon approached EMSOL to help manage environmental impacts and try to reduce site pollution throughout the borough. This has involved coming up with ways that construction firms can reduce pollution without negatively impacting how they do their jobs.
Croydon Council Had a Problem
The team at Croydon Council responsible for managing pollution had a problem. Their problem was that they needed to meet targets on sustainability and reduce pollution, but Croydon is a borough going through an exciting period of redevelopment and investment. Juggling multi million-pound redevelopment projects whilst also trying to achieve the accolade of ‘London’s most sustainable borough’ is hard work for anybody. Of course, one cannot achieve significant redevelopment without facing the issue of pollution, and this was a concern for residents and commuters alike. This is one of the reasons why Croydon Council recognised the benefits of a partnership with EMSOL and our targeted approach to improving pollution.
How we Helped
We recognised the issues faced by Croydon Council and proposed that we take charge of developing and improving their existing site emissions management system. Our focus here was on creating a powerful and intuitive dashboard for Croydon Council. The EMSOL Platform provides insights through informative reports, dashboards, and real-time site maps, to make the process of reducing site emissions much more straight-forward. A key component of our system is that the emissions data we provide is correlated with vehicle data in order to cast a light on the vehicles that might be causing excessive emissions. This data provides key insights for those on-site, as well as the council, to take action to reduce the impacts of these vehicles.
Selected Sites We’re Working At
We have been working extensively with Croydon Council at selected sites across the borough. The principal area has been the Queen’s Square site, where we took a survey to find out the data relating to two key pollutants – NO2 and PM10. Empowering Croydon to take the necessary steps to improve air quality has been so important, and this was a key part of that. Additionally, we are also continuing to work with them at Wandle Road car park development, an initiative project designed to produce more than 120 new homes in Croydon. Having previously worked with us at Queen’s Square, Croydon Council knew the key benefits of our innovative system, and how integral it would be in helping them work towards improving air quality throughout the borough.
Our Findings
Our system has produced many results and findings, and these are instrumental in working out the best ways of being able to improve the process of reducing pollution. We have found that our system and dashboard has been essential for many people across the construction and transport industries, and that typically we have three different types of users; Super Users, Environmental Managers, and Construction Managers.
These are the people who seemed to benefit the most from the approach we took, and they took notice of the data we provided, and were really able to use it in a positive way in order to help work on making their approach more environmentally sound, as well as reducing pollution as much as possible.
Moving Forward
Working closely with Croydon Council, we have big plans for the future, and the key focal point here is to ensure that high standards are being maintained across Croydon. We are also looking to empower small teams to make a big difference, and do more with the limited resources they might have – this is something we are very passionate about. Maintaining healthy relationships with developers, and through this, building a more complete picture of localised pollution and air quality, is one of our key goals for the future.
More About Us
EMSOL is dedicated to building a better world, and a big part of this involves raising awareness about air pollution and harmful emissions, as well as how businesses and construction firms can cut down on these to provide healthier air quality. Since launching in 2017, we have been dedicated to making a difference reducing transport pollution and construction site emissions. Everyday customers use our innovative system to help them understand the action they need to take to enhance and improve the environment, and this is making a huge difference. If you are hoping to reduce pollution and harmful emissions in your area, you should get in touch with us right now, and we can work together towards this common goal.
EMSOL continues to be at the forefront of the war on pollution, and our innovative measures and approaches to projects makes us an invaluable partner for many boroughs and councils across London, and beyond.