As a globally recognised name and one of the worlds biggest companies, Microsoft takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and strives to reduce its carbon footprint. Serco Integrated Services Sustainability Team took up the challenge of helping establish a sustainable working culture for Microsoft Ireland. The Sustainability Services Team initiated a technical energy audit and followed this up with a programme to spread individuals’ awareness and encourage behavioural change in the office. Sustainability Services achieved an overall reduction in energy waste per head for Microsoft from 3.1 tCO2 in 2005 to 2.4 tCO2 by 2007 – this equates to almost 25%. Sustainability Services are also on target to reduce Deloitte Ireland’s carbon emissions by 50% by 2012 and assist Coca Cola in achieving their ISO14001 certification.

In mid 2008 the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA)in Ireland set about extending the light rail system in Dublin City (The Luas). The Luas project included the installation of approximately 15 traffic signal intersections. A key part of this installation and the bid were the tram signals to be used at intersections but which were no longer available. Contractors tendering for this project unsuccessfully attempted to source the signal head. Andy Fogarty undertook research and using a variety of means, successfully manufactured a light trail signal which complied with the RPA signal specification; included additional safety features and LED indicators for its operation in line with Dublin City Council’s Carbon Reduction Policy. Due to this signal being a wholly Serco device it has helped the company secure a major contract and requires our competitors to use a product distributed by us.

Up to 80 per cent of prisoners in Queensland Australia are struggling with drug addictions. Despite this alarming statistic a large amount of effort has been invested in drug supply reduction rather than directly addressing the prisoners’ addictions. When Serco took over the contract at Borallon Correctional centre the team was faced with high drug use, prisoner complaints, perceptions amongst prisoners of a lack of support, and perceptions amongst staff that they were unable to make changes. The Drug Intervention Unit was formed around four main principles, including a 12 step programme, a therapeutic community, a unit to isolate participants from the wider prison population, and a holistic programme encouraging offenders to address their health, fitness, mood control, education and cognitive processes. By the second week of the first programme, all 22 participants were clean. This is a remarkable achievement and for some participants it’s the first time in 20 years they have been clean. The Drug Intervention Unit was not a contractual requirement but instead was driven by the commitment and innovation of our people.

Jamie French and Sean Bawden have spent the last 12 months developing a web based event management system called e-Watchman. The system electronically collects real-time data for the Highways Agency’s HOLGEN system, filters and prioritises the data and automatically sends to roadside engineers. Fault corrective actions are then transmitted back to the e-Watchman by the engineer and stored for analysis. Jamie has been the focus for identifying the required functionality of the system, always bearing in mind how this could improve both the efficiency of our operations and improving the performance of our customer’s technology assets. Sean has been the technical guru developing the e-Watchman application and writing the required software interfaces to make it happen. Much of their work has been carried out in their own time showing a true entrepreneurial culture.

Joanna Lee works on understanding, characterising and reducing topographical effects in Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) and has been recognised by a number of high profile awards in the past year. Topography is a crucial issue in the surface analysis of innovative devices such as MEMS, fibres, organic electronics and biomedical implants, all critically dependent on surface chemistry for their strength, durability and performance. Joanna has written an award winning paper providing practical recommendations for analysts to identify and reduce unwanted artefacts in SIMS images and spectra caused by sample topography, therefore extending the measurement capabilities of SIMS and paving the way for its use in emerging technologies. What is outstanding about Joanna is not only achieving this level of recognition so early in her career but also the work that she does in inspiring other scientists, especially females in a male dominated area of physics.

When Julie Phillips, Lead Learning Support Assistant at HMP and YOI Ashfield College was tasked with addressing the needs of those diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hypertension Disorder (ADHD) all she received was a blank piece of paper. Recent population profiles for 15 to 18 years olds sentenced to Ashfield showed at least 40% of the population displayed ADHD symptoms and a recent article in Employment Today stated research found that people with ADHD characteristics are nearly four times more likely to be entrepreneurs than non ADHD counterparts. It was this type of statistic in mind that Coping with ADHD by Learning Management Skills (CALMS) courses were set up. What is remarkable is that Julies team of Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) had devised, set up and run courses which focuses on the positives of ADHD. For the first time young people with ADHD, have been specifically addressed in a positive manner giving them the opportunity to take control of their own behaviour and giving them the opportunity to respond positively to their difficulties.

Under the terms of the National Control Centre (NTCC) contact one of the services provided is “Monitoring Traffic Conditions”. To do this it was required that the number of vehicles detected by our monitoring system was validated and stored and showed a fair representation of the actual traffic conditions. Previously a third party contractor carried out a laborious, error-prone, time-consuming and hence expensive process. Aware of these issues, Lawrence Howe and Phil Tait developed and introduced a process called CAVEMAN (Continuous Assessment of Validation Equations by Monitoring the Agency’s Network). The CAVEMAN process compares data from one monitoring site with the records from all the others around it and highlights any anomalies or inconsistencies that could indicate a faulty monitoring site. Given the right support, this process together with work the work undertaken by the Traffic Engineering department in terms of anticipation future industry requirements puts Serco in a strong position to become leaders in this growing market.

For 17 years Martin Milton worked in Analytical Science at National Physical Laboratory, initially developing a novel laser-based system measuring atmospheric pollution (now used by BP and Shell worldwide). After this development he moved onto establishing a leading role in the standardisation of gas concentration measurements for Government and industrial users. In 2007 Martin’s achievements contributed to a Nobel Peace Prize to the Inter-government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The award was achieved for the IPCC’s efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge of man-made climate change and laying foundations that counteract such change.