Council workers are to use video conferencing technology such as Skype to slash travel costs – and help the environment.
Manchester town hall bosses have ordered staff to consider video-linked calls over the internet rather than arranging face-to-face meetings.
Office-based staff will also be given smart meters to plug into their works stations, showing how much power they are using at any time.
Council chiefs say the measures will make them one of the first authorities to monitor how staff are cutting carbon emissions. Departments will publish annual data on their energy consumption and savings, as well as plans for future improvement.
It is hoped the measures will cut electricity bills by as much as 30 per cent in some buildings.
While workers will cut travel by using Skype for conferencing, bosses are also encouraging car share schemes or public transport rather than taxis or private vehicles.
The energy initiatives are in response to the council’s Manchester – A Certain Future environment report, launched in 2009. More than 100 organisations helped develop the document, which shows how the city’s carbon dioxide levels can be reduced by 40pc in 10 years.
Coun Nigel Murphy, executive member for the environment, said it was the local authority’s job to lead by example. He said: "Reducing the amount of carbon emissions the council produces is a key part of our plan to tackle climate change across Manchester.
"We’ve now become one of the first authorities to place this right at the heart of how we develop our services – and to monitor what each department is doing to cut carbon emissions.
"Our commitments to become more environmentally friendly mean we will save money, and this new measure – meaning we know exactly what each department is doing to reduce emissions – is an important step towards achieving those ambitions."
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Well done Manchester Council! The majority of private companies have been using Video Conferencing and monitoring power usage for years, Welcome to the 21st century, shame it's takenyou so long to realise it's the simple things that save money
Well done Manchester? We've been doing that for years over the border!
Good work! It's a win win situation that could help cut the deficit
I wonder how many tens of thousands were wasted on skype training?
My God.
No wonder the country and economy is in such a mess when the use of video conferencing becomes a news headline.
Tragic on so many levels.
While the use of videoconferencing software is to be welcomed, Skype is yet another proprietary system which locks its users into particular software, which only runs on certain hardware platforms and operating systems.
By using an open, common standard such as SIP, the Council would be saving money and maximising their freedom to use alternative platforms, which could save more money (and increase council security) by replacing Windows desktops for staff with Linux - with much lower software and hardware costs.
Excellent! this is the future.
The problem will be the limited connectivity stopping council employees working from home. My daughter lives in Manchester and has less than half a meg at her home despite the fitting of an iplate and several engineer visits. The problem with connectivity isn't just in rural areas, long line lengths even in Manchester mean many council employees and others are very badly served on this old phone network. We need more fibre. Moral and optic and we need to stop believing the hype from the incumbent monopoly. Next generation access cannot be delivered over copper.
shame they can't work from home as well, but as my daughter who lives in Manchester can testify that despite new iplate and engineer visites she can only get just under half a meg. Until we update the infrastructure the brave new world can never happen.