Bordeaux is digitally transforming to lower its carbon

Bordeaux Métropole is digitally transforming its services in order to help citizens and employees keep track of their digital carbon emissions.

The French region of Bordeaux has a population of 850,000 and is managed by Bordeaux Métropole which covers services such as waste, water, sanitation, transport, and urban planning.

In collaboration with Nantes-based IT consultancy, Aguaro, the Metropole will use Aguaro’s “My IT Footprint” solution to allow its employees and citizens to receive information about the environmental footprint of the digital devices and services they use, enabling them to make more sustainable decisions.

In 2016, Bordeaux Métropole implemented software firm ServiceNow’s solution to establish a standardised regional information system, including more than 1,600 digital services.

The implementation included a call centre that optimises agents’ digital activities and now provides immediate responses to users’ IT requests.

“One benefit for Bordeaux Métropole is that it can build on the investments already made in the ServiceNow platform by automating many of the processes associated with its services,” explains Matthieu Poulard, co-founder of Aguaro.

“Staff have access to data with a high degree of granularity as the application is linked directly to the source data. This is essential for identifying savings opportunities and making the results more reliable.”

Metrics of the system can also cover areas such as maintenance services to distances travelled transporting equipment between sites.

“Since the outset of our digital transformation in 2016, ServiceNow’s platform has been supporting both digital services management and importantly, with the extended partnership with Aguaro, enabling the monitoring of our carbon footprint from one year to the next” says Jean-Noël Olivier, CIO Bordeaux Métropole.

“We’ve established the principle that digital should be chosen, not imposed. It’s all about striking a balance between value-added digital services and their environmental, social, and ethical impact,” Jean-Noël says.

Last November, the US city of Las Vegas announced its plans to make its city more smart with the help of 5G networks, sensors across the city, and smart transport solutions.

Plus, in Europe, London was billed as the continent’s “smartest city”, just above Amsterdam, Berlin, and France.