Informed Solutions has today been honoured with a WITSA Merit Award for its work on the national roll out of Clean Air Zones with the Government’s Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU).
The Global ICT Excellence Awards is unique in that nominations are made by experts that know the industry best; the national and regional WITSA ICT industry associations from over 80 countries. With unparalleled insight, the most innovative and impact solutions are brought before an independent panel of judges, consisting of select industry leaders and luminaries from key international organizations, corporations, and government entities.
The Emerging Digital Solutions Winner is selected for its proven and scalable innovative digital solutions capable of transforming the wellbeing, prosperity, connectivity, or productivity of others around the world.
JAQU – a joint unit between Defra and DfT, is charged with delivering HM Government’s legal and policy commitments to improve air quality by reducing levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) pollution. A key priority is to work in collaboration with Local Authorities (LAs) to influence changes in motorist behaviour.
In the UK, the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) Framework permits Local Authorities to implement Charging Clean Air Zones as a measure for achieving this. The intent is that the introduction of Charging Clean Air Zones will drive changes in motorist behaviour – such as upgrading to a cleaner vehicle or using public transport – thereby reducing NO2 pollution.
The Central CAZ Service is a national digital infrastructure with exacting non-functional requirements for security, availability, elastic scalability, and resilience. Hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), PaaS and SaaS AWS offerings will accelerate and de-risk delivery, maximise technical quality and minimise administrative and maintenance overheads. A serverless execution model maximises the solutions’ ability to scale elastically in response to changing demand as more Local Authorities implement Clean Air Zones.
Informed Solutions UK CEO Seth Finegan comments: “We are delighted to be recognised along with JAQU for the development of an innovative and scalable Clean Air Solution that has the potential to help the environment and economies the world over.
“The ban on new petrol, diesel, and hybrid cars in the UK within the next decade will help speed up the transition to electric vehicles and will support the country’s ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050. At the same time work by the WHO continues to evidence the danger to health from air pollution in our major cities, a public health priority that has been put on a par with smoking.
“In a race against time, JAQU has succeeded in creating a national digital service that not only encourages motorists to change their transport behaviours but also helps local authorities implement and manage their Zones.
“We’re looking forward to accelerating the improvement of the UK’s air quality by delivering the digital infrastructure to support clean air zones and in doing so, helping our cities become increasingly welcoming and healthy places to live, work, and play”.
Sir Graham Brady, MP for Altrincham and Sale West comments: “I am delighted that Informed Solutions has won a Merit Award from the World Technology Services Alliance for its work on the national digital Clean Air Zones Service. Informed solutions is a dynamic local company with an international reach and I am delighted it is being recognised; as always, Informed Solutions is a breath of fresh air”