Article: Logging on, not driving in

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Logging on, not driving in

Logging on, not driving in
Tony Moore
July 7, 2011 - 6:53AM

In Amsterdam, they're called "smart work centres".

Their goal is to help change the notion of 'going in to work' and replacing it with the concept of 'taking the work home to the worker'.

Found outside the CBD, the work centres see people from different companies and industries work side by side. They include child care facilities, laptops, conference rooms and private rooms to tele-conference into head office.

And they could well prove to be the model for a decentralised Brisbane, the day one crowd at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit was told yesterday.

Under a private sector concept called Amsterdam Smart City, backed by the Netherlands' local and regional governments, Dutch workers are discouraged from "going in to work".

The 2009 concept was outlined yesterday at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in a paper called Cities of the Future by Dutch strategic planner Frans-Anton Vermast and Cisco Systems director Martin Stewart-Weeks.

The pair said Amsterdam's "smart city" concept was exciting as Australia began to consider the implications of the National Broadband Network.

At least one day a week, workers are encouraged to work from home, and an increasing percentage work each day from equipped "smart work centres" closer to home.

The goal is to reduce peak hour traffic, and with it carbon emissions.

Amsterdam is a similar-sized city to Brisbane; it has 2.2 million people in its immediate surrounds, about 400,000 households and a reasonably well-educated population.

Mr Vermast said the organisers set tough targets - to reduce kilometres driven by 5 per cent by the end of 2011, and by 10 per cent by 2015.

"They also wanted to reduce carbon dioxide by 40 per cent by 2035 based on 1990 levels," he said, although he conceded they did not immediately succeed.

"The reality is that they got a two-per cent increase instead."

However, Mr Vermast said carbon emissions were starting to fall.

"Part of the problem is that you have to work on figures that are two to three years old," he said.

Korea has signed a contract to set up 200 smart work centres by 2015, while the concept has also been embraced by Spain, France and parts of the United States.

Mr Vermast said one fact gleaned during the Amsterdam research was that workers using an iPad, or dedicated laptop worked "20 days extra" each year.

This year, Amsterdam businesses have installed 3000 solar panels on the roofs of office blocks to set up alternative energy supplies and, in the city's business heart, some office building close down on Fridays because their workforce now works from home.

The state government's decentralisation policy for its public servants was yesterday compared to the Amsterdam model.

A Queensland Reconstruction Authority senior executive at the session said the concept made sense in breaking down which department would be decentralised.

"The problem with the policy is that some people will say I am not in the right department, it is of no advantage to me," the officer said.

"I am thinking that one of these centres that are going to possibly create could become a smart centre, where you could just go from any department at all and just log on."

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/logging-on-not-driving-in-20110706-1h2at.html