March; well what can we say about the past month? 31 days where the world changed significantly, almost unrecognisably, and where we all started to adjust to a new, temporary “normal”.
This global pandemic has bought into sharper focus than ever before the value that technology can play in society and in keeping us connected and the world turning. And while we have undoubtedly changed the way we are operating right now, March was still a busy month work wise and we felt it was important to stick to normal routines wherever possible, and share with you what we’ve been working on.
Build-out at the SMLL Woolwich HQ
The Show Must Go On
In line with Government guidelines, Team DGC moved to a remote working operation mid way through the month and like businesses up and down the country we’ve been keeping connected through the power of technology. A huge part of work makes DG Cities unique is our belief in working collaboratively – you could say we’re never knowingly siloed – and so as a team we’ve been connecting through video calls every day to ensure we’re still able to bounce ideas off each other and benefit from the combined brain power of the team across all our client and project work.
Mental wellbeing and team morale has also been a priority this month and we’ve been enjoying video call lunch breaks, afternoon teas, end of week chats and even daily challenges!
Projects
Works continued on the Woolwich HQ for Smart Mobility Living Lab, while it was safe to do so, and it’s been fantastic to see the space take shape, all the way down to our on-brand yellow flooring. While access to the site is not currently possible, we are eagerly awaiting the moment when we can finish the décor and open for business. Until then we are tidying up the admin side and coordinating with all our partners for an efficient restart.
You can see a few images of the space here: {inset images Juliet provided].
Meanwhile, the team continued to work hard on project Birchmere and we presented the work undertaken so far to Greenwich Council. An exciting update here was where we pitched to Engineering students at Imperial College London, inviting them to undertake a consultancy project for us to help streamline Birchmere electrification. More details to come in coming months.
And more broadly, we’ve been using the opportunity of working from home to delve into some complex modelling to understand the social and environmental costs of pollutants from transport projects. This methodology will be hugely valuable in helping clients to build out business cases for proposed projects.
Housing
Moving to housing, we were delighted to be invited up to Stoke at the start of the month, to attend a one day workshop with the team from Aspire Housing. We were asked to talk about how to create positive change in the housing organisation specifically with a view to becoming more sustainable.
Using case studies such as the Sharing Cities and eRCV projects, we talked about how to think innovatively and reimagine a future (something that feels even more relevant in these unprecedented times) in order to tackle challenges.
We really enjoyed meeting the team and taking part in some exciting discussions.
Other notable activity from March
At the very start of the month, our Head of Smart Mobility & Autonomous Transport, Kim, spoke at EvoNorth up in Manchester. She talked about DG’s pedigree and approach to smart mobility, and we were pleased as punch to see rave reviews like this.
Following on from our announcement last month about our collaboration with COAST Autonomous, we’ve been hitting the ground running with their team. We hope to be able to reveal more details soon, but we have been having a number of exciting discussions around deploying autonomous ridesharing services in both the UK and further afield.
Our Head of Delivery, Balazs, managed to enjoy a 2-week break to Costa Rica earlier in the month and came back with over 3,000 photos, so the team has been vicariously enjoying tales and images of the last international travel any of us will be doing for a while.
Our Head of Strategic & Integrated Planning, Lola, headed off on maternity leave, and the team is excited to welcome a new member to the extended DGC family soon!
Top thing we learned this month
Some welcome positive news in the current climate, we were delighted to see a recent study confirm that electric vehicles are indeed better for the environment, in terms of carbon emissions, than petrol or diesel vehicles. You can read more about this here.
This is only a handful of the things we’ve been working on in March – stay tuned for blog posts this month to find out more!