In every big city, knowing the best routes is a rite of passage. The same goes for our teams around the world – on their way to the next job site, they need to get from A to B quickly and efficiently. And sometimes, that means leaving the car behind.
The streets of Hong Kong hum with rush hour traffic, cars inching forward bumper to bumper. But Chester Lam, a Service Technician based in Hong Kong, isn’t fazed – she’s on the move.
Instead of being stuck in traffic or circling for a parking spot, she’s riding the city’s MTR train, her toolkit neatly tucked into a suitcase, en route to her first service call of the day.
By 9:30 a.m., she’s already completed a maintenance check and is making her way through a web of pedestrian overpasses and underpasses to her second location. "With a service van, we’d spend hours stuck in traffic or looking for a parking spot," Chester says. "I get to most places in half the time on foot or by MTR."
Chester's daily routine is far from unique. It’s becoming a new model for how technicians across our global operations move through dense cities. As part of our commitment to reach net zero by 2040, we’re reimagining how our people move through urban environments – finding smarter, more sustainable ways to get the job done.
With around 85 percent of our Scope 1 & 2 emissions coming from our fleet, rethinking how our technicians navigate cities is a key part of our sustainability roadmap.
Electrification is a key part of the solution, and we’re strategically transitioning to electric vehicles where it makes the most operational and environmental sense.
In some areas, however, charging infrastructure is still developing, and for certain routes, range limitations mean electric vehicles aren't always the best fit. Instead, we’re "rightsizing" our fleet, ensuring our vehicles are the right size for the job, optimizing fuel consumption. We’re also using telematics to encourage and reward fuel-efficient driving behaviors.
But, because moving efficiently through cities doesn't always require a car, we're embracing a range of innovative solutions, too – from e-bikes to public transport to carpooling initiatives – all designed to cut emissions while enhancing service delivery. It’s about rethinking how technicians move efficiently through the cities and neighborhoods.
In dense cities like Hong Kong, it’s clear that public transport is the quickest, most practical option for technicians like Chester. Using the MTR system, Chester skips the frustrations of traffic and parking, reaching her destinations faster and more efficiently. It’s a practical example of how using the city’s existing infrastructure can be a sustainable solution – in every sense of the word.
E-bikes are proving to be the ideal solution in some urban environments, allowing technicians in Switzerland and Germany to zip through congested city centers with ease. Of course, e-bikes aren’t suitable for every terrain or to cover long distances, but our technicians who use them do report feeling fitter and happier.
At the Careggi University Hospital in Florence, technicians navigate the sprawling healthcare campus using 100 percent electric vehicles that resemble golf carts. These compact, zero-emission vehicles prove ideal for manoeuvring between hospital buildings, allowing technicians to carry tools and parts to service the 120 units installed throughout the facility, all without the environmental impact or parking challenges of traditional service vans.
In Berlin, we’re pushing the envelope with our service model. Instead of sending technicians back to a central depot for tools and spare parts, we’ve set up service stations throughout the city, and stocked them with all that our technicians need to carry out their jobs. Our technicians now use e-cargo bikes to carry what they need, cutting emissions, slashing travel distances, and improving response times.