Everyone can agree that sustainability and green directives are good for our planet, businesses, and ourselves. Green initiatives and sustainability are vital to field service and bring opportunities and challenges.
Reducing CO2 is a best practice in sustainability, and the field service community has been leading the charge. Long before this initiative became prevalent, the industry increased technology utilization and reduced costs and travel times by moving toward remote services. These initiatives have meant a CO2 reduction. Adopting green technology, optimizing routes, improving self-service and remote service, and investing in sustainable infrastructure can lead to sustainability success.
Sustainability Challenges in Field Service
While field service organizations continue to link best practices with seeking the lessening of carbon output, these early steps will only solve some of the problems related to reducing carbon emissions. Sometimes more than remote solutions are needed. For example, companies must get parts on-site using express systems that depend heavily upon fuel. Further, field service organizations rely on fast uptimes to maintain high-quality customer service.
Another challenge related to parts is the industry’s use of spare parts. While spare parts can constitute a nod toward recycling, their refurbishment may not follow sustainability directives. So, the new question becomes how to deal with possible incoming regulations on spare parts in a turbulent economy still recovering from COVID shutdowns.
While regulations on spare parts can affect field service negatively with an increased cost of repairs and maintenance that results in lower revenue and higher customer costs, there are some upsides. Refurbished parts can create new revenue opportunities, providing more affordable options.
Embracing Sustainability in Field Service
To be considered industry leaders in sustainability, field service companies must ensure their sustainability goals follow best practices. This endeavor aims to see where elements align with field service practices. At Gomocha, resource efficiency, environmental impact, customer satisfaction, and safety and health are the crucial elements to align and promote best practices and sustainability.
Thinking critically about sustainability in the field service industry involves incentivizing technicians to advocate for environmentally responsible sustainability goals. Here are some ways field service organizations can incentivize field technicians:
- Establish sustainability targets, such as minimizing waste and reducing emissions, and tie them to performance metrics.
- Offer training and education to help technicians make more responsible decisions on energy efficiency, waste reduction, and green transport options.
- Celebrate technician efforts through public recognition or awards. This can go a long way toward getting everyone on board and excited to meet sustainability goals.
- Provide green tools and equipment to technicians to ensure energy efficiency in vehicles and mobile devices, lowering consumption and advancing toward the company’s sustainability goals.
Using Technology to Drive Sustainable Practices
Another opportunity that sustainability presents is enabling field service leaders to demonstrate how they differentiate themselves from competitors. Investing in green technologies will continue to improve ESG scores and minimize carbon footprints. Demonstrating commitment will go a long way toward elevating ESG ratings.
Increasing scores and lowering carbon footprints will depend on using technology in smart, forward-thinking ways. For example, using remote monitoring and diagnostics can significantly reduce carbon emissions, as can electric and hybrid vehicles.
Moreover, using predictive maintenance technology can reduce repair and associated travel times. Route optimization continues to be a crucial part of this effort.
While using digital tools to promote a paperless process reduces waste and thus emissions, using renewable energy and sustainable materials can help bolster, as well.
Prioritizing sustainability is a winning formula, as it helps to secure better contracts and provide evidence of your environmental goals as a field service organization. Your sustainability efforts will heighten new and old service contract clients’ interest.