Press releases in English

An innovative approach by the Mexico City authorities made it possible for employees to change their commuting pattern and reduce their carbon footprint by up to 40%. Using Commute Greener, a web and mobile phone solution from Volvo IT, it is possible to significantly reduce congestion, lower CO2 emissions and create savings in terms of health, fuel costs and the environment. Five large organisations in the Mexico City administration were the first to use Commute Greener in Mexico. The authorities in Mexico City have now earned the first certificate of achievement given in the Americas.

Volvo IT has been selected as Official IT supplier for the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race, which starts from Alicante, Spain, in October next year. Volvo IT will provide the IT platform, ensuring effective communications at each of the ten cities, which the race will visit during the course of the event.

In only 10 weeks, employees of the City of Gothenburg have succeeded in reducing their carbon emissions through changes in their commuting habits using Commute Greener, a new mobile phone and web application from Volvo IT. One of the groups actually succeeded in reducing its carbon emissions by as much as two thirds. To date, 9,900 zero-emission kilometers have been registered – a distance corresponding to 235 marathons.

Volvo IT, a business unit within the Volvo Group, has signed an agreement with the Norwegian insurance company Storebrand covering several years. The agreement, which has been signed with the parent company, involves the operation of systems that manage the insurance company’s funds for the Swedish markets in its subsidiary SPP. This agreement is Volvo IT’s first deal outside Volvo Group companies in Norway.

In connection with the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the Volvo Group unveiled Commute Greener, a service which transforms your mobile phone into a personal CO2 calculator with connections to Social Networks like Facebook. People world-wide have already started using the service and are competing to reduce CO2 emissions. The most frequent CO2 reduction target set by the users is 20%, which is equivalent to changing your commuting behaviour during one working day per week.

Reduce your carbon emissions – with the Volvo Group’s personal CO2-counter Commute Greener. Commute Greener is accessed through a mobile phone or a web site on the internet, enabling the user quickly to see by how much carbon dioxide emissions are reduced or increased using different means of transportations, for example bus, car, car pooling or bike. Volvo´s home town, the City of Göteborg in Sweden, is the first city in the world to order the service for its employees.

Today, 24 September, Volvo IT is inaugurating its new, global command centre in India. In less than a year, Volvo IT has transferred the task of monitoring computer systems from seventeen locations in different countries to Bangalore.

The Volvo Group has developed a computer game to teach the principles of lean production, a concept designed to increase the efficiency of working processes. In this game, the players can see how different changes impact efficiency and profitability. The results indicate that what is known as serious gaming is an excellent complement to training at work.

Volvo IT has signed a three year agreement with the City of Göteborg in Sweden, worth SEK 20 million. The deal was completed as a result of Volvo IT’s capacity to run low-cost mainframe environments.

A group of employees from the Volvo Group in Göteborg, Sweden, have been taking part in a project in which a personal CO2 “pedometer” has kept a check on what their commuting to work costs in the form of carbon emissions. Their journeys were registered using software in their mobile phones and a concept developed by Volvo IT. By changing their behaviour, the group succeeded in reducing their carbon footprint by more than 30%.