The TE-TOL mobile portal has been selected as one of the best five in the world in the field of mobile environmental content.

Within the framework of the United Nations' World Summit on the Information Society, the World Summit Award chose the Ljubljana Thermo-electric Company, Termoelektrarne Toplarne Ljubljane (TE-TOL) mobile portal and with it Slovenia as one of the world's five best applications in the fields of environmental protection and health.

The 'World Summit Award' (WSA) global initiative, formed and operating as part of the World Summit on the Information Society, has for the first time this year run an award for the best mobile content and applications in the world – WSA-mobile.

In any of the eight published categories it was possible to enter mobile content and applications that had previously been nominated by national members of international juries or selected for previous national awards. More than 420 candidates from almost 100 countries were entered, with the five best in each category being chosen.

TE-TOL was put forward at the suggestion of Slovene member of the WSA Prof. Dr Borke Jerman Blažič, Head of the Laboratory for Open Systems and Networks at the Jožef Stefan Institute, it accepted the nomination and entered its mobile portal in the m-Environment and Health category, in which it was selected as one of the best five in the world. Slovenia thus takes its place alongside Austria, India, Egypt and the USA.

The countries with the most projects selected in each category were India and the USA with four awards, followed by Russia and Germany with three each.

TE-TOL is also the only energy company among the selected contractors. The international jury, comprising 20 internationally recognised experts that assembled at the WSA meeting in Abu Dhabi, justified their choice by saying that TE-TOL as a fossil-fuel energy producer initiated the system as an open, transparent and real-time tool to communicate with the inhabitants of Ljubljana, enabling 24/7 access to up-to-date data on emissions and effects on the environment and health, as well as data on production, while the wireless system upgraded internal working processes. In addition to quality content aesthetic and functional usability values and effective technical solutions, professional accessibility for diverse target groups and strategic meaning for the development of a quality IT company, which have great significance for the United Nations, were important evaluation criteria for selection as best mobile applications in the world.

At TE-TOL it is believed that their mobile portal, developed technically and in design sophistication by Slovenian company Hardlab, is the first project in Slovenia to link successfully the environmental, energy and mobile-technology fields. TE-TOL Director Blaž Košorok remarked on the award “It is a modern communication tool, with which our operation of the largest co-production of electricity and heat is further opened to the public while with it we can upgrade our logistics and control the supply of wood chips, that we have been using alongside coal since 2009, as well as internal measurements of individual working processes. Being recognised outside our national borders as best global practice amounts to a high award for TE-TOL and for the project team, and confirms above all that in Slovenia we have excellent professionals in the mobile technology field, who knew how to transform our wishes and needs into something that you can get in your pocket and use anytime anywhere. We hope that this sets a good example and incentive to other companies, especially IPPC partners”.

All the winning projects will be showcased to the world at the WSA-mobile Winners' Gala, Conference & Expo international conference that runs in Abu Dhabi from 6 to 8 December 2010. As the organisers put it, it is the foremost event of its kind in the world focussed on excellence in mobile content and applications.

More about the TE-TOL mobile portal

1. Access to the portal is possible in two ways: either by SMS message with the key word tetol to short number 3737 or via mobile browser - to http://m.te-tol.si  
2. Descriptive information: mobile portal TE-TOL (www.te-tol.si)
3. Video (adapted to the needs of the WSA-mobile jury and thus in English): Mobile portal TE-TOL (YouTube)