Upon being elected, Councillor Mandla was shocked at the amount of paper generated for Council Meetings. "We were given endless glossy Powerpoints at Briefings, then the same ones (or slightly modified) for Committees and then again for Council Meetings. Then we were given thousands of pages of read. Certainly, each Councillor used a tree every Council cycle".

Papers were impossible to read outside of Council Chambers given the weight and awkwardness of the folders. "In the modern world, a Councillor ought to be able to read papers on the train, bus, home and/or the cafe".

Edward being a technologist and believing that technology will solve our environmental challenges led the way in moving all Council papers onto an electronic system called Boardbooks.

Edward moved and had passed a motion for Council papers to go electronic which significantly reduces Councils carbon footprint and significantly reduces Council's operating costs.

Today, Councillors enjoy the benefits of electronic documents as well as support staff. All have embraced electronic papers, other than the Lord Mayor who has everything printed out for her and uses the old system.