During 2008, London Midland developed a number of projects to lay the ground-work for future improvements in environmental performance. These included:
- carrying out an environmental baseline exercise to identify our current environmental footprint and areas for future work
- appointing an Environmental Manager and an Environmental Working Group to coordinate all work in this area
- starting a 3 year trial of reduced car parking fees for drivers of low-emission cars, and free parking for drivers of electric cars
- rolling-out a site energy action plan
Based upon the results of this work, and our existing franchise plans, our ongoing environmental plans will focus on the following areas.
- Improving the energy efficiency of our trains.
- Introducing our new, Class 350/2 electric trains, which return electricity to the grid each time they brake, using regenerative braking technology.
- Trialling new technology, energy metering and processes which can reduce train electricity and diesel consumption.
- Reducing site energy use. Our current aim is to reduce site energy use by 10% by
- investing in energy-efficient technology
- improving how we monitor and manage electricity and gas use
- educating staff to make them aware of simple actions they can take to reduce energy
Introducing cleaner Class 172 diesel trains.
- These will run on modern engines, compliant with the latest EU diesel emissions standards
- Reducing and recycling waste
- Introducing more recycling facilities at our stations, offices and depots
- Working towards a target of recycling 50% of our wastes by 2014
Achieving ISO 14001 certification for our Environmental Management System by November 2010.
- Setting annual improvement plans, and monitoring performance against them.
- Addressing Government and Stakeholders’ sustainability priorities.
- Working with industry partners to improve station accessibility and sustainability eg, by improved cycle storage.
Environmental and social reporting
We are part of our owner, the Go-Ahead Group’s, annual group-wide environmental and social reporting which sees London Midland, along with other Go-Ahead Group subsidiaries, publish and annual Environmental and Social Report.It's our responsibility to work towards delivering transport services that are accessible to all people, convenient, affordable, punctual and reliable. It's also our responsibility to minimise the impact our operations have on the environment. The environmental and social reporting enables us to measure our progress in these areas.
To find out more about our Environmental and Social Report and Go-Ahead’s approach to corporate responsibility go to www.go-ahead.com
