Measuring our progress
How we performed against our environmental objectives in 2007
1. Reduce energy consumption at Tube Lines premises and the Piccadilly line depots by 2 per cent.
Result: We achieved a 20 per cent reduction by a combination of targeting the largest energy consumers such as air conditioning, lighting and lifts and working on behavioural change.
2. Reduce the amount of white A4 paper used by 15 per cent.
Result. We achieved a 34 per cent reduction of white A4 paper use by setting all multi-function device printers to default to double side printing, raising awareness, managing procurement and monitoring use.
3. Improve the fuel efficiency of the commercial road fleet over 7.5 tonnes by 5 per cent*
Result: We achieved a 15 per cent improvement thanks to the installation of GPS systems, driver training and monitoring.
This report covers the period from 7 January 2007 to 5 January 2008 and looks for performance improvements against the equivalent 12 months in the previous year.
* total miles driven per gallon of fuel taken from our fuel tanks
Short stories
- Communications
We have been shortlisted for the 2008 HSBC Rail Internal Communications Excellence of the Year Award for Go Green communications.
- Employee opinion
Our 2007 employee survey identified that 89 per cent of Tube Lines employees feel we are an environmentally responsible company.
- HS&E manual
In 2007 we published online a new, easy-to-use Tube Lines Health, Safety and Environment manual, providing convenient and useful information on best practice to provide an invaluable mine of reference material.
A significant step forwards
Tube Lines’ Go Green journey began in 2004/05 when the Environment team worked with people from all parts of the business to identify and define the environmental impact of our activities. From this, our environmental management system, Go Green, was developed and launched in April 2005. Another milestone was the achievement of ISO 14001 accreditation in October 2005.*
Business objectives
Since 2006, the company has brought environmental goals and best practice right into the heart of its operations by setting corporate environmental business objectives. These are monitored every four weeks along with the company’s other business objectives. In 2007 we beat all three of our environmental goals. Click here for full environmental performance data.
Carbon footprint
A major highlight of 2007 was our work to calculate our carbon footprint, carried out in conjunction with the Carbon Trust and AEA Energy and Environment, enabling us to measure our overall environmental impact as a company for the first time.Our carbon footprint study identified that our activities generate 78,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
We now have a bank of data that goes beyond standard practice, providing us with a new focus to direct our activities over the coming year. Our objective for 2008 is to reduce that footprint by 5,000 tonnes, or 6 per cent – the equivalent of the carbon emissions resulting from a passenger travelling end to end on the Piccadilly line 1.1 million times.
Click here to read more about our carbon footprint.
External auditing and benchmarking
We continue to develop Go Green, which achieved ISO 14001 certification in October 2005. The British Standards Institute (BSI) audits us twice a year to ensure we continue to meet the requirements of the international environmental standard and continually improve our environmental performance, reviewing the system and how we implement it on site. In 2007 no non-conformances were raised by BSI. For the second year running we participated in the CBI's Contour environmental and health and safety benchmarking scheme. The 2007 results show an improvement on last year's score for environment in both practice (systems) and performance (implementation) as we strive towards becoming 'world class'.
Internal auditing and monitoring
Members of the Environment team are qualified environmental auditors and undertake site audits throughout the year to check we are doing what we say we will do, as documented in our environmental procedures. Additionally, employees conduct planned general inspections of health, safety and environmental performance. These are unannounced site visits to check that site activities are compliant.
Training and awareness
We continue to deliver our role-specific Go Green training courses and revised both these and our suite of environmental tool box talks in 2007. These allow us to spread environmental awareness for each of our significant impacts to site operatives and contractors. We also introduced environmental awareness into mandatory entry permit training so that all operatives, contractors and visitors accessing our work sites are aware of Go Green, the impact that the work we do has on the environment and how to mitigate this impact. Over 2,700 people received the updated entry permit training in 2007. Entry permits must be renewed annually and the training undertaken every other year.
* This ISO 14001 accreditation covers all Tube Lines activities with the exception of Distribution Services Management, which maintains its own ISO 14001 accreditation, and the Northern line depots managed by Alstom.
