Facts and figures
Measuring our performance against objectives
In 2006, encouraged by the board of directors, we developed a set of targeted and challenging objectives for the financial year. All four environmental objectives are included within the company’s annual business objectives which are reported regularly to employees.
We have exceeded three of the objectives, relating to environmental incidents, noise complaints and head office paper use and have made significant progress on the fourth, concerning head office energy consumption.
Because of a change in our financial reporting year, these objectives cover the nine months from April to December 2006*. As a result of this change and because our environmental performance has seasonal trends, performance improvement is measured against a baseline of performance from the equivalent nine months in 2005.
We asked Deloitte to provide independent assurance on our key environmental performance indicators both to assure those outside the company that our data is robust and to help us identify ways to improve our data capture. Deloitte provided assurance over legal compliance, complaints, commendations, incidents, inspections, internal and external audits, utility consumption and waste generation. For more information refer to the independent assurance report.
* In line with the standard rail reporting periods the exact dates are April 1 2006 to January 6 2007. A period constitutes 28 days. For 2003-4, 2004-5 and 2005-6 periods 1-13 constitute the full year April to March. For 2006, periods 1-10 cover the time between April 1 2006 and January 6 2007
2006 Objectives
Objective: Reduce the noise complaint rate by 10 per cent by the end of 2006
Achieved: A 17 per cent reduction
Complaints are received in a variety of ways, including our new 24/7 telephone helpline (08700 702 424). We take every appropriate step to fix problems reported by residents, resident groups, civic societies, environmental health officers and other council officers. This objective targeted a reduction in the number of complaints* received, measured against the amount of work we do. The amount of work we do is based on the person hours worked by Tube Lines employees and contractors**.
* To give us a realistic picture of our performance we measure the number of complaints not the number of people making them.
**Sources for work hours figures are as follows:
Tube Lines employee work hours - HR employee records multiplied by 150 (in line with London Underground requirements)
Tube Lines Projects contractor work hours - contractor time sheets
Tube Lines Operations contractor work hours - calculated from the average number of contractors employed by Tube Lines each period multiplied by 150.
Objective: Reduce the number of environmental incidents by 10 per cent by the end of 2006
Achieved: A 12 per cent reduction
All environmental incidents, from small oil spills to disturbances of invasive species are reported and recorded internally. Action is then taken to address the root cause of each incident. The number of environmental incidents reported in 2005/6 has been re-stated as this was incorrectly reported, as 24 rather than 34, in last year's report.
Objective: Reduce the amount of paper used at head office by 10 per cent by the end of 2006
Achieved: A 24 per cent reduction
This objective was initially set to engage with head office employees and is being rolled out to the rest of the business in 2007. A significant reduction in the volume of A3 and A4 paper procured centrally for our head office 15 Westferry Circus was achieved. Our paper monitoring process has matured over the period under review.
Objective: Reduce energy consumption at head office by five per cent by the end of 2006
Achieved: A three per cent reduction
Tube Lines is responsible for energy and utilities use and the resulting payments for our premises, 15 Westferry Circus in Canary Wharf and Trackside House and the Skills Training Centre in Stratford. This objective targeted a reduction in electricity use at our 24-hour operational Westferry Circus head office, our main consumer of electricity. Electricity bills are reviewed monthly and our efforts to reduce energy paid off with a considerable reduction in electricity consumption despite one of the hottest summers recorded.
2007 Objectives
As we prepare for the future by calculating our carbon footprint and the impact of climate change, the following three environmental business objectives have been set by the company for completion by the end of 2007:
1. Reduce energy use at head office, Trackside House, Stratford Skills Training Centre and the Piccadilly line depots by two per cent.
2. Reduce paper use by 15 per cent.
3. Reduce the fuel consumption of our commercial road fleet over 7.5 tonnes by five per cent.
These 2007 objectives will target a reduction in full year (January to December) performance compared to a baseline of performance from the equivalent 12 months in 2006.
