The journey continues
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 environment 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
In 2006, the company brought environmental goals and best practice right into the heart of its operations by setting four environmental business objectives. These were monitored every four weeks along with the company’s other business objectives. We managed to beat all but one of them. Click here for full environmental performance data.
External praise
Go Green received praise and recognition during 2006 from ISO 14001 auditors and Contour, the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) benchmarking scheme:
Measuring our progress |
How we performed against our four environmental business objectives in 2006: 1. Reduce the noise complaint rate (number of complaints normalised by the amount of work we do) by 10 per cent Result: We achieved a 17 per cent reduction by raising awareness of noise nuisance and noise sensitivity at our locations, notifying local residents about noisy work and developing site-specific noise controls. 2. Reduce the number of environmental incidents by 10 per cent Result: We achieved a 12 per cent reduction by improving the storage and use of oils as well as facilities for disposal of wash waters. 3. Reduce the amount of paper used at head office by 10 per cent Result: We achieved a 24 per cent reduction by setting printers to default double-side printing, raising awareness and monitoring procurement. 4. Reduce energy consumption at head office by 5 per cent Result: Despite one of the hottest summers recorded putting pressure on air conditioning systems, we achieved a 3 per cent reduction by improved management of air conditioning, reducing the number of lifts in use at night and turning lights off at night. The paper and energy achievements resulted in a reduction in our carbon dioxide emissions of 126 tonnes. Following a change to our financial year, these objectives were set for April to December 2006. Performance improvement is measured against a baseline of performance from the equivalent nine months in 2005. |
British Standards Institute auditors made two ISO 14001 continuous assessment visits during the year identifying three minor non-conformances (issues) which have now been addressed. They commented that there is clear pro-active environmental planning and risk management and a good level of awareness of Go Green within Tube Lines.
Feedback from the CBI's Contour environment, health and safety benchmarking scheme showed that, less than a year after ISO 14001 certification and less than 18 months after the launch of Go Green, we were ahead of the building and construction average score for environment in both practice (systems) and performance (implementation).
Checking up
All members of the Environment team are qualified environmental auditors. During 2006 they conducted 11 internal audits to check we are doing what we say we will do, as documented in our environmental procedures. Employees also carry out routine planned general inspections of health, safety and environmental performance.
The future
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 2 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 5 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.
* This ISO 14001 accreditation covers all Tube Lines activities with the exception of Distribution Services Management which maintains its own ISO 14001 accreditation.
News in brief |
The business objectives z-card, including our environmental objectives, was published online for the first time in 2006. Regular updates on our progress against these objectives were published in employee media channels and screen savers were used to remind employees of the targets for the year. |
