Getting into the green spirit
Actions speak louder than words - and an environmental policy will only succeed if it is translated into actions that make a difference to environmental performance. It takes people to do this.
In 2006, we continued our work to make it as easy as possible for our people to understand and implement good environmental practice by making it part of our business processes. This was strengthened by the introduction of environmental goals as part of our business objectives for the year. The response has been amazing. As people’s knowledge and enthusiasm grow, so does their creativity. This report describes some of the results.
Three new Beacon sites
In 2006, three sites – Finchley Central, Cockfosters and Colindale – volunteered to be measured against the highest standards and achieved Tube Lines Beacon site status. Three other teams were progressing towards it as the year ended.
Based on the Considerate Contractors scheme, the Beacon site scheme was piloted two years ago at Turnpike Lane as a means of demonstrating excellence in many areas, including safety, environment, consideration for others, project management and living our values. “We have opened up the scheme to sites across the company,” explains Trevor Bellis, Head of Delivery, HS&E. “The sites run it themselves and the HS&E team offers guidance and advice and carries out the final assessment. More and more sites are taking part and both teamwork and enthusiasm are shining through. There is a steadily growing sense of competition as more and more teams get engaged.”
Training and awareness
We continue to deliver Go Green training courses tailored to the needs of the different people’s roles across the company. In 2006, at least 1,200 people attended site briefings on noise, waste, pollution, wildlife and heritage from a suite of newly launched environmental tool box talks for site operatives.
Another first was HS&E placements for 22 second year apprentices, who spent two weeks shadowing the HS&E advisers and one day concentrating on significant environmental issues.
Organising information
Having the right facts at your fingertips is essential to make informed decisions and in 2006 more people loaded information onto Maximo, our asset inventory, using handheld computers to store, update and share data. Our award-winning, computerised Geographical Information System (GIS), that maps environmental issues alongside other business data, is available to every employee through our intranet so that they can check for these as they work.
New ideas
2006 was a year for encouraging new ideas and one channel for communicating them is the Tell/Ask Terry feature in the employee magazine, platform, giving employees the chance to share their views with Chief Executive Terry Morgan. Environmental issues raised in 2006 included suggestions for recycling plastic and a suggestion that offices should have environmental wardens to ‘police’ recycling. Terry provides written responses to items raised in platform and we are now recycling plastic at head office and looking at ways to utilise the environmental enthusiasm in the business to improve our recycling rates.
News in Brief |
- Employees taking part in the Environment Agency’s World Environment Day in June 2006 made pledges to save 43,000 litres of water - equivalent to approximately 285 days worth of water use for the average Briton!* - The Environment team ran five kilometres around Battersea Park for the 2006 Tree-Athlon in September, raising over £400 for the charity Trees for Cities which aims to tackle global warming, create wildlife habitats and beautify cities by planting trees in urban areas. - Tube Lines helped to spread the word about environmental issues in 2006 by providing a number of interviews about our paper recycling, including an article in Green Futures and letters in The Times Online and Time Out, contributing to the IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment) Practitioner handbook on change management for sustainable development and contributing to the ENDS Consultancy Market Guide by explaining our rationale for selecting specialist noise contractors. * Based on the average Briton using 150 litres of water per day. Source: Guardian |
Case Study |
Meet the champions!Nine people who never tire of working to improve our environmental performance. “Go Green’s success is also
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