The way ahead
Preparing to tread lightly
Environmental awareness has increased greatly following the publication of the Stern Report. At the heart of the Stern agenda is the need for everyone to adapt to climate change and reduce their carbon emissions.
Defining our carbon footprint |
A carbon footprint measures the impact a company has on the environment through its carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. A carbon footprint is normally measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide produced per year. At Tube Lines, we have split our carbon footprint into two sections - direct and indirect. The direct printOur direct footprint is made up of the carbon emissions for which we are directly responsible. These include energy, gas and oil used at our premises, the waste we produce and collect, the fuel used to power our engineering train fleet and our road fleet. It also includes the resources and materials we use to carry out our work. The indirect printOur indirect carbon footprint consists of those factors which we contribute to or influence but are not responsible for creating, such as the traction and non-traction energy that powers the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. London Underground operates the trains, run the stations and pay the electricity bills. |
We know that everything we do to improve Tube Lines’ environmental performance helps to reduce our carbon footprint. In 2006, we set about calculating our carbon footprint, both to help us define how far we have travelled and as a first step towards setting our longer-term vision for the future.
“We are working with the Carbon Trust through its carbon management programme to calculate our carbon footprint related to our direct emissions and identify ways of driving it down,” says Charlotte Simmonds, Environment Manager. “This baseline calculation will enable us to define an action plan and set an initial target for reducing it, which will be one of our 2008 business objectives."
Banking savings
We know that some of our work brings energy efficiency improvements to the Underground and we ran workshops in 2006 to start to map what we have done to improve energy efficiency on rolling stock, track and other areas in more detail. This has fed into the carbon footprint work we are progressing.
We are working with the Carbon Trust to develop a tool to quantify the carbon emissions of our work so that we can compare different methods in the future. We are also investigating ways to ‘bank’ the carbon savings we have already made. For example, the 2006 business objectives to reduce paper and energy use at our 15 Westferry Circus head office saved 126 tonnes of carbon. The installation of a wheel lathe at Northfields depot, eliminating the need for wheels to be transported vast distances, the reduction of the time taken to refurbish escalators from 26 to eight weeks and our paper recycling efforts all contribute to reducing our carbon footprint.
Initial figures |
We started by looking at our direct footprint. This has generated a figure of 5,936 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, and 81 per cent of this is generated by our consumption of electricity. However this figure excludes the waste we produce and collect and the materials and resources we use, with the exception of paper use. These will be included in our 2007 environment report. |
Periodic Review
Our Public Private Partnership (‘PPP’) contract with London Underground is split into four seven and a half year periods. These breaks allow discussion between Tube Lines and London Underground to agree the priorities for the next seven and a half years. “We want to be in the vanguard with this and the environment will be key to these discussions,” says Diarmaid O’Tuathail, Director of HS&E. “We are working to identify the environmental measures that need to be included in the targets set by the contract, to ensure we work together to improve and incentivise energy efficiency, adaptation to climate change, recycling and ultimately reduce our carbon footprint."
Case Study |
Gearing up for climate changeWhile our carbon footprint work is about reducing our impact on the environment and climate change, another piece of work is trying to predict how we need to adapt to cope with the impact that the changing climate will have on us. “In late 2006 we started working with the Carbon Trust to identify our carbon impacts. The company has already agreed to a business objective targeting a reduction of our carbon footprint in 2008.”Charlotte Simmonds, Environment Manager |
