Tube Lines' Charlotte Simmonds named Environment Manager of the Year

Charlotte Simmonds of Tube Lines was last week named edie.net Environment Manager of the Year in the prestigious Environment and Energy Awards. As one of relatively few female senior managers working in engineering companies, this award recognises Charlotte as a woman to watch and one of the foremost people of the day addressing environmental issues.

Charlotte, a chartered environmentalist, has been with Tube Lines since 2004, when she was appointed its first corporate environmental adviser. She became Tube Lines’ environment manager in 2006.

Less than a year after joining she was instrumental in gaining ISO14001 accreditation for Tube Lines’ environmental management system, introducing company-wide environmental training and environmental aspects to nightly site briefings, and bringing the environmental risks Tube Lines faces under control.

Charlotte has been at the vanguard of Tube Lines’ initiatives to measure and reduce the company’s carbon footprint, taking measurement to new levels and making Tube Lines an enlightened environmental leader. She partnered with the Carbon Trust to do this and subsequently secured a business objective to reduce carbon impacts by 5,000 tonnes by the end of 2008. She has also pioneered planning around how the company can adapt to climate change, regarded as cutting edge by observers. 

Charlotte has established herself as an expert within and beyond Tube Lines. She has contributed to work by government and business on climate change and sits on the Carbon Trust’s consultants’ accreditation panel. She is a member of the London Climate Change Partnership transport group and has contributed to CIRIA research.

Crucially, her environmentalism complements her business acumen, leading to her being named in 2007 by Management Today as one of Britain’s top women in industry under the age of 35 and helping her onto the shortlist for the 2007 Women of the Future awards.

Charlotte Simmonds said:

“It is a real honour to be recognised for my achievements by the Environment and Energy Awards judges.  I am really proud of what we have achieved at Tube Lines in just a few years of operation, and take great pleasure in driving forward environmental management in such a dynamic company.”

Terry Morgan, Chief Executive of Tube Lines said:

“Charlotte makes a strong contribution to improving the skills base, sustainability credentials and morale of the company. In view of prospective skills shortages in science and engineering, the success of young people like Charlotte can serve to attract people to careers in this vital industry.”

Charlotte believes that the construction and engineering sectors can offer excellent opportunities to keen environmentalists. Throughout her career, Charlotte has supported the industry through early participation in the Construction Industry Training Board (CiTB) Construction Ambassadors scheme, participation in National Construction Week, and more recently through mentoring Tube Lines' graduates and apprentices.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:
Press office, Tube Lines: 020 7088 4848 / 07843 551 589

Notes to Editors

1. For more information about the Environment and Energy  Awards  2008,  linked  with the Sustainability Live exhibition, visit http://www.sustainabilitylive.com/slive08/common/awards/index.html.

2. Charlotte Simmonds’ achievements include:

   - Becoming a Construction Industry Training Board (CiTB) Young Ambassador for the Industry in 2002

   - Winning 14 Considerate Constructors Awards for Gleeson projects 2001-2004

   - Representing Gleeson on the Major Contractors Group Environmental Committee 2002-2004

   - Achieving a position on the FTSE4Good Index with Gleeson in 2003

   - Participating in the London Climate Change Partnership Transport Group and contributing to the Impacts of Climate Change on London's Transport Systems report published in September 2005

   - Working with Tube Lines to install the largest green roof of its type in London at the Northern line control centre in August 2006

   - Helping Tube Lines win the Communicators in Business Corporate Social Responsibility Award for 'Go Green' communications and report in November 2006

   - Inspiring and enabling colleagues to introduce a recycling programme on trains and in stations which now diverts over nine tonnes of newspapers a day from landfill.  The money saved is fed back into the company’s community support fund providing supplementary funds for employees supporting charities and community groups

   - Supporting a ‘Zero Waste to Landfill’ project which was the first of its kind on the Underground and saw Tube Lines reuse or recycle 99% of waste from an embankment restoration project

   - Helped Tube Lines achieve a 44% reduction in paper consumption in 2007, against a target of 15%

3. Tube Lines is responsible for the maintenance and upgrade of the infrastructure on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. London Underground is responsible for operating the Underground, for employing drivers and station staff, for ticketing and fares, and for the Tube’s safety regime.
4. The Tube Lines consortium consists of two shareholders – Amey and Bechtel. They bring together some of the most experienced providers of business services with specialist skills in the rail industry, including track and signal renewals, plus project and operational management. They are providing some of the best project and operational managers from around the world to work on the modernisation of the Tube system. Amey owns two-thirds of Tube Lines’ business and Bechtel one third.

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