Protecting the environment, supporting communities
We are totally determined to minimise our environmental impact and play an active role in the London community. Here’s a snapshot of some of our activities.
Environment
Compliance
Our wide-ranging environmental policy aims to ensure we comply with all UK and EU environmental legislation and other requirements. We are also involved in a whole raft of other initiatives to meet our objective:
Carbon footprint
We have set about calculating our carbon footprint with the help of the Carbon Trust. In 2007, a drive to reduce energy at our Canary Wharf HQ, the Stratford Training Centre and our Piccadilly line depots reduced consumption by 19 per cent. This, and our efforts to cut paper consumption, saw our CO2 emissions fall by 1,085 tonnes in 2007.
Noise and nuisance reduction
Our maintenance and construction work is carried out at night and we make every effort to ensure we do not cause undue disturbance to local residents.
Recycling
We collect newspapers that are left on trains and in stations and the amount we recycle increases year on year – for example 88 per cent between 2005-6 and 2006-7. Naturally, we are also very hot on recycling at our own offices and depots.
Sustainability
We are determined to increase the use of sustainable materials in our projects. In 2006, we installed London’s largest single membrane green roof – the first on a railway building – on the new £14m Northern line control centre.
Climate change
We have identified more than 200 threats and opportunities posed by climate change and are busy quantifying the effect that adverse weather has on our assets. By assessing this information using the UK Climate Impacts Programme we can estimate the future cost of climate change and the priorities that need to be addressed.
Community
Working with schools
Our Skills Training Centre in Stratford has strong links with the local community; for example, we’re working with Newham College of Further Education to design a foundation degree that can lead to a BEng (Hons) in railway signalling and control. We also invite young people to visit our sites and help careers teachers advise students about engineering opportunities. In the future, we will be entering into partnership with the London Engineering Project under which our graduates and apprentices will go into London schools to talk about engineering.
New London Orchestra
We are sponsoring a large-scale community music project, run by the Orchestra, to celebrate the changing nature of Newham – a key area for our business – from now until the 2012 Olympics.
Victim Support
As well as playing a key role in recovering the service after the 7/7 bombings, we donated £150,000 to the charity Victim Support. Our external affairs team acted as the press office for Victim Support London during the launch of a campaign to raise awareness of the support the organisation offers victims of gun crime and other serious offences.
London Transport Museum
We are the principal sponsor of the re-opened London Transport Museum, which takes visitors on a historical journey through the capital’s transport system before revealing a glimpse of transport in the future.
Railway Children
Railway Children is a charity that supports abandoned and runaway children around the world. We made a £2 donation to the charity for everyone who participated in our 2007 employee survey and a donation is also made every time the internet search facility on our intranet is activated.
More information on our corporate and social responsibility initiatives can be found at www.tubelines.com/community