Tube lines publishes its third annual environment report

Tube Lines, the company rebuilding the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines which together carry 40 per cent of all London Underground passengers, has published its third annual environment report.
The company reports on environmental performance throughout the year, but uses the report to highlight progress made in 2006 in several areas, including the completion of the largest green roof of its kind in London, environmental efficiencies achieved through new innovations and equipment, successful recycling of millions of newspapers left on trains and stations and a significant reduction in energy use at is head office in Canary Wharf.
In 2006, Tube Lines set itself four challenging business objectives to minimise the environmental impacts of its operations: paper usage at its head office in Canary Wharf was reduced by 24 per cent - 14 per cent better than its target and energy consumption was reduced by three per cent. Together, the paper and energy achievements helped Tube Lines achieve a reduction of its carbon dioxide emissions of 126 tonnes. The company also reduced the number of environmental incidents by 12 per cent, and reduced the rate of noise complaints by 17 per cent.
London’s largest single membrane green roof – the first on a railway building – was installed by Tube Lines in 2006. The green roof tops the new control centre for the Northern line which will house the state-of-the-art signalling equipment for the line upgrade in 2011. Because the site backed on to protected woodlands the building needed to be as unobtrusive as possible. The roof was planted with various species of sedum selected for their drought resistance, interspersed with indigenous cuttings from local woods to promote local colonisation.
It is bedding in so well that Tube Lines will be installing one on its latest development – the new accommodation building for London Underground employees based at Stratford.
Paper recycling went from strength to strength in 2006 with a 64 per cent increase. This increase was due to a combination of an expansion in the number of sites involved in recycling and the introduction of free afternoon papers. The amount of waste paper collected on the underground has doubled from two and half tonnes to five tonnes a day and sometimes over seven. Tube Lines has re-doubled its efforts to cope with this extra rubbish to keep the underground litter free.
Nearly £25,000 was raised from the sale of waste paper which Tube Lines is channelling back into the community through its Community Support Fund. The programme uses the money raised through its recycling initiatives to support its employees who are actively involved in, and support charities and community initiatives that are important to them. Employees supported by this programme included one who sky dived to raise money for the premature baby charity BLISS, and another who ran the London Marathon to raise funds for a local hospice.
Commenting on the progress made in 2006 Charlotte Simmonds, Tube Lines Environment Manager said:
“Since we launched our Go Green environmental programme across the business in 2005 our environmental performance has gone from strength to strength. What I am most inspired by is the engagement of our employees who have come up with a wealth of innovative and practical solutions to help the business reduce its environmental impact.
“As an organisation we are focused on combating climate change by reducing our carbon footprint so this will be very much at the heart of our business going forward. “
Looking forward Tube Lines is preparing for the future by calculating its carbon footprint and the impact of climate change. The company has set itself three key business objectives for 2007 to reduce energy use at its head office and outlying buildings by a further two percent; to reduce paper use by a further 15 per cent and to reduce fuel consumption of its commercial road fleet by five percent. The business is committed to combating climate change and has requested companies tendering for the new Piccadilly line rolling stock to include their vision for energy efficiencies and environmental innovation including regenerative braking.
Go to www.tubelines.com/environmentreport to find out more about how Tube Lines is going green. The report is web based to reduce paper waste and the design of the report is in html so it is easy to navigate and accessible to all.