Reducing our Carbon Footprint

What is our footprint?

At a basic level a carbon footprint is a measure of those emissions considered to be responsible for climate change. This can be measured per person or per company, for example.

Northern Rail has become the first train operating company to measure its entire carbon footprint. This includes direct emissions from train operation plus indirect emissions associated with our suppliers. The results demonstrate that less than half of our carbon footprint is generated by train operation and they have provided a rich array of data showing the areas of the business producing most emissions. This information will enable us to focus on new CO2 reduction initiatives from both energy use and through the supply chain, and assist in setting targets and measuring progress. We believe we can reduce our direct carbon emissions from our energy use by 10% in 2010. We will continue to share our progress in this area to encourage customers and other stakeholders to do the same. We are pleased that as a result of this work the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) is looking at developing an industry-wide pilot project.

We worked with the Centre for Sustainable Accounting in York (www.censa.org.uk) can this be hyperlinked using a computer generated model (Bottomline3) to calculate our footprint for 2007 and 2008. The full report is available here. We will also be calculating it again using 2009 data. Our target is to see a 0.5% reduction in our total footprint.

"Northern Rail has undertaken one of the leading carbon footprinting initiatives in UK industry as a whole. Only a handful of companies in the country have tried to understand the carbon impact of their complete supply chain. Northern now knows that around half its carbon emissions are associated with its suppliers and where action to reduce emissions will have the biggest impact. Adjusting procurement policies and influencing suppliers could therefore have a significant impact on its carbon footprint."
John Barratt, Director, CenSA

"The work done by Northern Rail has inspired the Carbon Reduction Working Group, of the industry's Sustainable Rail Programme, to better understand what the rail industry's whole lifecycle carbon impact might be. We are currently looking at developing a similar approach (an industry whole life cycle carbon footprint). The project will enable the industry to better understand where it is best focus its effort to further reduce its direct and indirect carbon emissions whilst achieving value for money on investment."
Shamit Gaiger, Head of National Programmes, Industry Strategy, RSSB

Powering the trains

As the largest train operating company in the UK, you won't be surprised to read that we use a lot of fuel. 85% of our 290-strong fleet run on diesel. It's not the same quality as the diesel in cars but this will improve over the next few years. We use approximately 38million litres (8million gallons) of fuel every year. Older trains are not as fuel efficient as modern ones because it wasn't a priority 20 years ago when they were built.

Thankfully, times have changed. Over 2008/09 we have done a lot of work to reduce the amount of fuel used. Our fuel use in 2008 was reduced by 2.6% compared to 2007 even though our trains' mileage has increased by 4% (because we are operating more services and new routes, such as Nottingham-Leeds). We have achieved this reduction due to several projects, including:

• improved data collation
• improved maintenance to prevent leaks
• trialling fuel additives and filters
• reduced idling of engines when trains are standing still at stations
• looking at how drivers drive the train - can they reduce fuel consumption by driving differently?
• looking at which trains run where to see if this makes a difference.

The remaining 15% of our trains are more modern and run on electricity via overhead lines. We can't get an accurate figure for electricity used as the costs are split according to a set formula, depending on how many operators run on the same line. This is a proportional estimate and not exact the usage for each company.

All electric trains should have meters by 2012. Northern hopes to have some in place in advance of that date. Meters will help us to have an accurate measure of our own consumption. We are looking at the driving styles on these trains as well.

Success at Knaresborough

Some time ago one of the tenants at Knaresborough station complained that due to the trains being left to idle for an unnecessary length of time he was unable to grow flowers outside his shop. This story really affected those of us involved in trying to introduce more energy efficient driving across Northern. We have been focussing on the environmental and financial benefits of reducing the amount of fuel we burn, and were aware of the impacts of poor air quality on customers at stations, but here we had a case where the quality of the local environment was being affected, as was our relationship with the community.

Our ecodriving champion in the business, leading this initiative, included the story in his briefings to Driver Team Managers and now environmental issues are being rolled out in one-to-one driver briefings, starting in the East. The briefings are starting to have an effect, and we are seeing less idling in some areas. We still need to see more engagement with this and have all our drivers briefed and up to speed with what we are trying to do.

The good news is though that the tenant at Knaresborough has noticed that idling has decreased and he is now confident enough to plant his window boxes again.

Less is more

We use a lot of electricity and gas for lighting and heating in our offices, stations, and maintenance depots. We used approximately 48million kWh in 2008. To reduce it we need to get a better understanding of our consumption through increased meter readings. In some areas, especially at stations, readings have been estimated which means that we are not paying the right amount (too much or too little) and we do not know exactly what we have used. In some cases the meter identification is unknown and the location is inaccessible, making getting information a bit tricky.

We have started tackling this in two ways. The first involves better measurement through improved meter reading, installation of smart meters and developing a database that collates all readings across our network and converts them to carbon emissions.

The second is looking at all our premises and developing action plans where we can all do our bit. Very often the actions are simple changes; for example, switching lights off or turning heating down but we are also asking employees to look at smarter ways of working to help deliver environmental improvements.

We are planning to install smart meters at the majority of our sites during 2010. This will help us meet our commitments under the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC). This will enable at least 90% of our consumption to be accurately measured.

We have just completed work on our Environmental Management Tool, which enables us to store and process all consumption data from meters across the estate. We are able to identify anomalies and ensure the utilities company is provided with correct information. We can also look at individual stations and monitor trends, which help the local teams put plans in place to reduce usage.

As an example, a simple improvement helped our Neville Hill train maintenance depot at Leeds. The service sheds were dark and overhead lights were kept on all day. After the roof windows were cleaned, more natural light came in so the overhead lights could be turned off. Sensors have now been installed so the lights are automatically turned off during daylight hours when they are not needed. We are also going to install sensors in the Repairs Shed as well.

We have started a project at Harrogate to install energy efficient lighting in the station building that will be controlled by both light and motion sensors. This should be complete by end 2009 and is being part funded by Carbon Action Yorkshire. We believe that this scheme will lead to a 28% saving in energy over a year which equates to a saving of 3.5 tonnes of carbon. More such lighting schemes will be rolled out.

We know that many of our employees and customers are concerned about lighting levels at stations and sometimes report that lights are on unnecessarily. We have started a project this year to replace all the lighting timer switches across the estate with state-of-the art 7 day digital timers, plus installing photosensors. The timer switches are being programmed to accurately reflect the train service at each station. This project should be complete by end March 2010, and we have calculated that this could lead to savings of over 700 tonnes of carbon. It's worth pointing out that lights are supposed to stay on at stations until 30 minutes after the last train leaves. If they do not switch off after 30 minutes please report it to us and we'll get our maintenance company to look at it straight away.

Another project for 2010 is to achieve certification to ISO 16001 - Energy Management Standard. This is intended to provide a practical approach to increasing energy efficiency, improving environmental performance and reducing costs, by addressing both the technical and management aspects of rational energy use. We'll tell you more about our improvements when we've achieved them!