Environmental management

We adhere to strict environmental management practices, ensuring compliance with regulations and striving for continuous improvement in our environmental performance. We recognize the importance of reducing our environmental impact and are actively engaged in efficient resource utilization, waste reduction, and sustainable operations to support the well-being of our planet.

Environmental policy

Our Group Environment Policy governs our approach to the environment and is applicable to all FirstGroup operations. In addition, our various divisions also have their own environmental policies that are bespoke to their operations and we have introduced environmental commitments into other policies such as our Code of Ethics and Supplier Code of Conduct that outline our expectations for employees and suppliers respectively, with both groups required to sign annual attestations.

Group Environment Policy

Environmental management systems

We have implemented a robust Environmental Management System (EMS) that guides our actions from the early planning stages to ongoing monitoring. Our EMS enables us to assess a wide range of environmental matters associated with our business, including biodiversity, energy, carbon, water, waste, circular economy, supply chain and community engagement

We operate in accordance with ISO 14001 environmental management systems across nearly all of our First Rail and First Bus operations. Across the Group certain divisions also have ISO 50001 for energy management, ISO 20400 for sustainable procurement, ISO 55000 for asset management and ISO 45001 to create a fully integrated Health, Safety and Environment management system to reduce duplication and increase efficiency and risk mitigation. These internationally recognised standards ensure that we systematically address environmental concerns and continuously improve our practices.

Environmental management teams

Throughout our business we have sustainability, community and decarbonisation teams that are responsible for environmental and social sustainability. Within those teams are dedicated individuals who are trained to own and manage our environmental management systems, environmental reporting, and carbon reduction and other environmental projects. These teams utilise their expertise to work with wider stakeholders throughout the business to implement operational improvements and changes and will report progress to the respective boards and directors.

Green Champions

It's one thing to talk about how much we’re committed to staying as green as possible. But real change comes about from passionate, committed people. That’s why we have Green Champions across our networks, who work with our local teams to find new and innovative ways to improve our impact on the environment, and make sure we remain a sustainable business.

Environmental training

We believe that empowering our employees with the knowledge and skills to act responsibly is key to our success and is a key aspect of our environmental policies, ISO certifications and Code of Conduct which all employees must attest and sign annually. That’s why we’ve developed a comprehensive environmental training program that is designed to be role-specific, ensuring that each member of our team understands the environmental impact of their work and how they can contribute to our collective environmental goals.

Our training modules are regularly updated to reflect the latest environmental regulations and best practices, for example this year we will release a new environmental reporting module. We also encourage our employees to seek out additional learning opportunities to further their understanding and expertise in environmental matters.

Energy efficiency

Across our networks we have introduced various initiatives to reduce our energy consumption, costs and emissions. These include:

·       Energy sub-metering at stations and depots to monitor energy use

·       Building management systems (BMS) to monitor, measure and control energy use

·       Energy efficient vehicle washers

·       Low energy lighting and LED's

·       Solar panels on depot roofs

·       Use of internet of things technology for heating system optimisation

Waste management

Our divisions have set comprehensive waste management targets that are bespoke to their operations such as SWR’s targets of recycling or composting 85% of waste by 2025, maintaining that 100% of operational waste is diverted from landfill, and that by 2026 100% of materials used through contractual partnerships will meet the circular procurement standard.

Several of our operations, such as Avanti, are aspiring to go one step further and using an enterprising lifecycle approach to turn what in normally considered ‘waste’ into a resource which can benefit our environmental, social, and economic impact.

To achieve these targets we have introduced various waste reduction, circular economy and recycling initiatives including:

·       Avanti's smart temperature monitoring systems to reduce food waste

·       First Bus working with its supply chain to increase take-back opportunities and reduced packaging

·       Hull Trains raising awareness amongst passengers with recycled art installations

·       Lumo offering 100% recyclable cartons of water to reduce single use plastic bottles on services

·       SWR raising money for charity by recycling disused station ramps

Water usage

Across FirstGroup, we use water for vehicle washing and cleaning, sanitation and drinking water supply. Our divisions have announced their own water reduction targets and commitments based on their operations such as Avanti’s goal of reducing water usage by at least 20%. To achieve these targets, we have taken various proactive measures to improve our water management including:

·       Using grey water for toilet flushing on trains

·       Installing rainwater harvesting systems at stations

·       Installing automatic meter readings for monitoring

·       Proactive leak rectification programmes

·       Increasing the availability of water refill points at stations to reduce wasted water and single use plastic bottles 

·       Reducing the amount of water used in carriage washers

·       Harvesting rainwater and upgrading drainage systems at UK bus depots

Noise

Whilst noise is not a significant issue across most of our operations it can have an impact on our customers, our colleagues and our communities. We work in consultation with various stakeholders across our networks to monitor, manage and reduce noise pollution. Across our divisions bespoke noise reduction strategies have been introduced to take a proportional approach to managing noise and proactively avoid any issues from escalating. To achieve these strategies, certain divisions are working on actions including:

·       Publishing internal noise policies where applicable

·       Monitoring implementation of idling policies

·       Reviewing governance around noise management

·       Defining budgets for noise management

·       Maintaining policies and practices for noise-related complaints

·       Regularly monitoring noise and identifying high risk areas, such as dense urban areas, and finding appropriate mitigations

When procuring and introducing new vehicles we consider their noise impacts and seek to ensure that they are compliant with noise reduction specifications such as the National Technical Specification Notice: Rolling Stock. An example of this can be seen with the introduction of class 805 and 807 trains at Avanti from 2023 which are fully compliant and significantly reduce noise.

Carbon calculators

Our trains and buses are some of the greenest ways to travel. We are proactively helping our customers understand the impact of their journeys using carbon calculators to compare journeys with driving and flying or emissions avoidance studies.

Biodiversity

We’re in a global biodiversity crisis. It’s happening quickly and it’s happening now, alongside the climate emergency. Biodiversity in the UK is one of lowest levels in Europe, with a 13% loss of wildlife here since the 1970s. But just a few changes can help make a difference.

Championing nature eases climate disruption, helping us to adapt by providing natural flood protection and sources of food, water and shade to the many species in our region. FirstGroup are committed to reducing our impact on the environment, including for biodiversity and deforestation. We are committed to working with our divisions and other industry partners to protect, monitor and enhance biodiversity across our networks.

We are working to enhance biodiversity on our networks by working with local partners by:

·       Setting informed targets in our divisions such as SWR's commitment to become biodiversity net positive by 2030

·       Encouraging nature in stations and deports with biodiversity action and improvement plans

·       Utilising railway station adopter networks to enhance stations and community gardens

·       Providing charitable donations, funding and investments such as CCIF

·       Working with third party stakeholders and infrastructure providers to create wildlife corridors

Green buildings

Green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact on carbon emissions and the environment, whilst creating a healthier, more productive workplace. Across our operations we use a selection of buildings that achieve high sustainability standards, for example, our London head office at Paddington has achieved a ‘Very Good’ rating with BREEM due to its innovative and sustainable design and systems.

Eco-design products

We are committed to integrating eco-design principles into our products and services, ensuring that sustainability is at the core of our business operations. Innovative eco-design examples include:

·       GWR running an innovative fast-charge battery train trial that aims to one day eliminate the use of diesel trains

·       First Bus introducing fleets of electric buses and fully electric depots that include trialling the conversion of former diesel buses into fully electric equivalents encouraging circular economy design

·       Working with partners to procure innovative products for example Lumo who have introduced bespoke 100% recyclable cartons on their lines, eliminating single use plastic bottles

Discover other ways we are reducing our environmental impact

Avanti West Coast

First Bus

Great Western Railway

Hull Trains

Lumo

South Western Railway