Our commitment to a sustainable future
As a company, we are committed to taking environment and energy concerns into account in all our decisions. As we work towards minimising the environmental impact of our business, we’re guided by our Environment and Energy Policy:
Our commitment hasn’t gone unnoticed – our efforts continue to earn us recognition for the improvements we are making.
- Recommendation for Certification to ISO14001, the international standard for environmental management
- Recommendation for Certification to ISO 50001, the international standard for energy management
- Environment Award for our groundbreaking ‘Towards a One Planet Railway’ Strategy at the Rail Industry Innovation Awards 2016
- A member of our team was highly commended for Outstanding Personal Contribution at the National Rail Awards 2016
Setting high standards
Our initiatives to reduce environmental impact, alongside our commitment to improve rail sustainability, align with the One Planet principles making Great Northern very well positioned to become a One Planet Train Operating Company.
The One Planet principles we follow – developed by BioRegional and adapted slightly to better suit our operations – are shown here:
We don’t expect to achieve all of these principles within our franchise term: for example, Zero Carbon is a significant challenge. But the aim of the scheme is to be inspired by long term aspirations and to make clear progress towards these ultimate goals.
If you have any suggestions for how we can further reduce our environmental impacts, email the Environment Team.
Recent achievements
Here are just a few examples of the kind of work that we’ve been doing to meet our environmental goals.
Great Northern has trained an enthusiastic team of employees to be Environmental Champions across our network. These Champions are our eyes and ears on the ground, looking and listening for any environmental issues and communicating good practice to their colleagues. 
Great Northern Railway is now fully certified to the most recent version of ISO14001, released in 2015. We are seeking to manage our environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner that contributes to the environmental pillar of sustainability.
Great Northern Railway is fully certified to ISO50001 for our Energy Management System.