Environment & sustainability

Our environment commitment

At Great Northern, we are dedicated to a more sustainable future. We're implementing a variety of initiatives to reduce energy and water consumption, manage resources efficiently, and minimise waste. These actions help lower our environmental impact and support positive outcomes for local communities.

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.

We will go beyond the minimum required of us by following our 4 guiding principles with a commitment to:

By choosing to take the train instead of driving, you can significantly reduce carbon emissions. On average:

• A train journey produces nearly 5 times fewer emissions than driving a car *
• Switching from car to train could save enough carbon to power your phone for up to 8 years **
• Choosing the train over a car is like saving the carbon emissions from boiling a kettle 455 times **

^{* a person travelling in an average car produces 0.167kg CO2e per km (based on the average emissions of all cars on the road of various car types and engines including diesel, petrol and electric), while National Rail trains on average produce 0.035kg CO2e per passenger per km. This means the average car is 4.7 times (nearly 5 times) more polluting}

^{**The average train journey is 37.3km, emitting 1.32kg CO2e per journey. Making this journey by the average car emits 4.14kg CO2e per passenger per km (based on all cars on the road of various car types and engines including diesel, petrol and electric). This saves 2.82kg CO2e which is equivalent to the emissions in the energy needed to power your phone for eight years or to boiling 455 cups of water in a kettle.}