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Corporate Responsibility
FAQs
A selection of frequently asked questions are listed below. If you have additional questions for us please email us at: info@nationalexpress.com and we will aim to provide an answer for you. Any frequent questions will be added to this page.
- Why have you changed the way you report on Corporate Responsibility?
- What will you report on in the future?
- What do you mean by More is Less?
- Do you see climate change as posing potential risks and/or opportunities to your company?
- What is your stance on biofuels?
- Why don’t you use other alternative fuels?
- What is your position on ‘green tariff’ electricity?
- Have you begun to measure the quantity of emissions generated by your supply chain?
- What are you doing in the ‘Together’ Campaign?
- Why don’t you have a visible community policy?
Why have you changed the way you report on Corporate Responsibility?
We believe the time of just talking about sustainability is over. National Express is taking the issue seriously, and we decided that a CR Report is not an effective means of communications. Instead we will provide information on our non-financial performance on our website and we aim to update this more frequently.
What will you report on in the future?
We will look at producing reports on specific issues that are of interest to our stakeholders - so please let us know your thoughts and suggestions by emailing info@nationalexpress.com or filling out our feedback form.
What do you mean by More is Less?
There are huge net benefits in terms of environment and general quality of life through people using public transport instead of the car or plane. Modal shift is absolutely critical if we are to substantially reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from transport. Consequently the more we can encourage modal shift from car and plane to public transport the less emissions and impacts will be overall from transport. In the short term at least we will a growth in our total emissions as we increase our operations.
Do you see climate change as posing potential risks and/or opportunities to your company?
Nearly five years ago National Express Group worked with the Carbon Trust on developing a comprehensive climate change strategy. The elements of this strategy are:
- Mitigation measures – steps we can take to reduce energy use of our fleet and site operations
- Adaptation measures – responding to changes in both the regulatory regime and the weather.
Overall we believe that growing concern amongst the public and Governmental about climate change is a great opportunity for us to grow our operations. There are some risks from adverse weather but we have undertaken detailed climate change risk appraisals which help to understand the mitigation measures and for rail, the most susceptible part of operation, we are protected from damage to the infrastructure through the contract we have in place with Network Rail.
What is your stance on biofuels?
We took the decision in 2007 to suspend our bus biofuels trial due to our concern of whether the benefits outweighed the risk to the sustainability of food crop sources. This followed an internal review of the benefits of biofuels, and in addition we worked in consultation with a number of environmental organisations including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and the Climate Group who also raised a number of issues associated with the use of first generation biofuels.
Moving forward, we will continue to look at the options for biodiesel. We will work with our supply chain to ensure that there will be proven technology available which we can use for second generation biofuels when these are available in a few years’ time.
Why don’t you use other alternative fuels?
The future technology which has the greatest potential to deliver reduced fuel consumption and exhaust emissions is hybrid technology. We are currently working with TfL on a trail of five hybrid buses in London. We don’t expect these to be commercially competitive before 2012. In the past we have run fleets of compressed natural gas buses and still run some liquified petroleum gas buses but we believe conventional diesel engines are now preferable and at this stage have no further plans to buy any of these vehicles.
What is your position on ‘green tariff’ electricity?
We are committed to minimising our own impact on the climate and our unprecedented move to green electricity is part of our strategy to make National Express group a low carbon business.
We took the lead in the transport industry by signing up for an electricity tariff that was purely from sustainable sources. The electricity is used across our 300 sites, including stations, maintenance facilities and offices. It will also provide electricity for the Midland Metro in the West Midlands, resulting in the line becoming the first light rail system in the UK to be effectively emission free.
Have you begun to measure the quantity of emissions generated by your supply chain?
The information provided on our greenhouse gas emissions includes those emissions arising from our National Express coaching operation which is a franchise operation. The emissions that arise from the generation of electricity used by our electric trains are the responsibility of Network Rail.
What are you doing in the ‘Together’ Campaign?
National Express is a founding partner of ‘Together’, which is working with some of the UK’s best known brands to make it easier for consumers to take simple steps towards leading low carbon lifestyles.
‘We’re in it Together’ is an exciting partnership with other large companies such as B&Q, Tesco and Barclaycard, and NGO’s such as the Climate Trust. The aim is to help every household in the UK to save a tonne of Carbon Dioxide. We launched our first promotion at the Live Earth concert at Wembley stadium in the summer of 2007 and have other initiatives planned for 2008.
Why don’t you have a visible community policy?
Our operations sit at the very heart of the communities that they serve. We are conscious that for some people we are their life line as they have no other means of getting around. The important thing therefore is that we provide a great service that people can rely on. In addition to this we support a series of initiatives relevant to our people and their business areas.
