Our Vision is to be the world’s premier mass transit operator with services offering leading safety, reliability and environmental standards that customers trust and value.
This is Vision rooted in our Belief that driving modal shift to high quality mass transit is fundamental to a clean, green and prosperous future. Put another way, if National Express is to continue its success, we need to deliver on the aims of the ESG agenda. We set out overleaf how we focussed on the elements where we have the greatest impact.
Together, we believe our Purpose is to help lead modal shift by making mass transit an increasingly attractive option for all our customers, whether they are individuals, transport authorities, school boards or businesses. We seek to do this by earning our customers’ loyalty by providing safe, reliable and great value multi-modal services on clean and green vehicles.
In so doing, National Express becomes part of the solution to the growing challenges of climate change, clean air, congestion and inclusive growth. Customers, local authorities and investors say this is increasingly important to them. Good quality mass transit has clear advantages over the car in delivering on them. We have long held this view, which is why we have – for example – invested so heavily in Euro 6 buses and coaches already. Euro 6 buses and coaches are cleaner – on an absolute basis – than a Euro 6 diesel car for particulate emissions. This commitment is also why we have already moved to fully renewable electricity in the UK and Spain. So with a transition to electric vehicles, we will be both clean and green.
This is why we have set out a renewed leadership position through our Vision and Values. This is how we believe we will sustain our advantage in the coming years.
We build on strong foundations. As Dean’s report sets out, our strong track record of growth is underpinning our ability to invest for the future. Equally, our focus on this issue in recent years – from launching our first Vision and Values in 2011, through to our leadership in becoming the first UK transport group to be accredited as a Living Wage employer – is recognised by external rating agencies such as Sustainalytics, which rated us ‘low risk’ for ESG overall and in every sub-category. It noted that “the company is at low risk of experiencing material financial impacts from ESG factors, due to its strong management of material ESG issues”. Sustainalytics places the Group in the top percentile of the 320 transport companies and the 4th percentile of the more than 12,000 companies, it rates globally.
In 2015, the United Nations set a 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by Member States to provide a framework to tackle the most pressing challenges the world faces. In refreshing our Vision, Purpose and Values, we have assessed how we align to the SDGs, identifying five targets across three goals. The table below lists them and the associated Group metric.
| SDG Goal | Selected target | Group metric |
 |
3.6. By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents |
FWI / million miles |
 |
8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment 8.8: Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure |
FWI / million miles
Workplace Rights |
 |
11.2 By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, 11.6 By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita |
Passenger growth
CO2 / million |
