Greater Anglia gets green results two years running

Greater Anglia has announced it has cut its carbon emissions for a second year in a row.

According to figures from consultancy WSP, Greater Anglia reduced its overall Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions by 11% in the 2020/21 financial year. Approximately 11,512 equivalent tonnes of carbon dioxide had been prevented from being released into the atmosphere.

This is the equivalent of emissions produced by 1,386 homes’ annual electricity usage. It would, the train operator said, take 190,000 tree seedlings growing for 10 years to remove this much CO2 from the atmosphere.

This is in addition to an 11% reduction in 2019/20.

The recent reduction is in part thanks to the continued ‘greening’ of the National Grid which now uses more renewable sources to generate electricity, and this in turn powers Greater Anglia’s electric trains, depots and stations.

Fewer trains running also during the pandemic, which is also reflected by this number.

Stephanie Evans, Greater Anglia’s Environment & Energy Manager, said: “The programme to decarbonise the National Grid by using renewable energy sources has helped us to achieve this reduction in our emissions we’ve seen again this year.

“Overall, carbon emissions caused by running the trains accounts for around 93% of our total emissions, so small improvements in fleet energy efficiency or a move towards energy efficient driving can also really help us to reduce our overall emissions.

“Our new trains are designed to be more efficient and are built to higher emissions standards compared to our old ones which will help to make rail travel in East Anglia an even more environmentally friendly option.

“Understanding our environmental performance and impact will help us to become even more sustainable and help us to plan where we need to get to in the future as the industry works towards net zero.”

Greater Anglia is joining the rail industry’s ‘We Mean Green’ campaign which highlights:

• A single train removes up to 500 cars off our roads
• Every freight train removes on average 76 lorries from our roads
• Leaving your car at home and taking the train cuts carbon emissions by two thirds

Rail Delivery Group recently estimated that a 20% shift from rail to road would lead to an extra one million tonnes of CO2 emissions and 300 million hours stuck in traffic jams per year.

Image Credit: Greater Anglia

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