Railway holds sustainability week

The first ‘Sustainability Week’ took place on the South Western Railway network last week to showcase environmental success stories since the franchise started and promote plans for the future.

The SWR sustainability team has already introduced food and coffee recycling facilities at 15 stations, part of a target of achieving zero waste to landfill by 2020. In January 2018, SWR recycled 67% of its waste. A target has now been set to increase recycling rates by more than 80% over the next twelve months.

SWR celebrated Sustainability Week with a number of hands-on activities, including:

• Environmental and energy audits at Richmond, Basingstoke, Salisbury and Southampton stations

• Tidy-ups at Basingstoke and Isleworth stations to help improve the local environment

• Working with Community Rail Partnerships work to spruce up the gardens at Woolston’s disused rail signal box

Amelia Woodley, Head of Sustainability for South Western Railway, said: “I’m delighted with how our action-packed Sustainability Week went. It was great to get out and about the network to promote the positive work we’re doing and to encourage our staff and customers to get involved where possible.”