5. In action

In his opening address, Lord Deben told the Carbon Crunch audience that climate change is challenging us to act now and not to wait for the perfect solution. Many businesses are already taking industry-leading action to decarbonise and adapt to climate change and it is critical that best practice is shared and built upon. We heard from two organisations about the projects and initiatives they are putting in place to deliver on decarbonisation and resilience.

Railways

Train operating company South Western Railway has calculated that weather-related impacts are the cause of 9% of delays and 50% of cancellations on its network so improving climate resilience will result in providing a better service for its customers. The organisation is working to improve biodiversity, which is also contributing to improving resilience and decarbonisation.

“Our future sustainability strategy consists of three pillars – planet, places and people,” explained South Western Railway senior sustainability manager Jessica van Staden. “Under the planet pillar, we have made a commitment to become biodiversity net positive by 2030 and have signed the Nature Positive Business Pledge.”

South Western Railway’s Jessica van Staden outlined how the train operator is improving climate resilience 

According to Jessica, the Wessex rail network provides a huge opportunity to improve biodiversity through the decarbonisation route map the organisation has developed. She added: “The network runs through a number of protected wildlife sites. It is home to a wide range of animals and plant species which we hope to protect and help flourish.”

Over the next 18 months, Jessica’s team will produce biodiversity action plans for 50 locations on South Western Railway’s network, which covers 200 stations. The firm is also creating wildlife corridors and community gardens, in partnership with Network Rail.

As part of signing the Nature Positive Business Pledge, South Western Railway has also committed to mapping biodiversity on its 2,000km rail network to assess its impact on nature through business activities using 2020 as a baseline year.

Water

“As infrastructure operators – and especially as a water operator – we are all already on the front foot of responding to climate change and are feeling it, whether there’s a dry summer or whether we are dealing with extreme rainfall,” said United Utilities head of long term strategy Gordon Rogers. “If we don’t achieve net zero across society, I struggle to see, based on the projections we have for the second half of this century, how we are going to maintain both affordable and resilient water and wastewater infrastructure.”

As one of the UK’s largest water companies, serving 7M domestic customers and 200,000 businesses in the north west of England, United Utilities understands the challenges ahead.

“We have put a lot of effort into building sustainability into our plans through to 2030 and expect to reach net zero in scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2050,” said Gordon.

In 2020, United Utilities made six pledges around its carbon net zero commitment and has already delivered on two, which were moving to 100% renewable electricity and setting its scope 3 Science Based Targets (SBTs). The others are meeting its scope 1 and 2 SBTs, moving to a 100% green fleet by 2028 and, by 2030, undertaking 1,000ha of peatland restoration and creating 550ha of woodland.

The range of net zero measures United Utilities is implementing were outlined by Gordon Rogers 

“We have made our most pressing priorities the areas where we know we can act both cost effectively and feasibly,” explains Gordon. However, he warned that major investment would be needed to achieve net zero by 2050 but that this could complement other priorities and deliver many wider benefits including financial efficiencies.