Including Environmental Sustainability in Standards
Firstly however, let’s be clear about the breadth of what ‘sustainability’ covers. It isn’t just about greenhouse gas emissions or vegetation cover at the side of railway tracks. Sustainability within the Sustainable Rail Blueprint at RSSB covers 11 areas, seven related to impacts on the physical world (carbon, climate change adaptation, biodiversity, air quality, circular economy, noise, water); three related to the social world (social value, community integration, supply chain resilience and integration); and one with which the railway is long familiar – encouraging a modal shift to low carbon public transport.
This shows that ‘sustainability’ affects every aspect of the railway. As a result, several large projects are already underway to provide our members with the tools they need to increase the sustainability performance of their part of the railway. For instance, the Rail Social Value Tool enables users to monitor and measure the social impact of their projects and daily operations, and also to guide investment decisions. This online tool went live to early adopters in November 2021 and will be rolled out for all members in spring 2022.
Another key sustainability project underway at RSSB is the development of the Sustainable Rail Blueprint (SRB) which will inform the Whole Industry Strategic Plan (WISP). After an initial ‘skeleton’ followed by several ‘situation reports’, the SRS prototype is now being produced and will be launched, also in spring 2022. This will be relevant for two main types of work: strategy and planning, and technical leadership (on emissions, natural resources, economic and social impact).
What then of sustainability and standards? This may seem an unlikely mix, but it’s another very important way in which RSSB can help the industry embed sustainability. In many situations there simply aren’t any blueprints or hard-and-fast rules about how, for example, you reduce your carbon use, or increase social value. Conversely, standards provide a way to codify the techniques and approaches industry uses into a consistent form so that others don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. By adopting a rigorous, collaborative, non-discriminatory process, RSSB standards represent the industry-agreed way of doing things.
Currently, the standards team and the sustainability team are working together to prepare the way for standards to turn vision to reality for innovative technologies like battery and hydrogen-powered trains. These are still relatively new, and by setting standards through industry consensus, businesses can be confident and assured that they’re approaching the new technology efficiently and safely. All new standards are assessed for their impact on the environment, so even if their primary subject matter isn’t sustainability, the requirements should be aligned to the sustainable objectives. Working together in this way will enable the railway to continue to deliver its services while meeting the wide range of challenging sustainability targets.
