HS1 publish 2021/22 ESG Report

HS1 Ltd has published its ESG Report for 2021/22, which confirms the business is on track to deliver the ‘Green Gateway to Europe’. The report, entitled Delivering the Green Gateway to Europe, documents the progress that the HS1 team has made over the past year against the targets set out in its 2020 Sustainability Strategy, which boldly committed to carbon neutrality by 2030. It covers the six priority areas in-depth: transparency; climate change and adoption; energy management; resource use and waste impacts; biodiversity; and social value.

The highlights from the past year include:

• Implementing regenerative braking on rolling stock to reduce net energy consumption, which is expected to save 4,155 tonnes of CO2e every year on the domestic fleet
• Approval of our net zero plans by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)
• Delivering 736 hours of staff volunteering for local community projects.

2021/22 was also the year HS1 began work on delivering a modal shift of 4.9 million journeys from planes and cars to high-speed rail per year, for the good of our planet and economy. This started on the global stage when HS1 hosted a workshop at The World Climate Summit: The Investment COP at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP26) in November 2021. HS1 built on this success a few months later when hosting the Kent Rail ‘COP’ in Ashford in March 2022, where local stakeholders came together to discuss how they could achieve a modal shift in Kent specifically.

A key element to our 2021/22 ESG Report is the actions plans for 2022/23, which will involve a review of the Sustainability Strategy to make sure the goals remain relevant, as well as a plan to expand the strategy up to 2035.

“The achievements detailed in the 2021/22 ESG Report are testament to the hard work and commitment of the HS1 Ltd team and our partners,” Dyan Crowther, Chief Executive for HS1, said. “We know we still have lots to do to achieve our Green Gateway vision but there’s no doubt that we have the passion, resources and energy to get there.”