Norfolk Southern release 2022 ESG report

Credit: Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern Corporation has released its 15th annual Environmental, Social, and Governance report. The 2022 report highlights the company’s progress reducing its environmental impact, creating a culture of inclusion, investing in its people, strengthening governance practices, and helping customers achieve their sustainability goals.

“Norfolk Southern is a customer-centric, operations-driven company, which means helping our customers achieve their supply-chain emissions goals and reducing our own carbon footprint,” Alan Shaw, President and CEO of Norfolk Southern, said. “Our report highlights initiatives and technologies that are delivering the low-carbon economy, serving customers, and adding value for all our stakeholders.”

In its 2022 report, Norfolk Southern highlights the importance of partnerships in its sustainability strategy, with customers, industry partners, and other stakeholders.  Accomplishments this past year included:

• Creating an industry-leading carbon calculator for shippers, empowering companies to make better transportation decisions and reduce carbon emissions from their own supply chains
• Hosting an inaugural Sustainability Summit in partnership with Sustain SC, welcoming state leaders and more than 30 companies to Brosnan Forest, Norfolk Southern’s 14,400-acre ecological preserve in South Carolina
• Hosting a Chief Mechanical Officers meeting with leaders from every North American Class I railroad to share ideas, insights, and best practices to further improve rail industry efficiencies.

“Norfolk Southern is making strides to advance sustainability for both our customers and our planet, and we know it will take a collaborative effort to reach the environmental goals required to protect our planet for future generations,” Josh Raglin, Chief Sustainability Officer for Norfolk Southern, said. “The more companies work together across their supply chain, the quicker we can achieve measurable progress.”

Other milestones highlighted in the report included

• Delivering the low-carbon economy, making a 5 per cent improvement toward its science-based target of 42 per cent reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 2034 (since a 2019 base year)
• Applying new technologies, improving locomotive fuel efficiency by 7 per cent from 2019 and enabling Norfolk Southern to move one ton of freight over 460 miles on a single gallon of fuel
• Cultivating biodiversity, permanently protecting 1,105 acres of ecologically significant land in South Carolina, adding to nearly 14,000 acres already under protection, while restoring over six miles of streams and 500 acres of wetlands
• Developing a corporate DEI strategic plan, establishing a team dedicated to operationalising inclusion, and using nationwide benchmarking to further a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation
• Minimising waste in its supply chain, reclaiming over 1.6 million gallons of used oil and recycling 100 per cent of both used crossties and rail
• Advancing energy efficiency, increasing its total renewable energy usage in deregulated markets to approximately 26 per cent, or 12 per cent across its entire network.