Environmental Management At Our Sites
In North America the management of environmental issues is strongly influenced by a legislative culture requiring permits for many environmental applications. These permits require renewal and periodic update. Much effort is required to ensure they are current and updated across all locations.
Our consultancy partner, Strata, manages compliance issues across all our sites. Strata ensures that permits are kept current and their requirements met. Strata's remit includes training and periodically testing employees on their compliance knowledge. Copies of all permits are held in a central environmental database along with copies of incident and audit reports.
The spill response procedure requires central reporting of all incidents and spills. This year we have had a small number of minor spills. A root cause analysis is undertaken for each spill and lessons learnt are shared during safety meetings. Although some spills required agency notification under State regulations, none have led to prosecution.
Utilities Usage
In North America the monitoring of utilities is complicated by the fact that we own very few properties and the properties we use are linked to our contracts. The majority of our properties are leased and we pay a standard fee within the overall lease agreement for utilities usage. As a starting point we have therefore focused on monitoring usage at the small number of depots we own and control.
For water usage we have two years' data. This has shown a slight increase in overall usage but a reduction in usage per bus of 4 metres cubed per year. We are still working to improve the reliability of our energy data which includes electricity and gas usage at each depot.
We also work in partnership with a number of our customers on their environmental initiatives. A good example is our work with the City of Arlington which has been seeking environmental performance improvements in their programmes throughout the city. First Vehicles Services hold their fleet maintenance contract. They have worked with the City to implement a number of initiatives to improve environmental performance:
- Introduction of low emission vehicles including hybrid vehicles and ultra low-sulphur diesel.
- Development of an extensive waste recycling programme including paper, scrap metals, batteries, tyres, waste oil and antifreeze.
- Retrofitting police cars with LED emergency lighting which extends the battery and alternator life.