Environmental protection
Russian Railways has drafted and is implementing an Environmental Responsibility Programme, approved a Concept for Environmental Protection Activities and an Environmental Protection Policy and has set strategic benchmarks for reducing the energy intensity of services and the negative environmental impact.
Railway transportation is recognised as one of the most environmentally friendly modes of transportation. The energy efficiency of railway transportation is two to three times higher than that of road transportation, both in terms of freight and passenger transportation. The Russian Railways Group’s share of environmental pollution in Russia is less than 1%. Nevertheless, Company management believes it is essential to take active part in the goal of minimising the negative environmental impact.
The Company’s programmes aim to create a ‘green’ economy based on energy conservation, the introduction of environmentally friendly technologies, renewable and alternative energy sources and integrated solutions for utilising waste in the production process.
Russian Railways systematically conducts work to:
- eliminate pollution and facilities with accumulated environmental damage related to railway transportation activities;
- transition to environmentally friendly types of products;
- organise work to improve legislation in environmental protection.
The Company declared 2015 the Year of Waste Management. As part of this campaign, a wide range of diverse activities was carried out to draw the attention of the government, the public as well as the Company’s employees and customers to environmental problems.
Total spending by the Company on environmental protection measures in 2015 exceeded RUB 3.2 bln, including RUB 816 mln in investments.
The following measures were carried out in 2015:
- design and estimate documentation was prepared for 16 titles;
- construction and installation work was performed at ten facilities with construction completed at seven of them;
- seven environmental protection facilities were put into operation, 51 units of testing and measuring equipment were purchased for 20 laboratories and five vehicle-based mobile environmental laboratories were supplied along with one environmental track test car.
Pollutant emissions from stationary sources decreased by 5,700 tonnes, or 7%, in 2015.
Water consumption fell by 3.7 mln m3 (3.7%) in 2015 to 94.3 mln m3.
The discharge of contaminated wastewater to the environment decreased by 2.2 mln m3 (20%) to 8.9 mln m3 last year.
Russian Railways structural divisions generated 2.166 mln tonnes of production and consumption waste in 2015 with 44% of that amount utilised and decontaminated by the Company’s divisions. In addition, 54% of the generated waste is given to third-party organisations with 40% transferred under consumption agreements and 60% under revenue agreements.
The Company’s structural divisions recycled 1,750 tonnes of paper, glass and plastic waste in 2015 as part of a separated waste collection project, producing an economic effect of RUB 4.6 mln.
