News

Our shrinking carbon footprint

Operating in the railway business, Pandrol already contributes to the most environmentally-friendly mode of transport in the world. But increasingly, this is not enough. Along with our customers, we are coming under growing pressure to reduce our carbon footprint both for the good of the planet and to gain competitive advantage.

The CO2 emission figures for Pandrol show a significant decrease between 2018 and 2020, mainly due to more than 50% of our sites now being supplied electricity from renewable sources. This is only going to improve, as we have more sites to follow in the future.

Much of the decrease in our carbon footprint is reduced electricity consumption at our Intercast & Forge iron casting foundry in Australia, which has switched to renewable sources. Today, it sources more than 50% of its electricity from solar grid and wind energy.

The foundry is a heavy user of electricity and back in 2016 developed an expert system in-house to regulate energy consumption. This proved so successful that the Australian Government used it in its efforts to reduce power consumption during peak times and Intercast & Forge received a national award for its contribution to the environment.

In 2020, the foundry used 86% recycled raw materials (49% scrap metal from automotive recycling centres and  37% from its own scrap iron). The site recovers over 61% of its waste. The iron waste is reused in production and sand left over from the casting process is spread in sandy soils, helping to improve the crop yield on agricultural land.