The announcement comes as Tube Lines, the company responsible for the multi-billion pound upgrade of the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, released its latest figures for reducing its carbon footprint.  The total figure of carbon saved - 6,279 tonnes - is enough to fill Buckingham Palace 11 times over, and represents a 20% increase on the carbon savings made in 2008.

Steve Judd, Head of Environment at Tube Lines, said:

“This is another outstanding result. It isn’t always easy to do so well as a heavy engineering company but each year we’re finding new ways to limit our impact on the environment.

“It does of course take a lot of hard work and effort with everyone at Tube Lines playing their part.  But it simply makes good business sense as well – better management of our resources drives costs down and allows us to do our work for the travelling public more economically and efficiently,” he said. 

The improvement from 2008 to 2009 is significant.  A total of 1,002 tonnes of CO₂ was reduced and that is equivalent to one passenger travelling end to end on the Piccadilly line 243,194 times.

Reductions made in electricity usage at the company’s corporate offices and training centre accounted for 607 tonnes of CO₂, while a number of other innovations played their part in reducing Tube Lines’ carbon footprint.  These included:

• Introducing efficiencies to the escalator refurbishment programme – only parts that are faulty or life expired are replaced, resulting in fewer component parts being removed as waste (166 tonnes of CO₂ emissions saved at Heathrow, Bank and Swiss cottage stations alone).
• Using site recycled aggregate to fill gabion baskets - these are baskets used as retaining walls to prevent earth slippages on the side of the track.  These were previously filled with virgin quarried gabion stone.  (53 tonnes).
• Planting 200 trees in partnership with the Woodland Trust (194 tonnes).

Tube Lines’ commitment to be a low carbon company is set to continue throughout 2010.  The company has set a new ambitious target to reduce its footprint by a further 1,000 tonnes of CO₂.

In the past seven years, going green has become firmly embedded into Tube Lines’ corporate culture.  A key part of this has been Tube Lines’ innovation culture that challenges employees to consider improvements to the way work on the Tube is done.  Employees often suggest changes that help the business cut carbon emissions and reduce the impact on the environment, including:

• A rainwater harvester to make use of the water that falls on the top of the depot shed at Cockfosters depot to clean the Piccadilly line fleet, saving more than 617m³ of mains water annually
• Installing green roofs at the recently built Stratford Fleet House and the Northern Line Control Centre at Highgate. 
• Pioneering an environmentally friendly and cost effective weed killer (Tordon) to eradicate Japanese Knotweed (fallopia japonica spp) from the trackside embankment along the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines - the first UK railway company to do so.