Monday 7 Jun 2010
TRIPLE BUSINESS AWARD SUCCESS FOR NETWORK RAIL
- Region & Route:
- National
Network Rail has won three top business awards recognising its work in improving and protecting Britain’s communities; developing skills of its workforce and in corporate responsibility.
The company has been awarded a gold band award from Business in the Community (BITC) as part of its 2009 Corporate Responsibility Index (CRI), the UK’s leading voluntary benchmark of corporate responsibility. Network Rail’s rating went up to gold from silver last year. The index score is calculated by assessing the company’s performance on a range of business activities including employee engagement and development; how it manages the environment in which it operates and works with communities, and its social impact on Britain. This score puts Network Rail on a par with companies such as Rolls Royce, Aviva plc and Northern Foods plc*.
Network Rail has also been re-awarded two Big Tick awards from BITC in the areas of Talent and Active Communities.
Iain Coucher, Network Rail chief executive said: “These awards are great recognition for all the hard work our people do to help keep Britain running. Improving the skills of our workforce, reducing crime on the railway or cutting the environmental and financial cost of running trains are all part of delivering a better railway for Britain.”
The Big Tick Talent award recognises the strength of Network Rail’s leadership and training programmes, including its apprenticeship scheme, which trains more than 200 young people each year in track, signalling and electrification and plant engineering. As well as training people joining the company, Network Rail is one of the largest investors in vocational training for its workforce, delivering 150,000 development training days each year.
The Active Communities award is recognition of the continued work Network Rail’s dedicated community safety team does to reduce railway crime, save lives and keep trains running. It has long worked with world boxing champion Amir Khan’s Gloves community gym and has built on this success and formed new partnerships with other local clubs including the Heart of Portsmouth Boxing Club and St Joseph’s community centre in Newport. Both have given young people in these areas the chance to be involved with positive activities and helped to steer them away from the dangers of taking risks on the railway. Big Ticks are the UK’s most influential, independent, peer assessed corporate responsibility awards
Commenting on the Big Tick awards, Stephen Howard, chief executive, Business in the Community said: “I congratulate Network Rail on achieving their reaccreditation. It has been a difficult 12 months for business, but this is a sign that companies are not losing their focus on making a positive impact on people and planet, and are prepared to lead by example. That’s what Business in the Community’s Awards for Excellence are all about – celebrating responsible business, the leadership that makes it happen, and the benefits to the business and society of doing so. Consumers need to see that businesses are proactive, visible and engaged on the big issues of the day, as Network Rail has demonstrated.”
Notes to editors
The CRI helps companies to integrate and improve corporate responsibility throughout their business operations, by providing a systematic approach to managing, measuring and reporting on business impacts in society and on the environment.
Achieving gold means that Network Rail is able to demonstrate openness and transparency through effective public reporting of its material environmental and social issues, programmes and performance. Gold companies also tend to expand and adapt their risk management processes by incorporating relevant aspects of corporate responsibility risk and opportunity. Their corporate responsibility strategy is articulated in an effective manner and includes clear and measurable targets.
Network Rail’s Index score of 92.5% is 6.5% above the average rating for companies measured by the Index.
*The full index is published in the Financial Times today and on the BITC website http://www.bitc.org.uk/integration_and_advice/cr_index/index.html
Awards for Excellence
Business in the Community’s Awards for Excellence identify and celebrate companies having a positive impact on the community, environment, marketplace and workplace.
The Big Tick winners demonstrate significant impact and high quality management of their responsible business practices and can show a positive impact both on society and on the business. Now in their 13th year, they are the UK’s leading awards for responsible business practice.
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About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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