Just one in 28 British bus and rail providers made the cut for 2025, exposing major shortcomings in current services.
The S&P Sustainability Yearbook involves a Corporate Sustainability Assessment on more than 7,600 companies across 60 industries in the UK. To make the final rollcall, firms need a S&P Global Sustainability Score which is within 30% of their sector’s top-performing business, and in the top 15% of their overall industry group.
FirstGroup made the cut thanks to significant progress on reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across road and rail services. Decarbonising buses and setting a service-wide zero emissions target of 2035 were major factors, with 15% of the fleet now emission free and three fully electrified depots in England now in operation and another five in development.
Companies including Avanti, SWR, GWR, Hull Trains and Lumo are all part of FirstGroup, which was also commended for improving Diversity, Equality and Inclusion in its workforce. Opportunities for career development were also considered a positive within the analysis of Environment, Social and Governance initiatives. Last April, the transport giant pledged to double its number of women employees, while setting sights on becoming Britain’s largest national bus operator and a real Living Wage Employer.
‘FirstGroup is committed to achieving the very highest sustainability standards that are set out in leading benchmarks such as the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment,’ said Graham Sutherland, FirstGroup Chief Executive Office. ‘As a leading private sector provider of public transport, we are playing a key role in creating a cleaner, greener and more sustainable future and we’re pleased that our activities and plans are recognised in this year’s S&P Yearbook for the third year running.’
Image: Bence Balla-Schottner / Unsplash
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