01/05/2009

East Midlands Trains employee Ted Ingle has been named as the Stagecoach Group Green Champion after being selected as the staff member who has contributed the most to reducing the company’s carbon footprint.

Ted, Safety and Quality Manager at the East Midlands Trains Neville Hill Depot, was nominated by three colleagues for his commitment to environmental efficiency.

Ted’s most recent achievement was the introduction of a new disposal system for the waste that is removed when trains are cleaned. Waste gathered from East Midlands Trains services, along with other general waste at the depot, amounts to around 480 tonnes annually. The material includes newspapers, magazines, glass and plastic bottles, packaging and paper, and most of it is recyclable.

As a result of the new arrangement, 80% of all off-train waste at the Neville Hill Depot, Leeds, is now recycled. This has resulted in a saving of around £25,000 per year when compared to the depot’s previous waste disposal system.

Receiving his prize of a two night stay at a UK hotel, Ted said: “It’s very flattering to think that my colleagues nominated me as the Green Champion and to win is brilliant. I’ve always been interested in environmental issues and this project has been a great success so far.

“We used to send all the waste from the depot to landfill, at significant expense to both the company and the environment.

“By putting this scheme in place we’re not only helping to meet our franchise target to recycle 15% of waste across the whole of our company, we’re also making business cost savings at the same time.

The Green Champion Award was part of Stagecoach’s first ever Group-wide Green Week which ran from 20-24 April 2009. During Green Week, East Midlands Trains held a number of activities to raise awareness of environmental issues among customers and staff. These included green stations displays, giveaways, drop-in advice sessions with the Energy Saving Trust and top tips for staff on ways in which they can live greener lives both at work and at home. Green Week also saw the start of newspaper recycling collections on services into St Pancras International Station, in partnership with Network Rail.

East Midlands Trains’ Head of Environment, Matt Browne, added: “Ted is a worthy winner of the Stagecoach Green Champion title. He has been instrumental in putting a number of environmental initiatives in place at Neville Hill Depot and has a strong understanding of environmental issues. He put a huge amount of work into researching and implementing this waste recycling scheme. It is a great example of how we can make environmental improvements even in these challenging times and has also provided inspiration for other depots to follow.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

• A photo of Ted Ingle is available on request by emailing lindsay.reid@stagecoachgroup.com
• East Midlands Trains operate high speed long distance services from London St. Pancras to Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham and regional services between Nottingham and Derby – Lincoln – Cleethorpes – Skegness, and between Derby and Crewe - Matlock and Norwich and Liverpool.
• The franchise will run until 31 March 2015, the last year and four months of which will be conditional upon achieving pre-set performance targets.
• Highlights of improvements include faster journey times from Sheffield and Leicester to London from 2008, better performance, more seats, train refurbishment, investment at Derby’s Etches Park train maintenance depot, a centralised information and security centre, more car parking spaces and two new stations – at East Midlands Parkway and Corby.
• Stagecoach Group is a leading international transport group, with extensive bus and rail operations in the UK and North America.

For further information contact:

Lindsay Reid
Corporate Communications Manager
Stagecoach Group
10 Dunkeld Road
Perth
PH1 5TW
Phone: 01738 442111
Fax: 01738 443076
Mobile: 07500 446896
email: lindsay.reid@stagecoachgroup.com