Carbon Literacy at Network Rail – decarbonising our transport systems
Domestic transport accounts for 29% of UK emissions*. The majority of these emissions come from private car use. The rail industry therefore, has a huge opportunity to contribute to the country’s net zero targets, by encouraging people out of their cars and onto trains.
Network Rail has focused its sustainability strategy on four key areas. These are: ‘a railway fit for the future’, ‘a railway that cares for the environment’, ‘a railway that helps communities thrive’ and ‘a culture of sustainability’.
The work Speak Carbon is doing with Network Rail Eastern is supporting this strategy. Our Carbon Literacy sessions are enabling colleagues from departments across the region to access climate learning, discuss how the organisation’s sustainability strategy relates to their roles, and design ambitious actions to reduce emissions in line with the strategy’s four pillars.
Speak Carbon and Network Rail Eastern
In 2022, Kate Tomlinson was a student at the University of York studying Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Management.
Having attended Carbon Literacy training at the university, she went on to train as a Carbon Literacy facilitator with Speak Carbon on one of our first ever Training Professionals courses.
In 2024, Kate began work at Network Rail Eastern (NRE) as part of its graduate training scheme. While in the environment team, Kate developed a bespoke Carbon Literacy course. She then contacted Speak Carbon to support the delivery of some pilot cohorts.
The training
Speak Carbon’s Pete Watkins is leading on this project and started with delivering two pilot cohorts in York and Stratford in August and September 2024. Working with NRE’s project lead Abbie Wood, Pete has continued to deliver training to colleagues from across the Eastern region from hubs in York and London.
Pete had this to say about working with Network Rail Eastern:
“It is exciting to work with Network Rail, as an organisation with so much potential to tackle transport emissions – the primary source of carbon in the UK and difficult to decarbonise. Network Rail is working on decarbonising the railway with electrification and through supply chain engagement, but also has a key role to play in providing people with sustainable choices to travel around the country and beyond. The project is ambitious in scale but also understands each employee can play a part in building a railway fit for the future. It has been encouraging to see how much enthusiasm there is to take on the challenge with all the support from Abbie and the sustainability team along with all of our participants from across NR.”
At the time of writing, 177 participants have been trained across sixteen cohorts, with plans to continue delivering regular sessions throughout 2025 and 2026.
This training is open to all NRE colleagues and so far, participants have attended from a whole range of departments and teams including: energy & carbon managers, graduates, programme managers, senior engineers, and utilities specialists. This mix of experiences and perspectives in the room has created some really powerful discussions about the organisation’s role within the decarbonisation of the UK’s transport systems, and climate action more broadly.
Abbie Wood had this to say about working with Speak Carbon:
“From the outset, the focus has been on developing and delivering engaging sessions, that are relevant to the rail industry, to Network Rail and to Eastern Region. To date we have delivered sixteen courses and trained over 175 colleagues, which has sparked some really valuable conversations and ideas for action. Importantly this work is directly supporting two key themes from our Strategy: progressing towards Net Zero and building a Culture for Sustainability. We’re already seeing the ripple effect, with growing interest from various disciplines.”.
The results
The action pledges that have been developed through these sessions are some of the most ambitious we’ve seen so far.
Switching diesel powered hand tools to electric; electrifying more of the region’s rail networks; and reducing the need for new infrastructure through circular economy, are just some of the action ideas that have come out of our sessions so far. The latter of these was even showcased as our Pledge of the Year for 2024!
Alongside the pledges, the discussions participants have been having within the sessions have been transformational. One of the most important aspects of Carbon Literacy training is that it gives colleagues from across different teams the opportunity to discuss climate, share expertise and collaborate on actions in a way they rarely get to do otherwise. This is the feedback we get again and again.
Louise Cox, Head of Route Safety, Health & Environment, had this to say following her training: “Since completing the Carbon Literacy training, and as part of my follow-on commitment I have developed engaging sessions with my own team and with the Route leadership team. The training gave me access and insight to some great tools and resources such as videos on the carbon cycle and how to bring to life the impacts of climate change and emissions at a local level. I developed a sustainability quiz that got people understanding the concept of biodiversity net gain, carbon off-setting and the waste hierarchy alongside debating what makes up the carbon impact of tofu!”
What’s next?
Building on the success of the work we’re doing with NRE, we have also begun to work with teams from other regions and groups across Network Rail.
In February 2025, we trained all colleagues from the Northern Powerhouse team, and we are now rolling the training out to colleagues in the North West and Central region and Scotland as well.
The Scotland team have already done some really great engagement work with colleagues on climate, including this fantastic display of the country’s global average annual temperature increases as part of the #showyourstripes campaign.
Working with Network Rail has been a fascinating, enlightening and empowering experience for us so far. Decarbonising transport is one of the most meaningful things we can do in this country to tackle emissions, and we’re so excited to be part of it!
*UK emissions data taken from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6604460f91a320001a82b0fd/uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-provisional-figures-statistical-release-2023.pdf