What is the Rail Sustainability Index?
The Rail Sustainability Index (RSi) is a rating system and online tool designed for and with the global rail community, demonstrating railway’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The selection of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) provides UIC members with a standardised framework allowing for benchmarking and sharing best practices. The index has been designed to help members develop their reporting capability and access sustainable financial tools.
Therefore, the UIC Sustainability Unit is delighted to announce that the first Rail Sustainability Index scores were released on 7 December 2022.
Released in time for UIC’s 102nd General Assembly, the Rail Sustainability Index score is the result of the successful collection of data starting from May 2022. Thirty-five UIC members have reported their quantitative and qualitative sustainability data in the tool, a remarkably high participation rate for a first cycle.
Isabelle De Keyzer, the tool’s project manager within the UIC Sustainability Unit said “I’m so impressed at how enthusiastically UIC members started using the tool, giving evidence so that the index can be a meaningful instrument to demonstrate how sustainable rail transport really is.”
Lucie Anderton, Head of Sustainability, added, “it’s interesting to see our strengths in climate action and clean energy clearly being shown , that is certainly our biggest contribution and where we have the most mature data. I’m looking forward to seeing improvement in future years in both gender equality and resource efficiency, and UIC will be working to support members on these topics.”
The individual company dashboard is now available
The companies who submitted data can now view their benchmarked scores by logging onto the tool at https://rsindex.uic.org.
The dashboard shows each participating member the score achieved at company level and at sector level for each SDG. The individual company score is based on data that has been entered by the company in the tool with a third-party data checking process taking place, leading to some datasets being amended and resubmitted in agreement the company representatives. The resulting company dashboard and scores are confidential, and their disclosure is left at the discretion of each individual company.
The 2022 sector score: the result of a collaborative effort
The sector score is based on the average scores achieved by all companies which reported their data in the tool, meaning that it is the result of a collaborative effort. With this year’s score being released, UIC member companies will continue their effort to report sustainability data and more members are also expected to register and upload information to the tool.
This year’s cycle was a live test
As the tool is still in its infancy, this year was a “live” test of the tool. Therefore, UIC has committed to collecting feedback on the user’s experience with the Rail Sustainability Index tool in order to improve scoring and further improve the experience for UIC members and other future users of the tool.
Join the Rail Sustainability Index celebration event and sustainable finance workshop which will be held on 2 March 2023
A global sustainability report will be released during the UIC Sustainability Action Week in a celebration event and sustainable finance workshop on 2 March 2023, and will be accompanied by the Rail Sustainability Index Methodology document detailing the indicators, the benchmarks chosen, and their rationale.
Register here at https://uic.org/events/rail-sustainability-index, for what will be a great opportunity to share best practices and learn from each other, as well as to contribute to the further development of the RSI.
