Congratulations to the 17 excellent projects submitted by UIC members and to the passionate people driving real change within their organisations.
The shortlisted projects cover seven categories, across the four themes of the UIC 2030 Vision “Design a Better future”. The UIC Sustainability Impact Awards 2024 categories recognise the range of innovation which is transforming the rail sector today. These categories celebrate the best of the best and prizes will be awarded to the projects which have made the most notable contribution to sustainable development. Therefore, all of the projects shortlisted made a demonstrable impact in 2022-2023.
The finalists come from a broad range of members from around the world, from Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. One of the presidents of the Jury, Lucie Anderton, Head of Sustainability at UIC remarked, “It is a great pleasure to see such an impressive range of projects from such a broad range of geographical regions and types of organisations, we have finalists from research bodies, passenger operators, freight companies and infrastructure managers, all making real and very concrete change.”
A number of projects promote social sustainability by fostering community engagement (Amtrak), inclusivity with an application for people with additional needs, designed with input from stakeholders (NMBS-SNCB), and by conducting social campaigns against sexual harassment in public places (Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane).
Some projects address climate change resilience by embedding adaptation into capital projects from the beginning (AMTRAK) or by enhancing coastal protection with living shorelines (Norfolk Southern).
For energy and decarbonisation, projects focus on bridging technologies such as hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) to help reduce CO2e emissions from diesel locomotives (DB Cargo), on managing the carbon supply chain and using circular economy principles (KRRI), and implementing renewable energy sources including photovoltaic plants in combination with organic farming to produce CO2e-free railway power (ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG).
To preserve natural resources, KORAIL has implemented a resource circulation system for electronic waste, SNCF Réseau has modernised their wooden sleeper treatment process, preserving local trees and maintaining the use of wood in railway industry, and the Iranian Railways have employed drones equipped with AI and versatile capabilities to address environmental and safety challenges within railway corridors.
Regarding the modal shift, JR-East’s project is dedicated to shipping regional specialties and fresh products to urban areas aboard high-speed trains, as a way to boost regional economies, while EFE Trenes de Chile focuses on connecting inland communities with regional capitals and nearby cities.
For healthy cities and communities, Italo NTV Spa has installed defibrillators in its trains and trained its staff in life-saving manoeuvres while KORAIL has worked to improve air quality with an air monitoring and purifying system.
Seamless connectivity has been addressed by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) in Delhi, with a project that is shifting reliance on personal vehicles to public transit thanks to the implementation of an interconnected network, and the Italian Railway Network (RFI) has put in place an innovative partnership to jointly design intermodal areas and services at major railway stations in Lombardy, Italy’s most populous region.
The winners will be announced on 25 September 2024 at Innotrans, in Berlin, Germany, in a ceremony hosted by Alstom, platinum sponsor of the UIC Sustainability Impact Awards.
For more information on the shortlisted finalists, please click here.
