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The Go-Ahead Group plc's ninth Corporate Responsibility Report was published this week. The report includes highlights of the company's environmental achievements for the past year, among them a16 per cent reduction in site energy.

Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis said: "The Government's carbon reduction strategy has set a tough target of reducing carbon emissions from domestic transport by up to 14 per cent over the next decade. I want to see the public transport system playing a key role in helping reduce emissions and protect the environment."

Keith Ludeman, Group Chief Executive said: "Go-Ahead has always put corporate and environmental responsibility at the heart of its business. Among our most important contributions to the communities we serve is to provide high quality services in an environmentally responsible way. This year, we were proud that our efforts to tackle climate change were recognised when we became the first public transport company to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard."

The 16 per cent reduction in site energy usage has been achieved through employee commitment which has been encouraged through local employee campaigns, as well as through installation of new energy efficient lighting systems at depots and on train stations. Other environmental achievements over the past year include:

• around 75% of Go-Ahead's site energy is generated from renewable sources including hydro-power, wind power and biomass fuels;
• 37% of site waste is recycled;
• around 5% improved fuel efficiency in Go-Ahead's bus operations from investment in technology and training schemes;
• introduction of regenerative braking on the third rail system on the Southern and Southeastern rail networks. On Southern, regenerative braking is already showing an approximate15% reduction in traction energy as a result of regenerative braking. The initiative earned Southern the project of the year award at the National Rail Awards in September;
• 90% of the bus fleet is fitted with CCTV (compared to the industry average of 52%);
• 88% of the bus fleet is made up of low floor vehicles (with 100% at Oxford Bus Company's bus fleet);
• like for like fall in carbon emissions per passenger journey across the business and rail divisions; and
• operating the greenest and youngest bus fleet of the major operators in the UK*

The Group's business-wide energy forum brings together representatives from all of Go-Ahead's operating companies to share best and emerging practice on reducing carbon emissions. A series of more detailed reports has also been published for each of Go-Ahead's individual operating companies and, at the end of November, a fully interactive web site will be available to the public.

Go-Ahead's Corporate Responsibility Report can be viewed and downloaded from the group's web site: www.go-ahead.com.

* Research supplied by TAS partnership in 2008

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Notes to editors

Go-Ahead

Go-Ahead is one of the UK's leading providers of passenger transport services operating in the bus, rail and aviation services sectors. Employing around 27,000 people across the country, around 960 million passenger journeys are undertaken on our services each year. In addition to the travelling public, customers include the Department for Transport (DfT), Transport for London (TfL), local authorities, British Airports Authority (BAA) and major airlines.

Bus

Go-Ahead is one of the UK's largest bus operators. With a fleet of over 3,500 buses, we carry, on average, around 1.6 million passengers every day. Our operations are focused on high density commuter markets. We have a strong presence in London, with around 21% market share, where we provide regulated services for TfL. We operate deregulated services in the north east, Oxford, the south east and southern England.

Rail

The rail operation, Govia, is 65% owned by Go-Ahead and 35% by Keolis. It is the busiest rail operation in the UK, responsible for nearly 30% of all UK passenger rail journeys through its three rail franchises: Southern (which includes the Gatwick Express), Southeastern and London Midland. In December 2009, Southeastern will launch the UK's first high speed domestic rail service between Kent and London, significantly reducing current journey times. Southeastern is currently running preview services.

For further information about our rail franchises please visit our factsheets:
www.go-ahead.com/goahead/ir/factsheets_rail/

Aviation Services

The Group's aviation services division is one of the UK's largest independent providers of cargo services (primarily Plane Handling), ground handling (primarily aviance UK) and car parking (Meteor). The division operates from 15 airports and services major airline operators such as British Airways (BA), Virgin and bmi.