×

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY OF SLOVENSKE ŽELEZNICE GROUP

By implementing the environmental management system, Slovenske železnice stand for the upholding of the highest standards in environmental care. Preserving our environment is an important part of our responsibility towards the society, sustainable development and partnership with the public.

CERTIFICATES

The companies in SŽ Group are certified in ISO 14001, which ensures and demonstrates that our environmental responsibilities are managed in a systematic manner which contributes to the environmental pillar of sustainability.

NOISE

Through our noise monitoring system, we plan measures to reduce railway noise levels.

The companies in SŽ Group manage the sources of noise pollution in line with the applicable regulations concerning noise emission in the environment in the Republic of Slovenia.

Railway noise has been a significant environmental concern in particular on the most congested parts of the infrastructure, specifically on the area of the City municipality of Ljubljana and the section between Ljubljana and Kranj. One of the main reasons behind a growing number of complaints regarding noise from trains has been the closing of city centres to cars and rerouting traffic to diversionary roads, which typically run adjacent to the city centre.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION

At Slovenske železnice, we put a lot of effort into environmental protection and nature conservation.

SŽ companies work towards protecting nature and the environment and take part in fighting climate change. The railway offers an alternative to other transport modes which requires notably less energy to move passengers and cargo while using a sizeable share of renewables to power trains.

Our energy management system monitors as much as 80% of energy consumption at SŽ. The system identifies three main users of energy.

Structure of energy consumers

87.0 %

Rolling stock

1.6 %

Road vehicles

11.4 %

Facilities

The role of energy consumption and carbon footprint at the company as an important indicator with respect to costs and environmental protection has been growing steadily. Trains are incredibly energy efficient and environmentally sound, which makes them highly attractive and largely promoted as a sustainable way to travel amidst the efforts to decarbonise transport. As much as 50% of electrical energy consumed by Slovenske železnice’s electrified rolling stock is sourced from renewables, which translates to a notably lower carbon footprint of cargo and passengers travelling by rail.

Slovenske železnice’s carbon footprint from rolling stock in 2021

At SŽ – Tovorni promet, d. o. o., per NTKM

At SŽ – Potniški promet, d. o. o., per PKM

Environmental efficiency of rail in comparison with competitive branches of transport

Per NTKM: freight train (calculation by SŽ), truck (EU average)

Per PKM: Slovenske železnice passenger train (calculation by SŽ), bus (EU average) and car (EU average)

CO2 emissions from rail transport at Slovenske železnice

Rail transport in Slovenia accounts for 1% of all energy consumed in the transport sector.

In 2017 transport in Slovenia accounted for 38% of total energy consumption in the country. Within the transport sector, road uses by far the most energy, with rail accounting for as little as 1% of energy consumption.

At present, 77% of all trains run on electricity. One distinct advantage rail has over other transport modes is the high volume of cargo and passengers it is able to move in commercial operations using electrical power.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Slovenske železnice conforms to the highest standards of environmental protection.

Through its central corporate office of Internal Control, Quality and Environment, SŽ, d. o. o. affords appropriate assistance to all companies in the Group with respect to incorporating and implementing the requirements of the environmental management system specified under SIST EN ISO 14001:2015 (ISO 14001).

Preserving the environment is part of our ethics codex and forms an important part of our corporate social responsibility and sustainable development that we pursue as an organisation with a special role in the community and society at large.

Our core principle with respect to the environment is preventing all types of pollution at the source. We want to mitigate as many environmental and safety risks as possible to avoid impacting on the environment.

Both the management and employees need to make efforts continuously to keep the natural and working environment as clean, healthy and maintained as possible, be efficient when using energy and raw materials, keep waste production low and be rational when using other natural sources relevant to the company’s business.

The requirements to have a clean, healthy and maintained natural and working environment are incorporated in all of our business functions. This makes the services we supply to our customers both environmentally friendly and sustainable.

In line with the applicable environmental policy, the companies in Slovenske železnice Group undertake to:

  • monitor and control impacts on the environment associated with their respective business activities;
  • comply with all relevant statutory and other applicable requirements on environmental protection;
  • adopt appropriate measures to mitigate or prevent pollution where the emissions would exceed the statutory permitted levels;
  • promote environmental responsibility amongst employees and contractors alike;
  • achieve environmental objectives and targets and continually seek ways to improve the environmental management system in practice.

The environmental policy operated by Slovenske železnice Group will be followed by all staff in the Group, together with contractual partners and external stakeholders.

MITIGATING OUR IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Light pollution

At SŽ Group, we manage the outdoor lightning of rail premises according to the applicable national regulations on light pollution.

Almost seven thousand lights are needed to illuminate our outdoor rail infrastructure and other premises. As much as 90% of these lights comply with the technical standards on outdoor illumination, with the remaining 10% to be replaced between 2022 and 25 as part of a project to modernise our infrastructure (Pragersko station, Ljubljana–Sežana line).

Eelectromagnetic radiation

SŽ – Infrastruktura, d. o. o. manages and maintains 388 GSM-R base stations and repeaters, which emit electromagnetic fields that are a source of electromagnetic radiation, which is regulated by Slovenian legislation on electromagnetic radiation in natural and living environment.

The first measurements of exposure to electromagnetic fields have been carried out at all of our base stations in line with the relevant regulations. The measurements showed that the radiated electromagnetic emissions were below exposure limit values for electromagnetic radiation in natural environment.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

At SŽ Group, we make sure our business operations comply with the applicable regulations through:

  • appropriate waste treatment,
  • recording of information on the production and disposal of waste,
  • annual reports on the volume of waste generated in the preceding calendar year,
  • adopting of measures to optimise waste management costs and reduce waste volume (waste management plan).

In 2021, we sent 13.4t of waste generated from various activities – from rail infrastructure maintenance and renewal and maintenance of rolling stock and track-mounted plant machines to disposal of financially written-off and unserviceable wagons and coaches, passenger trains and other written-off metal assets – to authorised waste collectors, go-betweens and waste processing units for further processing. Hazardous waste made up 11% of all waste generated in 2021. Old wooden sleepers account for 72% of hazardous waste and 8% of all waste. Construction waste and scrap metal account for 45% and 30% of all waste, respectively.