Aurizon is one of Australia’s largest rail freight operators. Each year, they transport more than 250 million tonnes of Australian commodities — connecting miners, primary producers, and industry with international and domestic markets.
In 2015, Aurizon expanded their enterprise-wide sustainability focus by pursuing a sustainability program that sought to communicate and coordinate sustainability activities with internal and external stakeholders. Their Alliances and Sustainability (SAS) team worked to establish a sustainability steering committee, produce an annual sustainability report, implement sustainable customer initiatives and undertake stakeholder engagement in relation to sustainability.
Aurizon’s stakeholder engagement process included a series of town halls attended by over 1,600 employees, which assisted in the planning of new sustainability initiatives to address emerging risks and opportunities. Members of Aurizon’s newly established steering committee and their staff met fortnightly to work on developing new initiatives in response to stakeholder engagement processes. This included the development of a carbon calculator, the integration of sustainability into capital planning and procurement decisions, and publishing reports on Aurizon’s regional economic contribution and the future of coal.
This emphasis on sustainability was highlighted in Aurizon’s 2015 sustainability report, within which they reported a 5.8% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, alongside achieving all of the objectives of their 2015 sustainability program. As a result, Aurizon have been recognized with a Sustainability Award in the Australian Business Awards 2016. “We are committed to building a sustainable business and delivering lasting value for our shareholders, customers, employees and the communities in which we operate. said Aurizon Executive Vice President, Customer & Strategy, Mauro Neves
“Winning the 2016 ABA100 Sustainability Award recognises how far Aurizon has come. We know that being a sustainable organisation does not happen overnight, it takes a team effort. Aurizon has put in the work over the past couple of years to shift the collective mindset so that all of our employees understand what sustainability means for Aurizon and how they can contribute to it.” he added.
