Rail Sustainability Index project
The Rail Sustainability Index (RSi) is a new tool being designed for and with the global rail community. The previously named ‘SDG Rail Index’ tool will provide the UIC members with a unique rating system and a supportive digital platform based on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations to assess the performance of each railway based on a selection of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
The Rail Sustainability Index is designed to provide UIC members with:
- a reporting system on each individual company’s and the whole sector’s contribution to the achievement of SDGs, featuring benchmarks and best practices,
- improved access to green bonds and sustainable finance instruments.
By our members, for our members
All UIC members are invited to take part in this global and truly collaborative project. Launch in May 2022, members will be invited to input data reporting on their sustainability performance, receiving their first scores in Autumn 2022.
Chaired by Paolo Mazzeo of Ferrovie dello Stato, the project is steered by a project working group that helped shaped the IT development of the tool, by providing details on the specific requirements to be met. During 2021, the new tool has been fully tested and improved and is now ready to be launched in May 2022.
Data provided will be kept in the strictest confidence and only anonymous aggregated data will be shared externally.
How does it work?
A materiality assessment was carried out by the project working group against all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This established which of the goals were most directly aligned to the activities and applicability of rail and the work of the UIC Sustainability Platform. This exercise resulted in the consensus selection of 7 SDGs, for which rail can make the biggest demonstrable contribution including:
- 5 – Gender Equality,
- 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy,
- 8 – Decent work and Economic Growth,
- 9 – Industry Innovation and infrastructure,
- 11 – Sustainable Cities and communities,
- 12 – responsible Consumption and production, and
- 13 – Climate Action.
Corresponding to these 7 goals, a set of 21 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and some 51 variables (either collected or calculated and consisting of both quantitative figures and qualitative questions) was developed.
The working group set a weighting for each of the SDGs based on a prioritisation exercise.
The scoring employs a benchmarking capability developed through benchmark data research and the average scores of the other members, rail companies can compare against their peers globally, in their region and those carrying out the same activities.
For this first data collection campaign, members are asked to enter figures over the past three years (2019-2021) so that trend and progress can be observed.
The tool methodology has been reviewed by the World Bank.
This new tool will link to the new content of the IRS 30330 voluntary Guidelines for Sustainability currently under development
The score 2022 has been released
Since 7 December, UIC member companies having reported their sustainability data into the tool have access to their individual company dashboards.
Join us for the in-person celebration event to be held in UIC HQ on 2 March 2023 (9.00-17.00) to both share and celebrate the sustainability successes of rail and facilitate a dialogue between the finance and sustainability communities from railways as well as experts from third parties such as private investors and multilateral development banks.
For more information and to register, please visit:
https://uic.org/events/rail-sustainability-index
UIC contact
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