26th -27th September 2023,  London 

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STRATEGIC OPENING PANEL DISCUSSION: Realising Scope 3 Targets, Implementing Strategies for Cooperation, Balancing the Trade-Off Between Sustainability, Cost and Delivery Timescales To Keep Operations Profitable

• Best practice establishing close cooperation with suppliers to introduce new requirements on scope three reporting and emission reduction to realise your scope 3 targets
• Implementing systems to support the cooperation and transparency of data to improve sustainable decision making in line with your organisational targets
• What processes should operators and infrastructure be implementing and considering meeting sustainability targets in scope 1 & 2 in the short term
• How are rail companies building up the internal capability and resources to measure and visualize carbon emission in rail products

CASE STUDY: Reducing Scope 3 Value Chain Emissions, Working with Suppliers to Increase Transparency and Accuracy of Data and Implementing Systems for Reporting & Tracking

• What strategies are rail companies developing to reduce scope 3 emissions in the supply chain, improving procurement, specification at the design stage and keeping assets in optimum condition
• The value of collaborating with suppliers to produce transparent and accurate data on the scope 3 emissions for all goods procured, knowing where it comes from and how it was produced
• Building a common framework around standards and tools to help rail organisations and suppliers measure their sustainability progress and improve transparency of data from rail products in service
• What tools are available to operators to measure emissions internally and within the supply chain including visualization of decarbonization strategy and ESG ratings,

CASE STUDY: The Link Between World Class Asset Management and Sustainability, Increasing Asset Life Cycles to Improve Sustainability Using Current Asset Management Frameworks

• Tracking component life cycles to determine the emissions related to every component, aligning asset management and sustainability within business processes
• Converting technical documentation into a digital asset register to improve data analysis,
• Understanding true capacity and demand in your infrastructure to optimise business analysis and decision making
• Optimising the interface between operators and infrastructure owners to increase data sharing and improve asset management leading to increase asset lifecycles and reduce cost in parts and labour

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PANEL DISCUSSION: Best Practice Managing Your Own Assets, Finding the Right Suppliers, Implementing New Processes to Drive Asset Management Sustainability and Growth

• Benchmarking the supply chain, working with suppliers, research institutions, universities with a maturity in the field of asset management in rail or similar industries.
• Focusing on right metrics, incorporating metrics from multiple factors to build a holistic view of your network and developing a common approach to sustainability
• Best practice optimising your current asset management processes using limited resources to drive incremental improvements in maintenance and operations
• How are operators implementing innovative technologies to improve sustainability in their asset management, business processes and ERP systems

Case Study: Forecasting Whole Life Cycle Asset Costs, Optimising Data Quality, Transparency and Availability to Reduce the Ecological and Social life cycle Emissions in Rail to Meet Sustainability Goals

• What tools and software are rail companies implementing to complement financial flows of data, measuring multiple flows of data to build the ecological picture of each asset within your network
• Working with suppliers to determine actual product life cycles cost with the ecological and social dimension, knowing the amount of recycled or reused materials in your products to form a more holistic view of price
• Incorporating sustainability data reporting in enterprise asset management systems, building an ecological ledger to enable processes and KPI’s steering
• Inputting data from diverse sources including utilities, meteorological in ERP systems to encompass co2 emissions other information sources required to reduce cost and improve sustainability

FIRESIDE CHAT: Reducing Energy Consumption in New Rolling Stock & Legacy Fleets, Working with OEMs to Develop New Solutions to Reduce the Energy Consumptions of Rolling Stock In Operations

• What are the limitations in introducing new technologies to improve the power consumption of legacy rolling stock, considering the investment time frames and return of investment on older fleets
• Improving systems designs, introducing driver assistance or ATO to improve braking and acceleration to reduce electricity consumption from rolling stock
• Working with suppliers to optimise spare parts management for fleet maintenance activities, improving recycling and re-use of materials and tackling the biggest contributor in reducing scope 3 emissions
• Ensuring quality of wheels and dampers and bogeys are in peak condition to reduce the levels of noise informational from rolling stock in normal operations

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AUDIENCE ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION: Decreasing Consumption in All Aspects of Railway Operations to Drive Efficiencies, Prolonging the Service Life of All Assets to Reduce Cost and Deliver Sustainable Benefits in Rail

• Driving efficiencies in the service life of current assets rather than buying new products, what processes and technologies are operators implementing to maximise asset lifecycles
• Implementing predictive maintenance practices to reduce cost, parts, labour and energy consumption in infrastructure and rolling stock operations
• Should TSI’s be linked more to a sustainability criterion to limit unnecessary safety requirement changes to equipment and reduce standards driven obsolescence
• What solutions are infrastructure owner implementing to reduce energy consumption and cost of running their buildings including, heating and lighting

CASE STUDY: Strategies to Incentivise Greater Collaboration Between Operators and Infrastructure Owners, An Integrated Energy Management Approach to Reducing Cost and Energy Consumption in Rail

• Optimising specifications and validation for digitally automated systems to increase energy management efficiencies in rail
• Improving levels cooperation and investment between infra managers and operators to implement an integrated energy management approach to reduce cost and energy consumption in rail
• Investing in additional on-board and infrastructure energy storage devices, what is the level of investment required to retrofit older trains, managing who is using and returning this braking energy back to the network
• Creating the right incentives to increase investment on energy storage, using energy metering to improve transparency between operators and owners on storage and feeding back energy to the network

PANEL DISCUSSION: How Are Infrastructure Owners Planning Investments in Renewables, Accessing the Benefits and Pay Back to Build a Business Case for Green Investment in Rail

• How owners using building stock energy audits, energy performance assessments to reduce their energy consumption to meet sustainability targets
• What the benefits and the payback for investing in self-renewal or renewables within the rail infrastructure network
• Intelligent use of IT equipment to reduce non-renewable resources, optimising power supplies and energy consumption to deliver big savings in energy efficiency
• How can infrastructure owners minimise routes clearance work even further to promote electrification of their networks

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PANEL DISCUSSION: Optimising Design to in New Building Projects, Civil Works, Collaborating with Suppliers to Develop Sustainable Production Processes to Reduce Embedded Carbon in Concrete & Steel

• How is the industry working with construction companies to develop more sustainable approaches to producing concrete, increasing volumes of recycled concrete available for construction projects
• What are the challenges in producing low carbon steel, how do we reduce the embedded carbon in steel produced for use in building new railway tracks and renewal projects
• What new processes and innovations are owners using to minimise the use of water on construction sites
• Changing the mindset of project planners to drive sustainability, introducing new industry standards to guide the use of materials in construction projects

CASE STUDY: Leveraging Digital Twins and Emerging Technologies to Enable a Circular Economy in Rail, Innovating To Achieve Regional Sustainability and Decarbonization Goals

• Examine how a circular economy in rail can improve parts availability, reduce the flow of materials and carbon emissions in rial maintenance and operations
• Setting limits with suppliers on the levels of recyclability and re-used materials in their products to lower the co2 emission in the material inflow in rail
• Developing a regional supply chain, implementing additive manufacturing and nearshoring your supply chain to build supply chain resilience and reduce transportation and associated emission
• How can digital technologies like BIM enable rail companies to develop a circular economy in their supply chains

CASE STUDY: Developing A Circular Economy for Waste Materials Including Spent Ballast, Redundant Rails, Signalling Equipment or CND Waste Products from Renewals and New Building Projects

• how can we build circularity into spent ballast redundant rails and CND waste products increase circularity and more beneficial reuses within the railway environment
• Is there a market for concrete sleepers other than crushing them, what can be done to improve the secondary use of ballast if they're not suitable for a railway application
• Improving the circular economy for lineside assets, what are the re-use applications for the materials from signalling equipment and cabling when considering these materials might also be obsolete
• What can rail learn from other industries in improving material re-use and reducing carbon in big construction projects to improve sustainability

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