QR is committed to ensuring that rail remains Australia’s most environmentally sound method of large scale transportation. At QR, we are continually researching and investigating ways to reduce our environmental impact and improve the performance of our operations.   The effectiveness of these measures can be gauged in part, by independent recognition of QR’s performance as an industry leader in abating greenhouse emissions by winning the Australian Greenhouse Challenge Award in both 2002 and 2005.

The 2003 Reputation Index survey ranked QR at no. 4. for environmental performance and QR was recently announced as a finalist in the 2004 Banksia Awards for QR’s environmental achievements under the Category of ‘Business Environmental Responsibility and Leadership’.

It is well recognised within the broader community that rail in itself is a leading sustainable industry because it moves people efficiently and reduces the amount of heavy vehicle traffic, thereby improving quality of life in terms of mobility, health and environmental impacts. 

Defining sustainability from QR’s perspective is a complex task due to the extent of our operations and as such the diverse communities and environments in which we work. We believe that sustainability is the provision of an effective public transport system that addresses the community’s needs, whilst protecting the different environments and communities in which we work and improving our economic performance for the benefit of our shareholders, the Government and Queenslanders.

QR is in the initial stages of understanding and applying sustainability principles to our operations. One of the goals is to develop and implement processes that incorporate economic, environmental and social life cycle implications within QR’s decision making frameworks.