ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

At MTR, environmental responsibility starts at the highest level and cascades down throughout the organisation to ensure that staff understands their own responsibilities and how they can assist MTR achieve its environmental targets.

The Corporation initiated the development of a corporate-wide Environmental Management System (EMS) in 1997 to ensure that all environmental impacts were monitored and controlled. The system integrated environmental management into all divisional activities to ensure that opportunities for cost effective avoidance or mitigation were identified and implemented.

During 2002, MTR further developed its EMS to meet the requirements of the international ISO14001 environmental management system standard. MTR received ISO14001 certification for "provision of railway project management, operation, maintenance and relevant administrative services" in March 2003 and has maintained this certification during the course of 2003.

MTR's ISO14001-certified EMS is distinctive in a number of ways.

• Environmental risks were identified and prioritised through a bottom-up approach through a series of nine workshops involving over 200 staff from across Project and Operations Divisions; and
  

• The system is based around a set of challenging, quantitative targets, which are designed to improve performance. These are supported by detailed action plans defining responsibilities and timescales.
  
  

Case Study: M8 and R4 Rail Lines in Shanghai

Case Study: Environmental Management of the Penny¡¦s Bay Rail Link