Go-Ahead has been recognised as the ‘most admired’ transport company in the UK in terms of community and environmental responsibility according to an influential report.
Key points:
- Go-Ahead tops table of 11 UK transport companies in independent ranking on community and environment
- The company received the highest scores overall of all bus and train operators
- Research is published by Britain’s Most Admired Companies (BMAC) – Britain’s longest running survey of corporate reputation
Britain’s Most Admired Companies (BMAC) is a peer-review study of corporate reputation as seen by a company’s closest critics – its competitors and financial influencers.
Conducted by reputation specialists Echo Research, 2020’s survey involved interviews with 300 board reps, analysts and City commentators.
Britain’s largest public companies and leading employers across 26 sectors were asked to evaluate their peers. Each sector comprises a maximum of 10 companies. Using 13 criteria, participants rated their sector’s rivals on a scale of 0-10 (0=poor, 5=average, 10=excellent). The sum of these scores provides the total score.
Respondents were also asked to name their Most Admired Leader in a free vote across sectors.
Running since 1990, Britain’s Most Admired Companies remains one of the most in-depth and best-established corporate reputation surveys in the UK.
Go-Ahead achieved the highest score overall for a bus and rail operator and outperformed its competitors in numerous categories, including quality of management, capacity to innovate and commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Notably, Go-Ahead achieved the highest score of all transport companies (including airlines) for ‘Community & Environmental Responsibility’ (7.4) – highlighting the company’s position as a leader in sustainable transport.
Go-Ahead is the largest provider of electric buses in the UK and has a goal to run a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035 – five years ahead of the Government’s target. The company is also a leading operator of electric trains through its Southeastern and Govia Thameslink Railway rail companies.
The Group has achieved a 22 per cent absolute reduction in carbon emissions since 2016 – a period in which the company has expanded internationally into Singapore, Ireland, Norway, and Germany.
The company is also looking towards its future and developing a Climate Change Strategy, which is due in Spring 2021.
Go-Ahead also achieved a transport leading score (7) for ‘Effective Corporate Governance’, tied with two airlines but ahead of all its bus and rail competitors.
Unusually in the transport industry, Go-Ahead has a gender balanced board. Over three decades, the company has grown from a regional bus operator in the north-east to one of the UK’s leading providers of public transport.
Go-Ahead Chief Executive David Brown said: “We are pleased that our peers have recognised our commitment to social, ethical and environmental responsibilities. Public transport is a big part of the long-term solution for tackling poor air quality and climate change.”
“We will continue to ensure that transport not only has a positive impact on the environment, but work to address and overcome any negative impact we may have as well – from retrofitting our buses to cleaner emissions to introducing even more electric buses across the UK.”
About Go-Ahead
Go-Ahead is one of the leading public transport operators in the UK, connecting communities through bus and rail services. Our purpose is to be the local partner taking care of journeys that enhance the lives and wellbeing of our communities across the world.
We employ more than 30,000 people across our bus and rail businesses in the UK, Singapore, Ireland, Norway and Germany. In addition to the travelling public, our customers include governments and local authorities. We are committed to tackling climate change, poor air quality and social isolation.
Bus
Go-Ahead is one of the UK’s largest bus operators. We run a fleet of nearly 6,000 buses across England and run a quarter of London’s buses for Transport for London. Outside London, we serve high-density commuter markets in the North East, Greater Manchester, East Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, East Anglia, the South East and the South West of England. We also operate a bus contract in Singapore and two bus contracts in Ireland.
Rail
We operate rail franchises in the UK, Germany and Norway. We operate the largest rail operations in the UK – Southeastern and GTR (Southern, Gatwick Express, Great Northern and Thameslink). This is managed through our 65 per cent owned subsidiary Govia, which is 35 per cent owned by Keolis. In Germany and Norway, our contracts are run exclusively by Go-Ahead.
