Who

FirstGroup provides local communities with essential transport connections and supports their economic development, while being committed to reduce the negative impacts of travel on climate change.
Today it is world’s largest public transport operator in private hands, with over 136,000 employees and £6,187.3 million annual revenue. It is the UK’s largest bus operator with a fleet of nearly 9,000 buses that carries 3 million passengers a day. UK Bus operates more than one in five of all local bus services in more than 40 major towns and cities.
It is also the UK’s largest rail operator carrying over 285 million passengers a year and operating four passenger rail franchises (First Capital Connect, First Great Western, First ScotRail and First TransPennine Express) and one open access service, First Hull Trains. The company also operates rail freight services though First GBRf, and operates the Croydon Tramlink network on behalf of Transport for London carrying nearly 28 million passengers a year.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, FirstGroup America Inc. operates across the US and Canada.

What

The company has four key areas of activity within corporate social responsibility: environment, employees, community and customers.
Minimising environmental impact:

• Achieving accreditation to the ISO 14001 environment system standard
• Promoting the benefits of travelling by bus or by train
• Reducing carbon emissions, energy consumption and overall environmental impacts
• Increasing waste recycling
• Promoting policy measures that support better public transport services
• Developing training programme for environmental managers/representatives
• Valuing the employees:
• Respecting employees’ rights
• Training, developing and supporting the employees to fulfil their potential and meet FirstGroup’s business needs
• Recognising and rewarding the contribution of the employees to business success
• Encouraging the communication across the company by briefings and meetings with staff and trade unions
• Reducing the risk of employee injury
• Serving the local community:
• Providing accessible services
• Supporting community programs that provide value to the local community
• Employing people with disabilities and local unemployed people
• Delivering high levels of customer satisfaction:
• Providing safe, punctual and reliable services
• Reducing the risk of injury
• Providing affordable and accessible services.

Why

FirstGroup believes that corporate social responsibility is key to its long-term sustainable growth and continued success. The company’s strategy for improving performance for its customers, its employees, the community and the environment has led FirstGroup to become the world’s leading transport operator.
The company has a CSR Steering Group that manages its CSR programme as well as a CSR External Advisory Group that provides an external perspective on the company’s CSR activities.
Business benefits

• The evaluation results from 2008/2009 show that FirstGroup has achieved energy reductions of 3.4% and 2.8% in the UK Bus division and UK Rail division respectively
• The company has increased its waste recycling by 6% and reduced the carbon emissions per kilometre by 0.7% in the UK Bus division, over the past 12 months
• They has also developed new environmental training programmes and provided training in General Environmental Awareness, Spill Response and Storm Water Management in North America and environmental toolbox talk material in the United Kingdom
• Annual surveys show improved overall employee satisfaction levels for each operating company
• 85% of UK Bus employees have access to Learning Centres with training and testing technician programmes, an increase of 20% on last year
• The risk of employee injury has reduced by 17% and Lost Time Injuries (over 1 day) per 1,000 employees per year has reduced by 26%.
• The company offers flexible pension scheme strategy for employees
• 90% of FirstGroup’s employees are represented by trade unions in UK and 55% in United States
• Employees have been volunteering with Save the Children and Business in the Community
• FirstGroup in partnership with Remploy and JobCentre Plus received the 2008 Partner of the Year Award by Avanta Awards
• The company’s average of punctuality across the UK Division lies at 90.3%, 0.3% on last year, while the reliability average rises 98.8%.
• The performance for the train services has also improved achieving a combined punctuality and reliability performance of above 90%
• Group-wide bus collision rate and passenger injury rate have both reduced by 15%
• Over 80% of the company’s stations in England and Wales now have Secure Station Status
• Community benefits
• According to the London Benchmarking Group model, FirstGroup has contributed with £480,470 in charitable gifts to support a wide range of good causes
• Invested £67,048 in commercial initiatives that support community causes (e.g. sponsorship of charitable events)
• Invested £1,631,692 in long-term community involvement that includes education, health and environmental programmes
• FirstGroup in partnership with Remploy and JobCentre Plus encourages non-discriminatory policies to promote social inclusion, by offering opportunities for disadvantage and vulnerable groups
• The company is committed to improve the accessibility in train stations, as well as increase the number of buses that have low-floor access
• 93.2% of customers would recommend First Transit.
   

Website www.firstgroup.com