Railway Sustainability

WSP is committed to being a positive influence on the quality of life in the communities we serve around the world. Every day, we seek new ways to develop rail infrastructure that is not only safe and reliable, but also preserves resources, protects and enhances natural environments, and promotes social and economic vitality.

Sustainability is one of our priorities when we begin any rail project. We integrate land use and public transport to create vibrant, livable communities. We incorporate energy-saving features in transit systems, develop context-sensitive designs in railways, and apply green construction techniques to salvage and reuse existing materials.

Our long term goal is to ensure we are the most trusted partner of our clients. Our aim is to build a system approach whereby sustainability is inherently embedded into the core of our designs. We will integrate this into our operating model to provide assurance that sustainability is a core consideration in our designs and assure that an effective project execution plan is in place that fully meets our clients’ requirements.

Future-Ready Transit Systems

WSP also has experience with hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and facilities and we support alternative-fuel bus depots and facilities. We are ideally qualified to provide technical expertise and engineering services to transit agencies and other entities interested in acquiring and operating hydrogen-fueled buses.

Leaders in Building Green Railways

WSP is a member of the US Green Building Council and a sponsor of the widely used Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) sustainability rating system. We have LEED accredited professionals around the world, as well as professionals accredited in other rating systems, such as the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). 

Some of the methods we use to incorporate sustainability into rail transport facilities include:

• Reducing the emission of polluting volatile organic compounds (voc)
• Installing solar power units with photovoltaic panels
• Using fuel cells for efficient power production
• Maximizing the use of natural lighting and ventilation
• Collecting and reusing rainwater
• Using light-emitting diode (LED) signals and compact fluorescent lighting (cfl)
• Installing occupancy sensors and/or timers
• Using regenerative braking, which feeds energy back into a third rail, battery or flywheel
• Using alternative, environmentally friendly fuels
• Installing platform screen doors to reduce train heat brought into stations, allowing for a significant reduction in station cooling requirements
• Creating sustainable development policies and principles

Environment Safe Railway Design

 At WSP safety is a core value in our designs as part of the embedded sustainability. This would be a fundamental goal in achieving safer design in all of WSP engineering design and construction activities. 

Our design process incorporating safety, allows WSP to achieve a design with enhanced safety and environmental characteristics.