Earth Day: Children, Snowball, and the Power of People

By Lilian Leroux Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer

Most people I know have had an aha! moment at some point in their lives. The moment in which climate stops being an abstract concept, and becomes as real as, say, the desk you’re sitting at right now.

For me, that moment came when my children started talking about climate change. What they were discussing was their future: the world they would be living in, in 20 years’ time. And it certainly wasn’t the world I wanted for them. The only positive was that as a leader within a large industrial company, I was in a position to help do something about it.

Encouraging a shift to rail

Image Trains of Thought │ Wabtec Corporation I have worked at Wabtec for over 20 years. In that time, I’ve spent four years running the group’s Transit business prior to my current role as Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer. From my vantage point I believe that together, we can address the climate crisis, and this fuels my commitment to my work.

Wabtec operates in an industry—rail—that has enormous potential to make a difference. The transportation sector today accounts for around a quarter of global CO2 emissions*, yet the majority of these emissions come from road transport, followed by aviation. Only around 1% of transport emissions are from rail. This is despite the fact that rail accounts for around 7% of passenger travel and 6% of freight transport.

Persuading businesses and people to choose rail over road, then, represents the single biggest opportunity to radically reduce emissions from transportation. We can achieve this modal shift by making trains more comfortable, reliable and efficient. And we can further shift the dial by accelerating the development of technology that helps drastically cut emissions.