Tube Lines, the company responsible for the multi-billion pound upgrade of London’s Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, was last night honoured for its work in water management and biodiversity protection at the 2009 Green Business Awards.

Supported by ENDS, ENDSCarbon and Management Today, the awards recognise the work done by UK businesses to implement innovative and ambitious initiatives to achieve environmental sustainability. Tube Lines was awarded best UK company in the Water Management category beating Thames Water, BBC Worldwide and SABMiller. The company was also highly commended in the Biodiversity Protection category.

Steve Judd, Head of Environment at Tube Lines said:

“Tube Lines is proud to be a leader in protecting the environment and we’re delighted to receive this award. Many see the demands of being a heavy engineering and construction company whilst being environmentally friendly as mutually exclusive – but we’ve worked hard to quash this myth by putting environmental considerations at the heart of everything we do across the organisation.

“Everybody at Tube Lines plays their part and this award is a fitting recognition of their efforts.”

The award for water management recognises those companies that have successfully minimised water consumption and the associated environmental impacts. Tube Lines won the award for its effective water consumption policies and initiatives across the business – in particular, its development of a rainwater harvest system at its Cockfosters depot which reduced the amount of mains water used for washing Piccadilly line trains by 80%.

Tube Lines was also highly commended for biodiversity protection for its work in safeguarding and enhancing UK habitats and species. Just last month, Tube Lines became the first railway company in the UK to eradicate Japanese Knotweed (fallopia japonica spp) from its sites, through pioneering an environmentally friendly and cost effective weed killer (Tordon). Large swathes of London’s green corridor are now free from the alien menace thanks to Tube Lines successfully clearing it from 150 km of trackside embankment along its three Tube lines.