OREANDA-NEWS. Six companies in the railway industry - Alstom Transport, Bombardier Transportation, Deutsche Bahn, Knorr Bremse, Nederlandse Spoorwegen and SNCF - are launching Railsponsible on March 4th in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Railsponsible is an initiative focused on sustainable procurement to improve sustainability throughout the entire supply chain, through sharing best practices and processes, driving a common understanding across the industry, and to use and share common tools, creating efficiencies.

The vision of Railsponsible is a global railway industry where all suppliers have in place good ethical, social, environmental and business practices.

The launch event on March 4, will explore the unique opportunities and challenges of the railway industry global supply chain and how a collaborative initiative can drive the continuous improvement of sustainability practices of the railway value chain. The six founding members will sign the charter to officially launch Railsponsible and invite other companies and suppliers in the rail industry to join.

About Railsponsible

Railsponsible aims to continuously improve the sustainability practices of railway industry suppliers. In March 2015 Railsponsible will kick off its first common supplier assessment campaigns using EcoVadis. Railsponsible is facilitated by BSR, with the support of EcoVadis, bringing strong expertise in collaborative industry sustainability initiatives, as well as sustainable procurement collaborative platforms.

Railsponsible is open to all railway operators and companies across the railway industry value chain, along with key industry associations that share its vision, mission and commitments.