Green Response Environmental & Rail: Supporting Canadian railways’ sustainability drive
Posted onCanada’s railways are the most environmentally sound way to move both people and goods over land.
Each year, our railways move tens of millions of people and 70% of all intercity freight, while producing only 1% of Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Moving the needle on sustainability isn’t on railways alone; it takes a team of allies and partners.
Green Response Environmental & Rail (GR) is one such partner for greener rail.
Based in southern Ontario, GR Environmental has a comprehensive suite of services, some available 24/7/365, to support sustainability in modern rail operations.
“We’re pivoting into a full suite of track services such as maintenance and inspections, new track construction, thermite welding, flagging, support for all Class 1 and short line railways, and much more,” said CEO Jon Legato.
GR Environmental supports Class 1s (including Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and shortlines as they move goods across North America and contribute to our shared prosperity.
Apart from being a full service railway contractor, GR also provides environmental support. Dealing with environmental issues isn’t always a clean, straight-forward fix. GR Environmental tackles many intricate and complicated projects.
Legato says he and his team know how critical it is for railways to get back up and running in a safe and efficient manner after an incident, and will move mountains to return a site to its original condition.
He says: “In all of our years of work, we have yet to come across a site we haven’t left as it was before. Sometimes we exhaust our in-house options. But when that happens, we find and bring in other experts to get the job done well. When they call us, we can take care of them from start to finish.”
Legato says the company’s service offerings allow customers to come to them to do an initial response, mitigate the damage, and clean the site without having to go elsewhere and hire multiple teams.
“We’ll never lose track of where we came from, where we started, and what we do for the railways,” said Legato. “Some of our competitors may be larger companies that are more corporate. We’re a team of 38 and we treat our customers and our co-workers like family.”
GR Environmental plans to keep that family-feel even as they grow.
“We hope to grow over the next couple of years to 100 staff successfully, safely, and efficiently,” said Legato.
Canada’s railways have a long and successful track record of being environmentally conscious and sustainable. Accident rates are lower than other modes, and modal shift toward rail is good for our environment and our economy.
In GR Environmental & Rail, railways have a dedicated partner in the drive to getting even greener.
“We’re very passionate about our service and care about the difference we make,” said Legato.
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