FCAB Had a Very Successful 2021
8th August 2022
The Antofagasta-Bolivia Railway Company has released its 2021 Sustainability Report
The leading transport company in Chile’s Antofagasta Region transported 6.7 million tonnes of cargo through its 720 kilometres of railway track in 2021.
FCAB has recently published its 2021 Sustainability Report on its website (fcab.cl), which provides information on its main advances, challenges and forecasts during the year as the leading cargo transport company in the Antofagasta Region.
The company, which is over 130 years old, reports on its main environmental, social and governance milestones during a year that had many COVID-related challenges and during which the safety and health of its workers continued to be its number one priority. At the same time, the company also implemented concrete actions to add value to its development strategy and organisational aspiration, which is that it works in a safe, standardised and efficient way, in order to deliver a reliable service in accordance with the transport schedules agreed with its customers.
"We have published our 2021 Sustainability Report for the community in general. It showcases the significant progress made in terms of social, community and environmental management, as well as its good safety and health results, and its strong financial results," said Katharina Jenny, FCAB’s CEO.
One of the main achievements of the company during 2021, was to reduce its accident rate. The company posted zero fatal accidents and also reduced high potential accidents by 47%, compared with 2020.
During the same period, noise management was strengthened with actions taken to mitigate its impact on the communities close to the company's operations. This included installing acoustic blankets, lubricating railway lines and various other measures.
Another notable development was that the company increased the percentage of women it its workforce to 16.4%. Of whom, 36% were in executive decision-making positions and 9.6% worked in the railway operations.
On the environmental side, the company is promoting an initiative to enable locomotives that currently run on diesel to operate on hydrogen. This initiative was selected by Chile´s Energy Sustainability Agency in a Green Hydrogen accelerator competition for its support. The aim of the initiative is to significantly reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to combatting climate change.
Along similar lines, and to contribute to a circular economy model, in 2021 a project was designed to recycle 12,000 tonnes of scrap metal from FCAB's yards, which was an 8-fold increase in recycling compared to the previous year.
City project
The company is currently working on a conversion plan, to change the use of an area previously used as rail yards to another use such as residential accommodation. This land development project has already been unanimously approved by the Antofagasta Environmental Assessment Commission and the next stages are cleaning the soil and then development of the property.
These achievements undoubtedly put FCAB at the forefront of rail transport in the region for the next 100 years.