St Pancras International: Project Peatlands

As well as raising awareness to travellers and customers, Project Peatlands an eco-project with genuinely measurable outcomes. “On average, every four sales at St Pancras prevent a projected 1kg of CO₂ from being released into the atmosphere,” says Sam. “So, for any local customer who might be buying groceries or necessities from shops such as Boots or Holland & Barratt, they can do this and make a positive difference to the environment at the same time.”

Just this April, thanks to the spending of visitors in the Station, it passed the milestone of having prevented 2 million kg of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere through peatlands restoration. It’s now well on the way to reaching the 3 million target HS1 first set out to achieve.

“Peatland restoration is largely about stopping them from drying out,” Sam tells us, “so a saturated peatland is a healthy peatland. This means that much of the restoration work focusses on blocking man-made grips and gullies to help retain water rather than allowing it to run-off. To facilitate this work, we partnered with Forest Carbon; a business that develops nature-based climate projects in the UK including woodland creation. Their peatland restoration projects are certified by the Peatland Code which is supported by the IUCN, assuring the additionality and permanence of each tonne of carbon stored. I’m excited that we’re planning to take the train to visit the Gameshope Loch site in the Scottish Borders soon to observe the good work that Forest Carbon are undertaking on our behalf.”