With environmental issues more urgent than ever, the RailStaff Awards celebrates those who have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to driving positive change in the realm of sustainability, climate action, and achieving net-zero impact.
The Sustainability Champion of the Year Award rewards individuals and teams who have taken extraordinary steps to reshape practices, policies, and perspectives, forging a path toward a greener, brighter future.
The 2025 Award was presented to a team from Advanced Hydrogen Technology (AHT), K2C Rail, RSK-1stinrail, DB-ESG, HNRC-Swietelsky, who worked together to pioneer a breakthrough in reducing scope 1 emissions from diesel engines across the rail sector.
Central to the initiative was the Engine Carbon Clean system – a hydrogen-powered, chemical-free cleaning solution that removes carbon build-up in just 45 minutes. Independently validated, the ECC has achieved CO₂ reductions of over 30%, improved fuel efficiency, and lowered maintenance needs, proving a practical step toward a cleaner, more sustainable railway.
“Although AHT developed the technology, without RSK-1stinrail, K2C, HNRC-Sertowski, and, DB-ESG, we wouldn’t have entered the rail industry,” said Ben Kattenhorn from AHT.
“The industry was not on our radar, but now we’ve been introduced we can see how absolutely huge this industry is and it could become the one of the biggest parts of our business.
“I think we’re going to see combustion engines in use for the next 30-40 years – there’s no way around it – but we still have to make rail cleaner and that’s where our ECC technology comes in.
Hitachi Rail proudly sponsored this year’s Sustainability Champion Award. As a trusted partner to operators around the world, with expertise across every part of the rail ecosystems, Hitachi Rail is committed to driving a sustainable mobility transition and helping every passenger, customer, and community enjoy more connected, seamless, and sustainable transport.
The RailStaff Awards thanks Hitachi Rail for its support.
Highly commended:
Quattro Sustainability Team, Quatro Plant
Riona Ainge, Systra
Back next year
We have exciting sponsorship opportunities available for the 2026 awards.
If you’re interested in discussing this further or would like to put forward nominations from your team for future awards, please feel free to contact us by email at [email protected] or call us on 01530 816 440.
You can also find out more and view the upcoming pictures and videos from the evening by visiting our website www.RailStaffAwards.com.
