• Question: hello, sorry for the inconvinience however i have always worried incase the rainforest gets cut down and all the animals have no where to live , why do we keep making machines like this and making the animals homeless

    Asked by katherine14 to Mark, Cathy on 15 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Mark Greaves

      Mark Greaves answered on 15 Jun 2014:

      Hi Katherine,

      Manufacturers will produce these machines as long as there is demand for them.

      United Utilities manage a vast amount of land and on occasion we do have to fell trees for one reason or another so we need the machines to do it. We do always try to ensure as little disruption to habits as possible and we aim to replace more habit than we take away.

      With regard to the rainforest I do think it’s a shame that such a large amount is being destroyed.

      If you want to find out more about the environment and how we look after & manage it please ask and I’ll put them to our Environment & Sustainability team.

      Mark

    • Photo: Cathy Fraser

      Cathy Fraser answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Hi Katherine

      Being concerned about the environment, and about our sustainability is a good thing and something engineers need to take into consideration when carrying out their work.

      For each project National Grid undertakes we’ll carry out a lot of environmental assessments to understand what impact our work will have. We’ll also look at ways to avoid that impact if possible. One example of this is if we’ve found protected species on a site (for example protected birds nesting on a pylon) then we’ll avoid disturbing them with our activities.

      For the UK and worldwide there are several laws/regulations on things like emissions from power stations, or what fuel is burnt. Again, that’s governments and Countries realising that if we don’t look after the natural environment it will damage the planet and ultimately the human race.

      National Grid publish a sustainability framework with a brochure and animation here on the work we do: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/responsibility/Connecting-for-tomorrow/Preserving-for-the-future/sustainability/

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