Responsibility for our environment

With the Green Transformation, we are not only greening all our products and services, we are also making Deutsche Bahn and the way we work even greener and more sustainable. To this end, we have defined five fields of action: climate protection, nature conservation, resource protection, noise protection and social responsibility.

With our "Strong Rail" umbrella strategy, we in the DB Group are pursuing the goal of leaving our planet livable for future generations. We are implementing this goal with the green transformation. In terms of climate protection, this means that by 2030 we at Deutsche Bahn will have already more than halved our CO2 emissions compared with 2006. We will be climate neutral by 2040. To achieve this, we are working together with DB Energie to ensure that our maintenance depots have a green heat supply and an ever-increasing proportion of green electricity. By using renewable energy, we are making an effective contribution to reducing CO2 emissions.

For example, the use of solar thermal systems at the Dessau maintenance depot is already reducing the amount of water needed for heating by up to 50 percent. In the context of green depot renovation, there are further examples from our maintenance depots where we are making a sustainable contribution to energy efficiency through measures to renovate buildings to make them more energy-efficient or by modernizing machinery and equipment. Together with our partners and customers, we develop products and solutions that meet our high standards of innovation and sustainability.

The best example of this is the HELMS locomotive (Hybrid Electro-Mechanical Shunter). It represents the environmentally friendly hybridization and modernization solution for the class 294, which was developed in our Cottbus maintenance depot as an innovation project in the DB network of DB Fahrzeuginstandhaltung, DB Cargo and DB Systemtechnik.

For us, environmental protection also means maintaining a healthy ecosystem. That is why we use resources carefully. By using innovative 3D printing processes, for example, we specifically produce spare parts ourselves that are no longer available, thereby also reducing the consumption of raw materials in maintenance. We have been continuously meeting our target of maintaining the recycling rate of our waste at over 95% for several years now. 

But for a healthy ecosystem, we go a step further by protecting habitats for endangered animals and plants and by working to promote biodiversity. This happens, for example, wherever we build new workshops or track facilities to expand our maintenance capacities. Therefore, we already pay careful attention during the planning stage to ensure that animals and plants are not harmed in the process. For their own protection, we are temporarily relocating them to new quarters before construction begins. In projects that have already been completed, we have given a new home to sand lizards, ants and other protected species.

As part of the green mobility company, we are making our contribution today, for tomorrow and for the future.