Deutsche Bahn wants to make its communication more sustainable – Whether in everyday office life or when communicating with customers and employees. That is why she gradually reduces the amount of materials which are printed out, such as brochures, files, pay statements or receipts and therefore conserves valuable resources.
Digital services for passengers
Whether it's a digital receipt in the on-board catering, a daily newspaper and customer magazine for tablet & Co or less paper in the travel center: On the way to greater sustainability, DB is offering more services digitally and is increasingly focusing on paperless communication.
Digital receipt in on-board catering
In the on-board catering, for example, DB has introduced a receipt for cell phones. This gives guests the choice of receiving a printed or digital receipt. It's very simple: after payment, the digital receipt can be downloaded as a JPEG file directly onto a cell phone using a QR code. How much paper is saved in the end is up to the guests. But the savings potential is huge.
DB Mobil online magazine
But DB is also saving paper in other areas: passengers can read numerous magazines and, in first class, various daily newspapers free of charge on the ICE Portal. The customer magazine DB MOBIL is no longer available in the paper edition. Since 2023, the content has been published exclusively in digital form on the new website dbmobil.de. With more multimedia formats such as the DB MOBIL podcast, Deutsche Bahn is also responding to the increased interest in lifestyle topics related to sustainability and environmentally friendly mobility.
Less paper in DB Travel Centers
in DB's travel centers, the display of printed advertising materials has also been significantly reduced. This will help to cut consumption of up to 50 metric tons of recycled paper and a lot of water every year.
However, this does not mean less service for DB´s passengers. All important information is available digitally. Passengers can find real-time information about their connections via the DB Navigator, the DB route agent or at bahn.de/reiseauskunft. Personal timetables can also be created online there, which can be printed out at ticket machines if desired.
Your Travel Guide - reach your destination without paper
By dispensing with the "Your Travel Guide" leaflet, DB is saving around 960 tons of recycled paper each year. Since fall 2020, the printed route information that was displayed on DB long distance trains has been discontinued. Instead, DB informs passengers digitally about their route and possible connections on information monitors in the trains or in the ICE Portal.
Digital services for employees
Whether it's the digital employee archive, electronic invoicing or the new timetable database, Deutsche Bahn is increasingly using digital solutions to communicate with its employees.
Digital business card
Employees can share their professional contact information with colleagues and business partners via QR code using digital business cards. Compared to paper cards, this saves a significant amount of paper and keeps information always current and accessible.
Personal mail (powered by bitkasten)
Since March 2020, Deutsche Bahn has also expanded the digital service for employees. With the digital employee archive "bitkasten", monthly payslips and other personnel mail can be easily received and archived. Employees can also upload private receipts and store them securely – all digitally. Millions of payroll documents send by post can be saved and thus many tons of paper per year.
With the "Reisekosten" app, Deutsche Bahn made it easier for its employees to account for business trips. The vast majority of them already uses this digital service from DB Personnel Service.
Digital travel expense management
Deutsche Bahn has also simplified business travel expense processing with a digital app. Today, the majority of employees already use this digital service provided by DB HR.
Digital reception as a pilot project
Also the colleagues at the reception in the Silvertower in Frankfurt show how easy it can be to save paper in the office. The reception service in the office building was digitized in a pilot project. Visitors and suppliers check in digitally. This saves several thousand sheets of paper per month. The software used will be introduced in other DB buildings too. In addition to visitor statistics being recorded, a digital system for managing lost property is also in the pipeline.
Electronic invoicing
With "eInvoice", Deutsche Bahn sends and receives invoices electronically. Together with its customers and service providers, this saves DB millions of pages of paper every year. In many Group companies, paper is also no longer used when archiving files, for example.
Less paper thanks to new timetable database
DB is also continuing to reduce the use of paper in its signal boxes. For example, it uses a digital database to control daily timetable changes. This avoids changes being printed out on paper.
"REFI "nized maintenance
Since November 2023, the "REFI" app has been used in Deutsche Bahn's plants for the local distribution of regulations. It simplifies the provision of new instructions and the corresponding confirmation by employees. When changes were made to the maintenance regulations, documents relating to new instructions had to be assigned to employees and printed out beforehand. This cost a lot of time and paper. Thanks to "REFI", this process is now completely digital and new instructions are sent directly to the right employees.
Deutsche Bahn's numerous initiatives not only save a lot of space, but also waste paper. This conserves resources and protects the climate.
