Global raw material consumption significantly exceeds nature's regenerative capacity. We at Deutsche Bahn are taking responsibility and ensuring that we use our resources carefully, even on board our trains. We are collaborating with the Berlin-based start-up share to provide sustainable products to guests of our on-board food service while supporting social projects.
Drinking and sharing
Since September 2020, Deutsche Bahn’s customers have been able to buy sustainable mineral water bottles from share in the on-board bistros of our ICE and IC/EC trains, thereby financing projects to build drinking water wells around the world. The idea of drinking and sharing is simple: For every bottle of share mineral water you buy, one day of drinking water is donated to a person in need, as share uses the proceeds to build or repair drinking water wells and hand pumps. DB sold around 2.3 million bottles of water from share each year. Since the start of the cooperation, more than 20 wells have been repaired or newly built in Liberia, Colombia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, among others. So far, we have been able to create a permanent water supply for over 13,000 people together with our guests.
This collaboration will also help in protecting resources: we can thus save around 38 metric tons of plastic per year by using the new half-liter reusable bottle instead of conventional reusable bottles. This is because share's bottles are made from 35 percent recycled plastic.
Enjoy chocolate and do something good
Starting in March 2023, our 1st class passengers on DB long-distance trains will receive a sustainable and resource-saving guest gift: the new "favorite guest" chocolate is produced by share in Belgium using fairtrade cocoa and comes in an FSC-certified paper packet.
In addition, a donation of five cents per "favorite guest" goes to Tafel Deutschland e.V. to expand the food bank charity's logistics and refrigeration infrastructure. In this way, even more food can be saved and distributed to Tafel clients in the future.
