Resource protection

Nothing lasts forever, and our planet's resources are no exception. Despite this fact, a lot more raw materials are being consumed worldwide than nature can regenerate. At Deutsche Bahn we believe this gives us a responsibility to utilize available resources prudently. That is why we want to have implemented a circular economy at DB by 2040.

A circular economy aims to reduce waste to a minimum and use resources for as long as possible. Circular systems therefore use reuse, sharing, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling to create a closed system. In this way, the life cycle of products can be extended sustainably.

As Deutsche Bahn, we consider our entire value chain - from procurement to operational use and disposal. We want to preserve the value of our key production equipment and products and the resources they contain within the economy for as long as possible.

With regard to the circular economy, we examine our resource flows both in procurement and in waste management. To this end, we have carried out a comprehensive material flow analysis in recent years to determine the quantities and recycling potential of our main resources.

We require large quantities of material for the maintenance and expansion of our infrastructure – primarily rail steel, ballast and concrete sleepers. These three resources account for around 80 percent of the weight of our total material usage in the rail system network. In the coming years, we will significantly increase the recycled content of these three resources. We have set binding targets to achieve by 2030.

For example, we will use almost twice as much recycled rail steel in 2030 as in 2019, thus increasing the recycled content from 25% to around 45%. The percentage of recycled ballast is expected to rise from 13.3% to around 40% in the same period, tripling the current percentage. And for concrete sleepers, we will use five times as much recycled material, increasing the percentage from 5.7% in 2019 to about 30% in 2030. This will reduce our emissions by around 300,000 metric tons of CO2e and save around ten million metric tons of new materials.

Another lever on our path to a circular economy is our approach to materials that have already been used. We therefore want to maintain our recycling rate at a very high level of at least 95%. The recycling rate includes all of our waste - including construction waste, (electronic) scrap, municipal waste, paper and waste oil.

The construction and maintenance of rail infrastructure and our vehicle fleet in particular generate waste that contains valuable resources such as metals and mineral building materials. Most of this waste is already recycled and therefore remains available to the economic cycle.

With our internal waste management system, we collect and dispose of almost every type of waste separately according to individual fractions. If materials and substances are no longer required, we check whether they can be recycled and how they leave the DB Group. This allows us to return the waste to the cycle and generate revenue for specific types of waste.

In order to drive forward the development of recycled and recyclable products, we are establishing and expanding partnerships with suppliers. Through our active involvement in national and international associations and committees such as the BDI, Eurospec and the UIC, we are already networked with various players on the subject of the circular economy.

Our goal of a circular economy is also an important lever for us to reduce CO2e emissions in Scope 3. We therefore pay attention to the careful use of resources throughout the Group and make resource protection visible for everyone with numerous measures that go beyond recycled content and recycling levels.

Our fleet

In the future, we will pay even greater attention to using resources economically in new vehicles. As a result, we will only purchase vehicles that have been manufactured in a resource-saving manner using recycled, recyclable and renewable resources.

We keep our existing fleet in good condition by refitting vehicles and upgrading technology. A useful technique is 3D printing, which we use to produce the specific spare and non-deliverable parts we need to operate our trains.

Sustainable food service

We already offer many sustainably sourced products on our long-distance trains and in our employee restaurants. For example, travelers can order FairTrade hot drinks and share's sustainable mineral water bottles in the on-board bistro and restaurant. In addition, since March 2022, more than half of the meals we serve on board are vegetarian or plant-based. And we have been donating unsold but edible food to non-profit food banks for many years.

In addition, we monitor our packaging use. Wherever possible, we are switching to reusable packaging in our catering facilities. We also rely on packaging that is produced in a resource-saving manner and is 100% recyclable or compostable. This helps us to consistently reduce packaging waste and conserve valuable resources.

Less paper

To save paper, we have started using alternative products in many places. We are not only making our office environment more digital, but our communication with customers as well. This saves us a lot of paper, for example, on advertising brochures, flyers, files, pay stubs and receipts.

Furthermore, we increasingly rely on digital media to communicate with our passengers: travelers can obtain quick and easy real-time information about their connections via the DB Navigator and DB Streckenagent apps and on bahn.de.

We have already switched to recycled paper wherever possible, both in our office processes and in our company publications. These include, for example, our business cards, which are printed on waste paper.

Sustainable rewards catalog

Rail travelers who participate in the BahnBonus program can exchange their points for sustainable rewards. For example, our rail rewards, such as vouchers for a free trip, are environmentally friendly because our long-distance passengers in Germany have been traveling on 100% renewable power since 2018. By 2025, the entire rewards catalog will consist of sustainable rewards.

Products without microplastics

Passengers on regional and long-distance trains use hand soap that is 100% free of microplastics. This safeguards our water supplies by preventing contamination with the tiny particles.

Sustainable office furniture

Moreover, we focus on resource protection when we set up our offices. We already prioritize sustainable procurement of office furniture, choosing items that have been awarded recognized sustainability seals, for instance.

Green IT

We give decommissioned monitors, notebooks, PCs and mobile devices a new life. To do this, we work together with various partners to recycle our IT equipment so that it can be reused. In addition, we are working on making our IT procurement processes even greener in order to contribute significantly to the resource protection target in this area as well.

As Europe's largest rail infrastructure company, our resource conservation target provides an important boost to a circular economy. In this way, we support the German and European Sustainable Development Goals and contribute to the United Nations' SDGs.