Audi’s logistics department is a pioneer for climate protection. As of now, all rail transport for AUDI AG in Germany is CO2-free. Audi is the first company in Germany to organize its logistics operations by rail to be completely CO2-neutral. By changing over to DB Cargo’s “DBeco plus” product, the company will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 13,000 tons each year, achieving an important milestone along the way to CO2-neutral production.
Audi has been using environmentally friendly “DBeco plus” rail transport for its cars since 2010. Since August 1, 2010, the so-called “green trains” have been traveling from Ingolstadt to the North Sea port of Emden. Audi is therefore the first company to use trains running on green electricity. And since 2012, “green trains” have been transporting cars to Emden also from the Audi plant in Neckarsulm. Until now, almost 1,600,000 automobiles have been transported and 63,000 tons of CO2 emissions have been avoided.
“With this changeover, we are significantly reducing the CO2 emissions of our logistics operations and are making a sustainable contribution to climate protection,” stated Heiko Schultz, Head of Transport Logistics at AUDI AG. Seven years after the start of the project, all Audi transport with DB Cargo to and from the two production plants in Germany is now CO2-free. This applies not only to the trains that leave the two German plants (outbound), but also all rail transport of goods arriving at the plants (inbound), including production components and materials from suppliers. Each day, approximately 25 trains are loaded or unloaded with materials and cars at the two plants. “We are pleased to be the first rail logistics company to make our transport operations CO2-free, and thus to make an important contribution to Audi’s goal of CO2-neutral production,” added Jens Nöldner, CEO of DB Cargo Logistics GmbH.
DB Cargo first calculated the specific energy requirement for the transport operations of its “DBeco plus” product. For the actual rail transport, DB Cargo then completely replaces the required amount of energy with green electricity, which is obtained solely from renewable energy sources in Germany. DB Cargo thus carries out its transport services for Audi CO2-free and additionally invests ten percent of the revenue in the development of facilities for producing or storing regenerative electricity. This means that the climate is doubly protected by its transport for Audi.
With the changeover to rail transport, Audi is pursuing its goal of making its car manufacturing completely CO2-neutral in the foreseeable future. In 2014, Audi was the first company to have its CO2 footprint certified according to the worldwide standard ISO 14064, and uses the results of that certification to continually derive measures to reduce its environmental footprint. The company has analyzed in detail the emissions during all of an automobile’s lifecycle, and then derived suitable measures to ensure further reductions. Experts from DEKRA Certification GmbH and DEKRA Certification Inc. have examined and confirmed the data sources and calculations upon which this was based.
