Key climate target achieved: Knorr-Bremse operations around the world are now carbon-neutral

Knorr-Bremse, the global market leader for braking systems and a leading supplier of other rail and commercial vehicle systems, has achieved a key climate milestone: carbon neutrality across all Group sites. Operations at the Group’s global locations have been carbon-neutral (Scope 1 und 2) since the end of 2021. Knorr-Bremse is also on track to achieve the ambitious goal of halving carbon emissions by 2030 – without applying carbon credits or offsets.

“We regard climate action as a key aspect of our corporate responsibility. As part of our Climate Strategy 2030, we’re pressing ahead with our climate action initiatives as our corporate contribution to the Paris Climate Accords. In 2021, we reached a key milestone – to make our Knorr-Bremse operations carbon-neutral. And by 2021, we also succeeded in cutting our CO2 emissions by more than 73 percent compared with 2018,” says Frank Markus Weber, CFO and Executive Board Spokesperson at Knorr-Bremse AG.

Knorr-Bremse reduces CO2 emissions

Knorr-Bremse’s Climate Strategy 2030 has set an ambitious target: to halve Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions from all Knorr-Bremse sites by 2030. This reduction will be achieved by leveraging three parameters: energy efficiency, in-house energy generation, and procurement of energy from renewable sources. Any unavoidable emissions that may remain once the company has reached its reduction target will be further reduced by using additional renewable energy, or otherwise offset by subscribing to Gold Standard climate protection projects.

As a result of intensive, ongoing investment in the three solutions described above, residual emissions were cut to 35,000 metric tons by the end of 2021. For comparison, in baseline year 2018, Knorr-Bremse sites were still generating a total of 133,000 metric tons of carbon emissions. Both production and service sites were responsible for a significant proportion of these emissions. The successful reduction was largely due to the use of green energy, which accounts for a steadily increasing share of Knorr-Bremse’s energy consumption. In 2021, 98 percent of the electricity supplied to Knorr-Bremse worldwide came from renewable energy sources, obtained through green-energy contracts or certificates. Since 2019, Knorr-Bremse has also implemented projects for saving 5,500 MWh of energy per year, and for expanding the Group’s in-house electricity generation capacity by 1,900 MWh per year.

In May this year, Knorr-Bremse will disclose selected Scope 3 emissions for the first time, together with information required by the TFCD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures), in the Group’s Sustainability Report 2021.

Knorr-Bremse’s Climate Strategy 2030 acknowledged by CDP

In the latest assessment by global non-profit environmental organization CDP, Knorr-Bremse was awarded a “B” – Management Level – rating for its transparency and climate action initiatives. Every year, CDP adopts an investor’s perspective and evaluates the transparency of companies and cities worldwide with respect to their impact on climate change, deforestation and water security. Knorr-Bremse’s good CDP score reflects the transparency and effectiveness of Knorr-Bremse’s climate protection activities.

Further details of Knorr-Bremse’s climate actions and other key performance indicators may be found in the Group’s Annual Report 2021.