Mobile, flexible – and clean
How Tchibo makes business travel as environmentally sound as possible.
Tchibo cannot completely avoid business travel. However, we are committed to minimising the environmental impact of business travel and flights. We apply a range of measures to ensure that CO2 emissions generated by our fleet are as low as possible.
Our business partners expect us to be highly flexible. It is also very important to maintain personal contact with colleagues, customers and suppliers. Big companies like Tchibo therefore need to be mobile. As well as environmental aspects, though, economical use of time also has to be taken into consideration. This is why we still cannot do completely without company cars. However, we take great care to limit the environmental impact of our fleet as far as possible.
A greener fleet thanks to BlueMotion
In 2010, we continued to replace vehicles in our sales fleet with more economical BlueMotion vehicles from VW and Audi. We aim to reduce the fleet’s CO2 average below the EU target value of 130 g/km by 2012. Since 2008 we have replaced 258 out of 516 company cars with more economic vehicles.
We have also been testing the Toyota Prius hybrid in our internal vehicle fleet. If the pilot phase produces positive results, we will use more vehicles of this type.
We have resolved to develop and implement an approach to environmental optimisation of our executives’ company car fleet in 2011.
Clean driving in Hamburg – Tchibo is a part of it
Hamburg is one of eight electric mobility pilot regions in Germany. Funded by the German federal government, the project investigates technical issues and assesses user behaviour. Tchibo is participating in this innovative initiative. At the beginning of 2011, Tchibo hired two electrically powered Smarts for our Hamburg-based fleet, and we will provide our data and share our experiences.
Looking for the most environmentally friendly driver
Since the end of 2007 our “Eco Driver” competition has been looking every quarter for the company car drivers who save the most fuel. Registered users of company cars who drive more economically than in the past and correspondingly record lower fuel consumption are eligible to participate in a prize draw. The competition runs for twelve months. Once every three months, prizes are awarded to three “Eco Drivers”.
In 2010, 230 out of 516 users of company cars registered for the competition. The campaign raises awareness of environmentally friendly driving behaviour and has seen a saving for Tchibo of more than 160 t in CO2 emissions and several thousands of litres of fuel since launch.
Flights increase business travel-related CO2 emissions but cannot always be avoided
Engaging in direct dialogue with our international business partners is very important to us. We use modern means of communication, including telephone and video conferences, wherever possible. However, these technology-based forms of communication are not always an appropriate substitute for face-to-face meetings, and – for instance in the case of our involvement in countries where we source our products – not always available or suitable for gaining a clear idea of the situation on the ground. This is why the number of flights increased last year, and travel-related CO2 emissions rose slightly compared to 2009. We are nevertheless certain that face-to-face conversations and meetings on site are important for improving the environmental impact generated across our value chains in the medium and long term.
Total distance covered in business journeys (2008-2010)
CO2 emissions related to business travel (2008-2010)
Fuel consumption of the Tchibo fleet and associated CO2 emissions (2008-2010)
