Umwelt und Klima

Climate change affects us all! It is one of the most critical risks facing our world today. But we all have an important lever at our disposal when it comes to reducing CO₂ emissions and meeting the 1.5 degree target set by the Paris Agreement: urban mobility. HOCHBAHN is well aware of the responsibility it carries on behalf of the city. Even now, 25% of Hamburg’s CO₂ footprint can already be attributed to mobility. By 2050, 70 to 80% of the world’s population will live in cities.

We have set ourselves an ambitious goal: by 2030, HOCHBAHN will be carbon neutral in terms of emissions from energy consumption and the loss of volatile gases.

We will achieve this by reducing these emissions by at least 90% compared to 2024 and offsetting any remaining emissions through approved climate protection and neutralisation projects.  

How will we do that? 

• With 100% high-quality certified green electricity
• By investing in zero-emission buses
• With a fleet of vehicles that will be emission-free in the future
• By reducing emissions produced from heating and cooling our operating and administrative locations
• With approved climate protection and neutralisation projects for remaining CO₂ residues.  

We are monitoring other indirect emissions (Scope 3), including the carbon footprint of procured products and services, and are committed to continuously reducing these emissions. 

Transporting Hamburg to a sustainable future: 

We are replacing the majority of our diesel buses with zero-emission vehicles. Around 300 production-ready electric buses are already in service in Hamburg today. A further 240 electric buses are set to be added by 2031. Even our current diesel buses already emit significantly less nitrogen oxides and particulate matter than their predecessors. Since 2018, we have been operating in Hamburg exclusively with vehicles that meet the Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards. As a transitional solution, all diesel buses still in service will be converted to HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oils) from 2026.

You can learn more about the  conversion of our fleet to e-buses here. 

Saving for all it’s worth 

As a member of the “UmweltPartnerschaft Hamburg”, the city’s Environmental Alliance, we have been focused on a strict drive since 2007 to cut down on our energy consumption and pollutant emissions. One of the ways we’re doing this is with flywheel energy storage. Our modern U-Bahn trains feed up to 40 percent of the energy generated during braking back into the traction current network. Other U-Bahn vehicles can then re-use this energy again. And if there doesn’t happen to be a train nearby that can use the energy, it is stored instead. Thanks to our two flywheel storage systems, we save a total of up to 800,000 kilowatt hours of energy each year. 

Shorter stopping times also mean that our escalators save 140,000 kWh per year. After all, if nobody is using an escalator at a particular time, there is no reason for it to be moving. 

100 family households in Hamburg... 

... could be supplied with the electricity that we are now set to save every year since replacing fluorescent lighting with LEDs in 2019. 

400,000 kilowatt hours less electricity: that is the result of our drive in 2018 to replace lights at bus stops, in depots and works garages. 

Sustainability at HOCHBAHN: