Sustainable Purchasing

Taking responsibility along the value chain is part of our self-image as a sustainable company. Strategic procurement, including the selection of suppliers and materials, lays the foundation for Knorr-Bremse’s sustainable, reliable and safe products.

As a global Group, we work with a large number of predominantly local suppliers. We currently purchase products and services from approximately 30,000 suppliers from over 70 countries. They include roughly 7,000 partners for the manufacturing and production of parts, components, and materials for our products; just by themselves, they account for 74% of procurement spending. The ordered products primarily comprise metals, friction components, electronic components and plastics, with the proportion of raw materials purchased by us being low.

We are aware that Knorr-Bremse’s selection of suppliers has a significant impact on the environment and society in production countries. Working together with our suppliers, we want to improve sustainability in the supply chain and minimize risk.

The Knorr-Bremse strategy for sustainable procurement is embedded in purchasing processes across the Group. The purchasing managers for direct and indirect materials are responsible for implementing sustainable procurement. Compliance with and optimization of sustainability standards in the supply chain are supported by experts at Group level. The Sustainable Procurement Steering Committee discusses and decides on strategic and current sustainability topics several times a year. It consists of the heads of Knorr-Bremse’s global purchasing units and the head of the Sustainability department.

We provide process descriptions and guidance to implement our sustainability standards in internal procurement processes. These give an overview of the sustainability criteria and management approaches that we incorporate into the global purchasing processes. Internal guidelines specify the extent to which sustainability aspects are to be taken into account in purchasing decisions for various categories, including renewable energy, business travel, or energy-efficient products, The focus of purchasing: Scope 3 In 2023, the focus of the purchasing department’s sustainability activities was again on its contribution to reducing CO2e. Continued efforts were undertaken to reduce emissions from purchased goods and services (Scope 3.1) ( Climate Protection). In addition, a cross-functional and cross-divisional Scope 3 project team tackled the new Scope 3 target of cutting CO2 emissions by 25% by 2030. It develops action plans and decarbonization strategies for the supply chain. The core tasks in 2023 were to improve the data quality, analyze major emission drivers, and communicate directly with significant suppliers about possible reduction initiatives. Moreover, we worked on solutions for collecting primary CO2 data from suppliers. To do this, we ran a pilot project which collated the carbon balance and reduction efforts of suppliers of greatly varying characteristics in a carbon accounting tool. This helps us to increase transparency in the supply chain and obtain findings to align our future data collection processes. Governance | 132 equipment, and services. As part of our EcoDesign approach, we are working on implementing sustainability requirements in the material specifications of the products and components we acquire.