Every year, Allianz Germany employees travel 174 million kilometers. Manfred Lebmeier discusses how to make this mileage greener.
 | Mabfred Lebmeier, Sustainability Expert, Allianz Germany |
The Allianz car fleet should become climate-neutral. How do you want to do this?
We want to avoid emissions wherever possible. If that isn’t feasible, we’ll at least try to reduce or substitute them. Using CO2 Certificates to neutralize our emissions is an option only if nothing else is possible.
In early 2006, we decided on a limit for consumption, and hence CO2 emissions, for our car fleet. We are now reducing this limit every year. From 2008 to 2009, we cut the limit by 10 percent, from 250 gCO2/km to 225 gCO2/km.
That’s still quite a lot, but we have to offer our employees first-class cars. For many of our top managers, their car is an important tool, something resembling a mobile office. Some members of our sales force drive 60,000 to 70,000 kilometers every year.
So there’s a certain amount of emissions we can’t avoid. For some of our cars, we use our “ECOmotion” policy to neutralize emissions we cannot avoid. We have invested in wind farms in Turkey to offset these emissions.
Do you have plans for more cuts in the coming years?
Technological progress in the automotive sector is impressive. Reducing our emissions by an annual 10 percent shouldn’t be a problem. You can already find premium cars with 170 horsepower that emit around 140 gCO2/km, and there’s still a lot of potential for more efficiency.
Colleagues who don’t need a big car—either because they don’t have to represent the company or because they drive less—can also choose smaller models. That’s an increasingly popular option, even among our top employees.
We did some tests with alternative fuels, but we have to operate in all parts of the country, so we’re still dependent on gasoline and diesel. There just aren’t enough gas stations that offer natural gas or other alternative fuels yet.
 | Environmental Management at AllianzSee detailed figures for how Allianz is reducing its environmental impact |
Allianz employs nearly 30,000 people in Germany. How can you help them travel green?
We’ve developed the Allianz Leasing program. Employees who drive more than 10,000 kilometers per year for the company can lease a car at very good terms. For this program, we’ve chosen cars that are very energy efficient.
And we do encourage travelling by rail—in Germany especially on the routes where you can take the ICE, the German high-speed train. Flights between Munich and Frankfurt, for example, have decreased by more than 80 percent in the last four to five years. It’s not necessarily cheaper, but it’s more environmentally friendly and sometimes even faster.
If an employee uses his own car to travel for the company, we suggest to reduce the trips to a maximum of 200 kilometers; everything beyond that should be done by rail. We also subsidize the Bahncard, if an employee travels regularly. Traveling abroad by rail is difficult, though, so we also have to make sure that it’s not too much of a burden for our employees.
We also subsidize public transport at many of our larger sites in Germany. Many people use this. In addition, we’ve launched a car-sharing website, where co-workers can link up to share a car to get to work. And we’ve built bike ports and showers for those who want to cycle to work.
You’ve described some solutions to avoid or reduce emissions, but what do you mean by “substituting” them?
The best example of this is video and web conferencing. We’ve been working on this for quite a while now, and though it’s not easy, we see a huge potential. Technology has long been a problem, but we now have a high-tech system that offers very good sound and image quality.
However, there’s a psychological aspect to this. You have to stand in front of a camera, and there’s no direct contact between you and the people you’re talking with. That can be a bit strange, and not everyone likes it. Plus, you need professional moderation, especially when dealing with a larger number of participants
We estimate that we can substitute about 15 percent of our total business travel with video and web conferencing. That would mean saving 45 kilograms of CO2 per employee annually. That’s what we’re focusing on.
What kind of feedback do you get from employees and customers?
It’s actually quite positive. People have become aware of how important this is. Our customers usually like the idea that Allianz is trying to lead here. You don’t have to fly somewhere for a one-hour meeting—pretty much everyone agrees on that.
editor: Thilo Kunzemann
publishing date: July 7, 2009
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