Environmental Management
The carrier Railway makes an important contribution to environmental and climate protection.
Environment and sustainability
Rail Cargo Austria banks on innovative solutions in favour of the environment and sustainability and thus focuses on ensuring that there is a balance between economic, social and ecological requirements.
Dialog on environmental protection issues
In order to maintain a dialog on matters of environmental protection, RCA has appointed an Environmental Representative, who can be contacted by email at: umwelt@railcargo.at. Do not hesitate to send us any proposals, suggestions or complaints or to get into contact with the person competent to deal with your concern.
RCA environmental management
Rail Cargo Austria was one of Austria’s first logistics companies to receive Environmental Management Certification according to ISO 14001:2004 in early 2008. In order to identify potential areas of improvement and to exploit these, all impacts of the company's activities on the environment are recorded within the scope of the environmental management and required measures taken.
Exemplary activities
Measures regarding the environmental aspect noise: modernisation of the
freight car fleet
Within the scope of the fleet renewal programme to be implemented in the coming
years, Rail Cargo Austria will equip its fleet with synthetic brake shoe inserts
and thus contribute to a reduction of noise emission.
Measures regarding the environmental aspect mobility: participation in
fuel saving training
ModernDriving is a campaign of the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry,
Environment and Water Management in the context of the initiative klima:aktiv.
This campaign promotes a way of driving that combines safety, cost-effectiveness
and environmentally sound driving. The aim is to save fuel costs and to reduce
CO2 emissions to the environment.
Eco-balance confirms environmental friendliness of the railway
According to a study of the Federal Environmental Agency (basis 2008), the total
CO2 emissions of freight transport on rails are 6.7 g/tkm. In comparison, total
CO2 emissions of freight transport by truck are 100.9 g/tkm. A clear advantage
for the railway compared with the road regarding the (direct and upstream)
greenhouse gas emissions. The good result Rail Cargo Austria and all of ÖBB
achieved in the eco-balance can be attributed to the high percentage of
electrical drives as well as the high contribution of hydropower to the energy
supply.
Protection of resources, reduction of energy use
Aside from its successes in the transport sector, Rail Cargo Austria also
strives to positively influence its environmental impacts in the areas of energy,
energy use and energy efficiency. Therefore, RCA’s efforts were and still are
focused on reducing standby times in the IT-area. In the industrial
lighting sector, there are projects to optimise quality and the times during
which artificial lighting is needed, as well as to save energy and thus to
reduce emissions.
Cooperation with external partners
To ensure a responsible relation between economy and ecology as well as to
reduce the use of environmentally critical materials, Rail Cargo Austria both
financially and logistically supports a project of Holzforschung Austria:
"Molekularbiologisches Befallsmonitoring zur Biozidreduktion [molecular
biological infestation monitoring for biocide reduction]”.
These activities that are already in the planning stage and many future activities will help us and our fellow human beings to successfully continue the path to sustainability we have already embarked on.