Employee Mobility

Environmentally Aware Business Travel and Fuel Usage

Our Group is distributed across more than 30 locations in 11 countries, a fact that makes high demands on employee mobility. Carbon emissions are produced when our employees travel.

We aim to reduce travel-related emissions, both by avoiding business trips and by using climate-neutral options such as rail travel. Corporate Procurement and Human Resources work closely together to manage employee mobility. Responsibility for this topic ranges from business trip management through vehicle fleet monitoring down to defining the terms on which company cars are provided and can be used.

We have taken the following measures to promote eco-friendly mobility:

• Avoiding business trips
  Equipping our meeting rooms with conference call and videoconferencing technology means we can avoid the need for many business trips. In addition, instant messaging services improve internal communications and can help reduce trips between locations even further.


• Climate-friendly travel
  As part of the approvals process, we draw employees’ attention to the fact that they should use the train as their preferred means of transportation. This allows climate-neutral travel for long-distance trips. What is more, employees can use the car pool service on our intranet to arrange to travel together. Local rules exist in some areas of the organization, but these are similar to the general Group rules.


• Vehicle fleet
  Our company car rules limit the impact our fleet has on the environment, e.g., by restricting the available engine options. In addition, we track the market constantly to ensure our fleet is always state of the art from both an environmental and an economic perspective. We are also examining the use of alternative technologies, with our goal in all cases being to take economically and environmentally acceptable decisions. Vehicle fleet management is largely performed by United Internet Corporate Services. Additional local rules now only exist in a few cases. What is more, in the reporting period we introduced a cap on carbon emissions of 160 g/km per vehicle as measured by the NEDC for all vehicles acquired as from 2021, and made it possible to purchase electric vehicles.


• Leasing of company bicycles
  The United Internet Group has offered a company bicycle leasing scheme since June 2020. Employees can use the scheme to lease bicycles at a subsidized monthly rate and can actively contribute to protecting the environment and improving the traffic situation by cycling to work, among other things. Employees have reacted positively to the offering.


• Paperless travel expense claims
  Starting in 2019, the United Internet Group introduced a workflow for submitting paperless travel expense claims that also offers improved transparency as to alternative means of transportation and travel expenses.

Fuel Consumption and Carbon Emissions

We work together with external partners on the use of rental and company cars. These partners provide us with regular information on vehicle fleet usage and evaluate fuel cards, enabling us to monitor trends in fuel consumption and associated greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. Air travel is organized by travel agents who also provide us with regular information on carbon emissions, among other things. German rail network operator Deutsche Bahn supplies us with an annual client environmental data report (“Umweltbilanz”). This quantifies the carbon emissions that our employees have avoided by traveling by rail as opposed to by car. In 2021, for example, this amounted to over 143 tonnes of CO₂ (2020: over 280 tonnes; 2019: over 800 tonnes). The substantial year-over-year savings of approximately 140 tonnes of carbon emissions are associated with the slump in overall travel resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This can also be seen from the significant difference between 2019 and 2020.

Our employees traveled more than 13.41 million kilometers in the 2021 reporting period (2020: 19.10 million kilometers; 2019: 37.70 million kilometers), generating 2,441.88 tonnes of carbon emissions (2020: 3,580.44 tonnes; 2019: 6,260.43 tonnes). The following tables provide a detailed breakdown of the Group’s travel activity.

(1) The figures relate to the United Internet Group in Germany. They are taken from Deutsche Bahn’s annual client environmental data report (“Umweltbilanz”).

(2) The figures relate to the United Internet Group’s employees in Germany; 2019: 7,761; 2020: 7,929; 2021: 8,199.

(3) The decline in the 2020 and 2021 figures is due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Deutsche Bahn introduced 100% green electricity for local trains in fiscal year 2020, making climate-neutral travel possible.

(1) The figures relate to the United Internet Group in Germany.

(2) Calculated on the basis of the average fuel consumption data for passenger cars and station wagons per 100 km provided by the Umweltbundesamt (the Federal Environmental Agency): 7.4 l.

(3) The figures relate to the United Internet Group’s employees in Germany; 2019: 7,761; 2020: 7,929; 2021: 8,199..

(4) The figures are based on service provider data.

(5) The decline in the 2020 and 2021 figures is due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

(1) The figures relate to the United Internet Group in Germany, 1&1 Versatel, and the 1&1 AG, plus new orders by Strato; additionally, in the case of the 1&1 AG they include long-term rental cars and fuel for rental cars in some cases.

(2) number of vehicles reported as assets as of December 31 of the reporting period in question: 2019: 707; 2020: 765; 2021: 754; the number of cars in the fleet may vary over the course of the year.

(3) The figures are based on manual data input by users when refueling.

(4) The figures are partly based on service provider data and partly calculated using the conversion factors published by DEFRA for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

(5) The decline in the figures in 2020 and 2021 is due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to the new Guidelines on Working from Home introduced at the Company.

(1) The figures relate to the United Internet Group in Germany, including 1&1 Versatel, Strato, and relevant foreign companies, but not including Drillisch.

(2) Calculated on the basis of the average kerosene consumption data per passenger and 100 km provided by the Bundesverband der deutschen Luftverkehrswirtschaft (German Aviation Association – BDL); 2019: 3.58 l; 2020: 3.55 l; 2021: 3.56 l.

(3) The figures relate to the employees of the companies mentioned under (1).

(4) The figures as based on travel agent data.

(5) The decline in the 2020 and 2021 figures is due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.