Energy Consumption and Decarbonization

  • Material topic: Decarbonization


  • GRI 302-1
  • GRI 302-2
  • GRI 302-3
  • GRI 302-4
  • GRI 305-1
  • GRI 305-2
  • GRI 305-3

Internet and telecommunications services such as those provided by United Internet inevitably entail substantial use of energy. Consequently, decarbonization is an important topic for United Internet and its stakeholders.

United   Internet’s offering revolves around the use of both its own and third-party data centers and the operation of the Group’s own fiber-optic network; taken together, these account for by far the largest proportion (> 80%) of the Group’s total energy consumption. In line with this, United Internet’s activities to date to save energy, increase efficiency, and reduce emissions have focused on these two areas. Information on the management approach used in the Business Applications Segment (data centers) is provided in the relevant subsection. Additional management policies for the fiber-optic network will also be developed going forward as part of a more detailed examination of the topic of decarbonization.

In addition, the United Internet Group’s business relationships impact the environment. This applies in particular to its use of its business partners’ fiber-optic networks and the energy consumption associated with this, which is also disclosed in this report. The electricity used to power third-party mobile networks (such as national roaming) is not included. Other emissions in the upstream and downstream value chain (Scope 3) have only been quantified in fragmentary form to date (e.g., emissions from business travel, purchased goods and services, and shipments to customers). United Internet intends to determine and disclose its carbon footprint for all material categories in future reports in line with the CSRD, and to develop a policy for decarbonizing its own value chain.

The decisive levers for decarbonizing United Internet’s economic activities are improving energy efficiency (especially in the Group’s own data centers and in the fiber-optic network) and reducing – and ideally completely avoiding – carbon emissions by deploying renewable energy.

All United Internet segments are accelerating the use of electricity generated from renewable energy sources (“green electricity”) on the basis of Group-wide rules and recommendations. The migration has now largely been completed for the Group’s own data centers, its offices in Germany and Austria, and the infrastructure for which it has its own direct supply contracts. Regular operations at the data centers owned by IONOS and 1&1 are emissions-free, since they source green electricity. The impact of the Group’s fiber-optic network operations is also being reduced by using green electricity. Conventional electricity is only sourced in the case of shared technical facilities and infrastructure that belong to business partners (e.g., leased data centers) and some international office locations.

Even though comprehensive, overarching decarbonization targets had not yet been defined in the reporting period, work on individual measures continued and is continuing successfully.

As in the past, more than half of total energy consumption in 2023 was attributable to the Company’s worldwide data center operations, while slightly less than one-third or so was caused by its fiber-optic network operations. Electricity and heating consumption by United Internet’s office and logistics buildings, and fuel consumption by company cars, data centers, and technical locations contribute substantially less to total energy consumption. Details on the information given in the following tabular overview can be found in the following sections.

Electricity consumption – data centers

133,005

145,070

151,849

Electricity consumption – fiber-optic and mobile network (3)

56,589

66,408

86,490

Electricity consumption – office and logistics buildings

12,409

13,491

12,789

Total electricity consumption

202,003

224,969

251,127

Heating consumption – office and logistics buildings

3,426

13,176

16,042

Total heating consumption

3,426

13,176

16,042

Gasoline consumption (company cars)

953

1,538

2,055

Diesel consumption (company cars)

7,005

9,602

10,031

Electricity consumption (company cars)

-

-

192

Fuel consumption (data centers)

711

986

1,183

Fuel consumption (technical locations)

335

Total fuel consumption

8,669

12,126

13,797

Total energy consumption

214,099

250,271

280,966

Energy consumption (1) in MWh

2021

2022 (2)

2023

(1)   The comparability of the energy consumption data for the office and logistics buildings with prior-year figures, and hence also the comparability of total energy consumption, is limited, since the basis for the data has been expanded and additional estimates for locations have been added. Further details can be found in the relevant subsections.

(2)   Figures adjusted due to better data availability.

(3)   Electricity consumed to power third-party mobile networks (such as national roaming) is not included.

Electricity consumption in the fiber-optic network rose in the reporting period due to the network expansion. Electricity consumption in the Company’s own and third-party data centers also increased slightly. No trends can be ascertained for the office and logistics buildings since the data pool for previous years is incomplete. The same applies to total energy consumption and the KPIs derived from this (such as total energy intensity).

Total energy consumption in MWh

214,099

250,271

280,966

Consolidated revenue in € million

5,646.2

5,915.1

6,213.2

Total energy intensity in Wh/€

37.9

42.3

45.2

Energy intensity (1)

2021

2022

2023

(1)   The basis of calculation for energy consumption and emissions was expanded significantly in the reporting period. As a result, the comparability of the figures given with those for previous years is highly limited.

Energy Consumption in the Data Centers

United Internet's focus is on making the services provided to customers as secure and reliable as possible while at the same time minimizing emissions. One particular issue is that, given climate change (increased energy usage due to the need for more intensive cooling, extreme weather events, heat waves, potential flooding, etc.), the Company’s reliance on external energy sources exposes it to the basic risk of energy outages and grid malfunctions. These would result not only in downtime and data losses for customers, but also to financial and reputational loss for Group companies.

Consequently, the Management Board of the IONOS Group resolved its own Climate Strategy 2030 in the reporting period. This strategy focuses on steadily reducing carbon emissions by only using renew-able energy at all of its own data centers and successively cutting the amount of electricity sourced from the national grid by also installing additional photovoltaic systems.

In addition, carbon emissions should be cut wherever possible by using biofuels to run the emergency generator sets. In this way, the strategy and the implementation of the measures it involves aim to make a significant contribution to ensuring data center operations and the Group’s overall resilience.

Continuously improving the energy efficiency of data centers operations as part of the ISO 50001-certified energy management system remains at the heart of IONOS’s efforts to improve sustainability. In addition, IONOS is focusing on georedundant operations in order to improve climate resilience and hence provide its customers with unrestricted access to applications in the long term as well.

The segment’s ESG Management department is responsible for monitoring the progress made in implementing the climate strategy. The plan is to inform the Management Board of the progress made at least once a year from 2024 onwards via the segment’s ESG Board.

The following table shows the energy used by the Group’s own and leased data centers . A slight increase can also be seen in the own data centers. Based on consolidated revenue of €6,213 million, the energy intensity for the own data centers was 19.3 Wh/€ in the reporting period. (1)

(1) Prior-year figures for energy intensity in the data centers (not included in the review): 20.1 (2022) and 20.3 (2021).

See the Zero Carbon Committed Initiative

Electricity consumption – data centers

132,198

145,070

151,849

thereof own data centers

114,372

119,911

119,991

thereof leased data centers

17,826

25,159

31,858

Fuel consumption – data centers

807

986

1,183

thereof own data centers

711

815

950

thereof leased data centers

96

171

233

Energy consumption – data centers

133,005

146,056

153,032

Energy consumption for data centers in MWh (1)

2021

2022

2023

(1)   The figures relate to own data centers and the IONOS Group’s leased data centers. In contrast to previous years, consumption for leased data centers for which no measurements or invoices were available has also been estimated from the 2022 reporting period onwards. As in previous years, electricity consumption for the 1&1 AG data centers is included under the energy consumption data for the office buildings, since it is not currently possible to capture this separately.

Reducing Emissions by Using Renewable Energy

Since 2022, only electricity sourced from renewable energy sources has been used for the IONOS Group’s own data centers worldwide (Business Applications Segment) and in the Business Access and Consumer Access segments. This practice is based on Group-wide requirements and recommendations, and segment-specific management decisions. The servers belonging to the Consumer Applications (Mail & Media) Segment in Germany are all operated in IONOS data centers – and consequently also run on emissions-free electricity. In the case of the leased data centers, the utility tariffs selected and hence decisions on the use of green electricity are the responsibility of the operators concerned.

Electricity consumption at leased data centers accounts for roughly one-fifth of electricity consumption at the Company’s own data centers. This share of electricity consumption is disclosed separately in the table above, since it cannot be assumed that emissions-free electricity is used in these data centers. In addition, residual emissions from diesel generators (emergency power) are also generated at the Company’s own data centers. Their contribution to total energy consumption at the data centers is estimated to be less than 1%.

Measures being taken to increase the use of electricity from renewable energy sources that go above and beyond purchasing green electricity include the expansion of the Company’s own photovoltaic (PV) systems. One such new system went live in 2022 at the new data center in Worcester, UK. Other PV systems for data centers were installed in the U.S.A. and France in the 2023 reporting period.

Managing Consumption with an ISO 50001-compliant Energy Management System

In 2018, the management of the IONOS data centers decided to introduce an ISO 50001-certified energy management system (EnMS). This EnMS covers the data centers that the IONOS Group operates itself, where it can directly manage energy consumption. Using it allows IONOS to continuously pursue its goals of increasing energy efficiency and ensuring transparency. Consequently, the EnMS can be used to detect any possibilities for optimizing energy efficiency early on. This means that, on the one hand, potential savings can be leveraged while on the other allowing external requirements such as those set out in Germany’s new Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) 2023 to be implemented. In this way, the EnMS makes an important contribution to sustainability management.

The head of TechOps Infrastructure is responsible for the EnMS and its strategic focus. An energy management team consisting of several members of staff ensures that the EnMS is aligned with the targets set. The team comprises the regional staff responsible for this topic at the IONOS data centers in the countries concerned (Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A). In addition, a management system manager has been appointed.

Energy Efficiency at the Group’s Own Data Centers

The modernization of legacy data center buildings and the construction of new ones have helped reduce electricity consumption in recent years and enhanced energy efficiency. Thanks to the measures taken, IONOS data centers have PUE (power usage effectiveness) ratios of between 1.24 and 1.86.

Particularly good efficiency values can be achieved with newly built data centers. The new data center in Worcester in the West Midlands (UK) commenced operations in the fall of 2022. It was designed and implemented from the start with a focus on energy efficiency and sustainability. The project aims both to increase capacity and to enhance operational efficiency in the United Kingdom, and will gradually replace the country’s previous data center in Gloucester.  

A photovoltaic system on the roof of the new data center allows the company to generate up to 10% of the energy needed itself. The emergency generator sets run on diesel made from hydrogenated vegetable oil, cutting carbon emissions by up to 90%. The CO 2 generated when manufacturing the building’s hull was offset using certificates.

IONOS is also constantly implementing projects and measures within its data centers in order to save energy and enhance energy efficiency:

  • Capacity utilization per server is being steadily increased, which could theoretically reduce the number of servers required.

  • Old servers are being replaced with more modern and more energy-efficient hardware ahead of schedule.

  • Some server hardware is built to order for United Internet. In these cases, no unnecessary components are used, and energy-saving processors and power supply units that are designed to minimize heat losses are selected, among other things.

  • The web hosting system used by United Internet Group companies is a highly optimized, proprietary, Linux-based system that allows data from thousands of customers to be managed on a single server, and hence optimizes resource usage.

  • Virtualization is increasingly facilitating the replacement of bare metal servers by virtual servers.

  • The use of containers avoids the need for redundant operating system kernel operations; instead, the kernel is shared by all instances, enabling even more elastic, load-based scaling of the IT resources provided.

Balanced Design – The New Standard for All Future Data Center Projects

The demands placed on data centers are increasing all the time – both in terms of performance and regarding environmental aspects. The challenge for operators is to find a balance between ensuring high-availability, secure operations on the one hand, and cost and energy efficiency on the other. The new data center in Worcester that was mentioned earlier aims to provide a balanced combination of availability, energy efficiency, construction time, and simple, flexible operations. It was designed to offer Uptime Institute Tier IV-compliant distributed redundancy throughout – one of the most highly redundant operating standards in the data center ecosystem. The new data center design gives IONOS a scalable, energy-efficient, state-of-the-art server and cloud infrastructure that offers high availability and an attractive price-performance ratio to match.

The new data center design also features a “pay as you grow” approach. All data centers that are newly built by IONOS, including the one in the United Kingdom, are constructed in such a way that they can be extended on the fly at any time if needed. Only essential components are installed and operated to start with – a highly cost-effective approach. As a result, there are no excess units that have to be replaced at some point because they are showing signs of age even though they have never been used. This conserves valuable resources and saves on maintenance costs, while equipment that has not yet been installed also does not consume any power. IONOS uses this approach for large components such as UPS systems, cooling generators, and cooling units.

Increasing Energy Efficiency in the Consumer Applications Segment

The volume of data on the portals (for e-mail and cloud storage) has risen sharply since 2017 (mailstore has gone from 20.6 PB in 2017 to 47 PB at the end of 2023, while cloud storage has expanded from 0.9 PB to 16.4 PB over the same period). User activity has also risen, from 1.4 billion log-ins in 2017 to nearly 3.68 billion in 2023. In addition, customers are offered a large number of new products and features that also need storage space and computing power (Smart Inbox, netID, full-text search, enhanced spam recognition, etc.). Given this clear increase in user numbers, data volumes, and functional requirements, the Consumer Applications Segment is working continuously to increase resource and energy efficiency.

Work was performed during the reporting period to develop KPIs that can be used for the long term with the goal of reliably reflecting various aspects of operations and the application environment, especially in relation to software and infrastructure efficiency, and permitting measurability. The first step was to define IT power consumption per CPU hour. The underlying data was captured in a pilot project in the cloud infrastructure and will now serve as the index baseline for comparison in the coming years.

Other KPIs that will throw light on software efficiency, user numbers, and enhancements to product features are being prepared.

The software on which GMX, WEB.DE, and mail.com brand products are based builds on a powerful server infrastructure in the IONOS data centers. In recent years, a private cloud infrastructure was developed that takes the form of 16 Kubernetes clusters in three data centers. This allows different applications to be run together on a central platform without having to provide dedicated technical resources designed to cope with maximum loads for each application. The construction and continuous expansion of the infrastructure is based on strategic decisions. The Management Board is regularly informed of the progress made. Migrating United Internet’s software assets to this platform reduced the number of servers and virtual machines despite the increase in requirements mentioned above. Today, more than 50% of the software solutions are already running in the cloud. Measures are being derived on the basis of the KPI defined above (energy consumption per CPU hour) to further optimize capacity utilization and energy efficiency going forward.

Energy Consumption by the Fiber-optic and Mobile Network

A high priority is also given to reducing electricity consumption and associated environmental impacts during fiber-optic network operations. The most important measure being taken here is to use green electricity at the Company’s own technical locations. 1&1 Versatel does not itself manage electricity procurement for those fiber-optic networks that it sources from third parties (city carriers, Deutsche Telekom, etc.). In these cases electricity consumption is paid for via usage fees. For those locations in which 1&1   Versatel cannot influence electricity sourcing, it is planning to fully offset emissions using validated certificates in the year following receipt and review of the current consumption invoices; this will be done for the first time for the 2023 reporting period. This means that offsetting for the 2023 reporting period will be performed after the sustainability report has been published.

Air conditioning technology was optimized at a number of German locations in the 2023 reporting period as part of work on expanding the 5G network by installing direct and indirect free cooling systems. This kind of system uses cool outside air for air conditioning, hence cutting energy consumption.

A clear increase in electricity consumption was recorded in the 2023 reporting period, due in particular to the steady expansion of the fiber-optic network. This is largely due to the systematic push to connect industrial estates, the construction of networks for (large) customers, partnerships with other network operators, and the acquisition of existing infrastructure.

As in previous years, the electricity consumption figures disclosed here show electricity consumption at 1&1 Versatel’s own locations and at those locations where 1&1 Versatel is a user. For the first time the figures also include consumption by the Consumer Access Segment’s mast locations that were constructed in the reporting period.

In addition to the consumption of electricity, 1&1 Versatel’s technical locations produce residual emissions from standby power systems (emergency power) during normal operations (emergency operations and testing). The continuous expansion of 1&1 Versatel’s network means that the number of technical locations is also increasing. The plan is for the central energy service provider to supply the company’s own locations with certified green energy. However, in rare exceptions power cannot be supplied via the local network provider in time. In these cases, standby power systems are being used temporarily as a stop-gap measure until regular operations can start as quick as possible and the intended energy service provider can start supplying energy, so as to avoid endangering the rollout schedule. The volume and duration of the standby operations required in these cases will be successively reduced as the network expansion process is optimized.

Electricity consumption – technical locations (1)

56,589

66,408

86,490

thereof green electricity

21,148

57,056

79,073

Fuel consumption – technical locations

n/a

n/a

335

Electricity consumption – fiber-optic and mobile network in MWh

2021

2022

2023

(1)   The figures cover electricity consumption for all 1&1 Versatel’s own technical locations, plus locations where 1&1 Versatel is a user. Consumption was estimated for a few individual locations for which no readings are currently available. The itemized consumption data shown in previous years was reported in total for the reporting period. Consumption for the 2023 reporting period also includes consumption for the 1&1 mobile network. Electricity consumed to power third-party mobile networks (such as national roaming) is not included.

Energy Consumption by Office and Logistics Buildings

United Internet’s office and logistics buildings account for a comparatively small share of the Group’s total energy consumption. These buildings need energy in the form of electricity and heating.

Efforts in the reporting period and in previous years focused on saving energy and reducing emissions in the data centers and the fiber-optic network. An end-to-end management approach for energy consumption in office and logistics buildings had not yet been put in place during the reporting period. The newly captured figures will serve as the basis for expanding policies and setting targets in this area.

Electricity Consumption at Office and Logistics Locations

The electricity sourced for a large part of the Group was switched to certified green electricity in recent years, reducing carbon emissions and the resulting climate impact. This migration process has now largely been completed, with a total of 39 – including all major – office and logistics locations in Germany and Austria now using certified green electricity.

Electricity consumption at office locations in Germany declined slightly year over year. Further analysis is needed to determine whether this decrease is attributable to energy saving measures in 2023.

Only incomplete information is available for the foreign office locations (roughly 18% of the Group’s total workforce); this applies both to consumption figures and to the use of renewable energy. Consumption for the international locations was therefore extrapolated so as to be able to disclose a total figure for electricity consumption throughout the Group.

Electricity consumption – German locations

12,409

11,463

10,359

Electricity consumption – international locations

n/a

2,028

2,430

Total electricity consumption

12,409

13,491

12,789

Electricity consumption – office and logistics buildings in MWh (1)

2021

2022 (2)

2023

(1)   The figures relate to United Internet’s offices and related technical infrastructure. The figures for the international locations are based on estimates using the location size (area, number of employees).

(2)   Figures adjusted due to better data availability.

Heating Consumption at Office and Logistics Locations

An overall estimate of heating consumption has been published for the current reporting period. Inconsistent and staggered meter reading and billing periods and the fact that, for many locations, heating consumption can only be determined using landlords’ service charge invoices make it more difficult in many locations – and in some cases impossible – to capture exact data.

During extrapolation of the heat consumption data for the current reporting period, inconsistencies in the way the prior-year estimates were calculated were discovered; these led to a significant discrepancy in the consumption data. As a result, the prior-year figures were corrected retrospectively using an optimized estimation methodology.

The figures given now offer a plausible estimate of United Internet’s total heating consumption, which – given the fact that heat generation is based on fossil fuels – make a significant contribution to the Group’s emissions.

Measured heating consumption

3,426

9,820

6,671

thereof natural gas

3,426

3,818

2,315

thereof district heating

n/a

5,760

4,188

thereof heating oil

n/a

242

169

Estimated heating consumption for remaining locations

n/a

3,355

9,371

thereof natural gas

n/a

1,391

4,321

thereof district heating

n/a

1,964

5,050

thereof heating oil

n/a

0

0

Total heating consumption

3,426

13,176

16,042

Heating consumption – office and logistics buildings in MWh (1)

2021

2022 (2)

2023

(1)   The figures for measured gas, district heating, and heating oil consumption relate to German and Austrian locations that account for roughly 40% of the Group’s office space. The actual figures for the prior year were used, since in many locations heating consumption can only be determined using landlords’ service charge invoices, which had not been submitted for the reporting period by the editorial deadline. Heating consumption was estimated for all locations for which no consumption data was available.

(2)   Figures adjusted due to better data availability.

Energy Consumption by Company Cars

United Internet works together with external partners when using rental and company cars. These partners provide it with regular information on vehicle fleet usage and evaluate fuel cards, enabling United Internet to monitor trends in fuel consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions.

Fuel consumption (gasoline and diesel) in liters

834,306

953,058

1,234,945

Fuel consumption per company vehicle in liters (1)

1,107

1,217

1,575

Electricity consumption in MWh (2)

-

-

192

Electricity consumption per company e-vehicle in MWh/vehicle

-

-

3.2

Company cars

2021

2022

2023

(1)   The number of vehicles reported as assets as of December   31 of the reporting period in question (2023: 844; 2022: 783; 2021: 754); the number of vehicles in the fleet may vary over the course of the year.

(2)   Consumption figures for e-vehicles in the reporting period were projected on the basis of the net costs and an average price per KWh, due to insufficient data being available.

Own Direct and Indirect Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The energy consumption data above permit an assessment of the United Internet Group’s direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) own greenhouse gas emissions to be made for the first time.

Although electricity consumption accounts for roughly 85–90% of United Internet’s total energy consumption, electricity-related emissions only account for roughly one-third of total emissions.

CO 2 equivalents from heating energy consumption (gas and oil)

452

1,108

1,390

CO 2 equivalents from fuel consumption in data centers

208

267

257

CO 2 equivalents from fuel consumption in technical locations

-

-

87

CO 2 equivalents from fuel consumption for company cars (3)

3,074

3,025

3,204

Total direct carbon emissions (Scope 1)

3,734

4,400

4,938

CO 2 equivalents from electricity consumption in data centers (4)

n/a

13,857

0

CO 2 equivalents from electricity consumption in the fiber-optic and mobile network

14,885

5,777

3

CO 2 equivalents from electricity consumption in offices and logistics buildings

1,549

1,572

1,718

CO 2 equivalents from electricity consumption – company cars

-

-

131

CO 2 equivalents from district heating for offices and logistics buildings

n/a

2,163

2,587

Total indirect own carbon emissions (Scope 2)

16,434

23,369

4,440

Total own carbon emissions (Scope 1+2)

20,168

27,769

9,378

Carbon emissions in tonnes of CO 2 equivalents (1)

2021

2022 (2)

2023

(1)   Energy and fuel consumption figures were converted into carbon emissions using official conversion factors provided by e.g., the Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle (the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control), the European Energy Agency, and the Association of Issuing Bodies.

(2)   Figures adjusted due to better data availability.

(3)   The emissions from fuel consumption for company cars include extrapolations.

(4)   In contrast to the previous year, emissions from leased data centers were assigned to Scope 3 instead of Scope 2 in the reporting period. These are estimated to be approximately 18,000 tonnes of CO 2 equivalents for 2023.

(5)   In contrast to the previous year, emissions from leased data centers were assigned to Scope 3 instead of Scope 2 in the reporting period. These are estimated to be approximately 18,000 tonnes of CO 2 equivalents for 2023.

A large proportion of the electricity consumed does not produce any carbon emissions since green electricity is used (market-based method). Calculating the emissions theoretically on the basis of the regional electricity mix (location-based method) produces a figure of 68,542 tonnes of CO 2 equivalents. In other words, using electricity from renewable energy sources allows United Internet to significantly reduce the Group’s total emissions.

Indirect Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Value Chain

Whereas more or less complete estimates of United Internet’s direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) own greenhouse gas emissions can be produced, it has not been possible so far to adequately analyze and quantify a large majority of the indirect emissions in its value chain (Scope 3). Existing data and comparisons with other companies suggest with a high degree of probability that Scope 3 emissions significantly exceed Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. United Internet is attempting to successively determine reliable information and estimates about all 15 Scope 3 categories (as set out in the GHG Protocol).

The following sections contain fragmentary information about two Scope 3 areas for which data and estimates have been available for some time.

Employee Mobility

  • GRI 302-1
  • GRI 302-2
  • GRI 305-1
  • GRI 305-2
  • GRI 305-3

The Group is distributed across roughly 40 locations in nine countries, a fact that makes high demands on employee mobility. Employee travel generates carbon emissions.

United Internet aims to reduce travel-related emissions, both by avoiding business trips and by using climate-neutral options such as rail travel. The Commercial Services department works closely together with HR 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.

United Internet has taken the following measures to promote environmentally friendly mobility:

  • Avoiding business trips
    Equipping meeting rooms with conference call and videoconferencing technology means that many business trips can be avoided. In addition, instant messaging services improve internal communications and can help reduce trips between locations even further.

  • Climate-friendly travel
    The approvals process is designed to encourage employees to 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 the Company’s intranet to arrange to travel together. Local rules that are similar to the general Group rules exist in some segments.

  • Vehicle fleet
    United Internet’s company car rules limit the impact the vehicle fleet has on the environment, e.g., by restricting the available engine options. In addition, the Group works continuously to ensure its fleet represents the state of the art at all times from both an environmental and an economic perspective. United Internet also examines the use of alternative technologies, with the 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.

  • 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 to improving the traffic situation by cycling to work, among other things. Employees have reacted positively to the offering.

  • Paperless travel expense claims
    Stating 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.

Passenger kilometers (pkm) for long-distance travel

842,721

3,073,332

4,853,107

Pkm for long-distance travel per employee (2)

90

311

469

CO 2 equivalents from long-distance travel in tonnes (Scope 3)

0

0

0

Pkm for local travel

74,223

273,655

305,099

CO 2 equivalents from local travel in tonnes (Scope 3)

0

0

0

Climate-neutral rail travel in % of total

100

100

100

Rail travel (1)

2021

2022

2023

(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 core employees in Germany (2023: 10,346; 2022: 9,892; 2021: 9,388).

Kerosene consumed in liters (2)

22,294

82,883

124,277

Kerosene consumed per employee in liters (3)

2.4

8.4

12.0

Total kilometers flown

626,226

2,328,162

3,452,150

CO 2 equivalents in tonnes (4) (Scope 3)

189

580.2

792.3

Air travel (1)

2021

2022

2023

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

(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) (2023: 3.60 l; 2022: 3.56 l; 2021: 3.56 l).

(3)   The figures relate to the United Internet Group’s core employees in Germany.

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

Fuel consumption (gasoline and diesel) in liters (2)

43,545

114,817

65,297

Fuel consumption per employee in liters (3)

5.3

14.4

6.3

CO 2 equivalents in tonnes (4) (Scope 3)

79

211

152

Rental cars (1)

2021

2022

2023

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

(2)   The figures are based on the service provider data and on internal extrapolations.

(3)   The figures relate to the United Internet Group’s core employees in Germany.

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

Emissions from Shipments

All 1&1 product deliveries have been climate-friendly since August 2022. 1&1 works together with Germany’s leading shipping companies to achieve this and can guarantee carbon-neutral delivery through a mix of avoiding and offsetting emissions. It pays the extra costs resulting from this for customers in full.

Based on the analyses by the relevant logistics services providers, transporting 1&1 shipments generated 1,959 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 (2022: 1,532 tonnes). (1)

These emissions were not generated by the organization itself, but are the result of its business activities and as such the Greenhouse Gas Protocol requires them to be counted towards Scope 3 emissions as purchased transportation services for products sold.

(1) The figures are based on the information supplied by 1&1’s logistics services providers. They are reported using the “well-to-wheel” (WTW) method.

CO 2 equivalents in tonnes (1) (Scope 3)

1,422

1,532

1,959

Shipping distances

2021

2022

2023

(1)   The figures are based on the information and estimates supplied by our logistics services providers. They are reported using the “well-to-wheel” (WTW) method. The figures for each previous year may change as a result of subsequent corrections.

Since August 2022, 1&1's deliveries to customers have been carbon-neutral due to offsetting. In addition, 1&1 sources packaging and printed materials from local suppliers, avoiding transporting them for long distances and cutting carbon emissions.