ECOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK CONCEPT FOR DEUTSCHE BAHN AG

Development of an ecological framework concept for an eco-account pool of Deutsche Bahn AG within the framework of the project "Strategic Activation and Interest on Compensation Areas for Nature Conservation (SAV€)"

Description: Rail transport is a central building block for a climate-neutral transport revolution. Deutsche Bahn AG (DB) plans to implement extensive infrastructure measures with an investment volume of over 150 billion euros by 2030. These construction projects will inevitably have an impact on ecosystems. According to German nature conservation law, interventions in nature must be compensated accordingly with measures. Up to now, compensation for Deutsche Bahn has been carried out by external service providers. As one of the largest landowners in Germany, DB has enormous land potential that could also be used for compensation measures. Against this background, the DB is pursuing the project SAV€, with the aim of building up its own eco-points pool for the compensation of future interventions as a result of construction measures. DB's aspiration is also to generate an ecological added value (Net Gain) that goes beyond the legally required maintenance of the status quo (No Net Loss) through early strategic stockpiling of compensation areas and measures. In order to make the associated "net gain" measurable and thus manageable for companies, suitable indicators and management concepts have been lacking up to now. For this reason, a practical, company-specific, and meaningful quantification is necessary. Furthermore, in the context of sustainability, there are a variety of political objectives and reporting frameworks in companies, which make orientation difficult.

In this context, the aim of the framework concept is to define the approach of a "Net-Gain" for SAV€ and to derive suitable categories or fields of action for the generation of ecological added value within this. Specifically tailored indicators for measuring and evaluating different "Net Gains" for the biodiversity of compensation measures are to be developed for these fields of action. In doing so, the greatest possible consistency with existing operational and political indicator systems (especially the German Sustainability and Biodiversity Strategy) is to be established and the requirements for reporting quality according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are to be presented using selected indicators. Based on these findings, practical recommendations for action and entrepreneurial opportunities and challenges will be discussed at the end.

Leadership: Prof. Dr. Remmer Sassen

Editing: Dr. Boris Seidel

Duration: 01.12.2021 until 31.08.2022

Project partner: Deutsche Bahn AG, Dr. Michael Hölzinger (Corporate Real Estate Management)

Funding: Deutsche Bahn AG

Link to Potential Topics for Master's Thesis:

• Materiality analysis on biodiversity aspects in reporting (in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn AG)
• Stakeholder analysis of the practical implementation of biodiversity indicators (in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn AG)