Sustainability

Sustainability is the basis of our corporate philosophy and our business model. By renting out fully electric locomotives, we make a daily contribution to shifting traffic from road to rail and thus reducing emissions in transport.

Environment

Our goal is to make rail transport even more efficient and environmentally friendly by:

• investing exclusively in electric locomotives (100% of our fleet)
• investing in a locomotive type ( Vectron ) that can be 98% recycled at the end of its service life and is therefore extremely resource-efficient.

Our business activities avoid and therefore save more CO₂-emissions than we cause (net balance of CO₂-emissions according to Scope 1-3), making an important contribution to the European Union’s net-zero targets. We want to continue to increase this contribution in the short, medium and long term. Our overall strategic goal is to increase our net balance of avoided CO₂-emissions by 3% per year. Starting from a value of around 832,560 tons of CO₂-emissions in 2022, we want to avoid more than 1 million tonnes of CO₂-emissions by 2028. In 2023 we improved our net balance of avoided CO₂-emissions by 4.2% to 867,584 tons.

We are convinced that rail will play a key role in the sustainable transport of people and goods in the future, and we are aware of the role we play in this. We see this as a great responsibility and are aware of the positive and possibly negative impacts of rail transport on the environment.

In order to live up to this responsibility, we are committed to driving forward environmental improvements which we can influence. This includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy and resource efficiency, material consumption, air quality and waste management. The associated measures and goals are set out in our environmental policy. Our aim is to raise awareness among all employees as well as our partners and suppliers about the careful use of resources and to constantly improve ourselves.

Social

Our employees are the foundation of our economic success. Therefore, the health and safety of our employees are our top priority and are anchored in our corporate strategy.

Our goal is to create and maintain a permanently safe, healthy and trouble-free working environment for our employees. To achieve this goal, we have taken appropriate measures in recent years and designed the workplaces and working conditions for our employees in the best possible way. In order to further improve the working environment, we have directly involved our employees in the design of the new office in Vienna, which will be moved into in summer 2025, by a survey. The results of this survey will be implemented in the furnishing and design of the new office.

We have set ourselves health and safety goals, compliance with which we measure and monitor. These relate to:

Diversity in the Team

With employees from 16 nations, we reflect the diversity of society – cultures and lifestyles. We respect and support this diversity because it guarantees proximity to society, to our customers and thus to the further development of our business.

Measures: As part of the application process, we try to appeal to people from all cultures and backgrounds. At ELL, we guarantee equal rights and opportunities for everyone and do not tolerate any discrimination.

Equal Pay for Equal Work

It is important to us to pay all our employees the same salary for the same work, regardless of gender.

Measures: Regular monitoring and control to keep possible gender pay gaps as small as possible and to be able to counteract them if necessary.

Low Accident Rate

We believe that accidents are preventable, and we try to take preventive measures to ensure that no accidents occur during work at ELL.

Measures: Regular training and safety instructions. Prevention and awareness for possibly dangerous situations (including making each other aware of dangerous situations)

Low Average Duration of Sick Leave

We consider the duration of sick leave to be an important indicator for the health of our employees. We are aware that stress, overtime and inadequate opportunities for rest and relaxation can lead to illness.

Measures: Avoiding overtime and encouraging employees to take full advantage of their holidays, surveys for employees on their mental health followed by stress management workshops, and we are supporting gym memberships for our employees

Governance

ELL follows a values-based corporate culture that shapes our business practices and growth philosophy, which we record in our extensive and detailed Code of Conduct. The ELL Group’s Code of Conduct describes legal bases, ethical principles and general principles that we base our business activities on.

It applies to the management bodies, executives and employees of the ELL Group, including all subsidiaries and branches. Every manager and every employee contribute to the best possible implementation of these guidelines through their actions. Our managers have a role model function and a special responsibility for communicating and implementing these guidelines.

We treat each other with appreciation and respect and follow fair business practices that go beyond the legal minimum. We do not tolerate violations of these principles and encourage you to ask questions if you have any concerns or report suspected misconduct through our whistleblower platform.

Code of Conduct for Our Business Partners

For our business partners (customers, suppliers, banks, investors), the principles of our value-based corporate culture and the resulting business practices are laid down in our “Code of Code of Conduct for Business Partners”. We expect our business partners to follow these principles and align their business activities with them.