We make the greatest possible contribution to sustainable mobility development through strong partnerships in transparent supply chains. Our suppliers take an active role in ensuring mutual business success with their sustainability performance and capacity to innovate.

We have refined our social and environmental responsibility in many product group strategies and have embedded it in our contract awarding practices in the form of suitability, performance, evaluation and implementation criteria. Our DB Code of Conduct (CoC) for business partners serves as a starting point for the sustainable design of supply chains and the specific procurement decisions and the procurement policy. Suppliers agree to the CoC during registration. In it, suppliers declare, among other things, that they respect human rights, including the core labor standards of the International
Labor Organization (ILO). On this basis, and on the basis of the legal requirements from the Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (Lieferkettensorgfaltsgesetz; LkSG), we check our strategic partners’ compliance with the require­ments on-site, insofar as the sector, the country in which the company has its registered office or supply chains are subject to increased risk. In addition, we are expanding our risk management to include the legal requirements of the LkSG and adapting the existing complaints procedure.

In October 2022, DB Group received the Sustainability Award in the “Purchasing” category from the Berlin Institute of Supply Chain Management and the auditing firm Price­waterhouseCoopers (PwC) for its “outstanding sustainability concept and the implementation of sustainability solutions in its operating strategy.”

We place great importance on conducting comprehensive sustainability assessments on our suppliers with regard to their management system, activities and results. We look at environmental aspects, occupational health and safety, human rights, business practices and supply chains. Each of these aspects is subject to minimum requirements.

In addition, DB Group approved a four-step plan in 2022 that gradually obliges our contractors in tender procedures to present sustainability scores and to achieve minimum scores defined therein:

• From 2023 onwards in EU tenders: Obligation to submit a sustainability rating (without a minimum rate) in the event of an order.
• From 2024 onwards in tenders over € 100,000: Obligation to submit a sustainability rating (without a minimum rate) in the event of an order.
• From 2025 onwards in EU tenders: Obligation to present a sustainability rating with an industry standard minimum quality.
• From 2026 onwards, in tenders over € 100,000: Obligation to present a sustainability rating with an industry standard minimum quality.

More than 700 suppliers, which account for 61% (previous year: 62%) of our procurement volume, have already submitted their assessments to us. The majority of reevaluated suppliers improved their sustainability performance. This allows us to work together to reduce risks and increase resilience
in DB Group’s supply of goods and services. In many product groups, our suppliers can benefit from a simplified qualifi­cation process if they submit an up-to-date sustainability
assessment (such as Ecovadis or a comparable assessment).

We are continuing to develop sustainable performance and decision-making criteria in a continuous dialog with industry associations and the Railsponsible initiative. All 15 Railsponsible members play a key role in making supply chains more transparent with more than 3,000 supplier assessments. Climate protection and safeguarding social minimum standards are the strategic focal points for responsible procurement management at Railsponsible.