Agora & Öko-Institut: Making Sustainable Corporate Mobility the Standard

Companies and policymakers can work together to make corporate mobility more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Recommendations from the Oeko-Institute and Agora Verkehrswende show how this can be achieved. To achieve electric and sustainable mobility for their employees, companies should collect data on commuting routes and mobility needs, define ambitious goals and concrete measures, and report on progress. This should be mandatory for a certain fleet size or mobility-related CO2 emissions.

The authors argue that policymakers can support the transportation transition in companies with reliable frameworks. This includes reducing climate-damaging taxes and subsidies and adequately pricing the actual costs of climate-damaging mobility. Equally important are the coordination of charging infrastructure development, the adaptation of the electricity system and market, and simpler approval procedures for new charging points, as shown by the findings from the project.

Companies play a main role in the transportation transition

"For companies, it is time to operate company cars and other fleet vehicles as completely electrically as possible and to build the appropriate charging infrastructure," explains Lukas Minnich, expert for sustainable corporate mobility at the Oeko-Institute. "In this process, it helps if clear climate protection and sustainability goals for the company are established in a Mobility Policy."

Esther Rublack, corporate mobility advisor at Agora Verkehrswende, adds that almost a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions in passenger transport are caused by commuting. Here, companies can take responsibility by promoting sustainable mobility and creating good conditions for mobile working, continues Rublack. Policymakers can ensure that the transition to viable and climate-friendly corporate mobility becomes binding and economically profitable. According to the authors, companies are central to the transportation transition because they can significantly contribute to reducing transportation emissions. More than two-thirds of all new cars in Germany are registered for commercial use. Company cars often enter the private market after a short retention period, thereby also shaping the private vehicle inventory and the speed of the electric mobility market ramp-up.

Fully electric fleet as a goal

In a Car Policy, companies can regulate how company cars are allocated and used as sustainably as possible. For the corporate fleet, but also for employees' private vehicles, the authors recommend installing their own charging points at the company location and in many cases also at the residences of company car users. Policymakers should support this by implementing the measures from the Master Plan for Charging Infrastructure II as quickly as possible. Significant steps from the perspective of companies include regulations for charging at buildings and stabilizing the (driving) electricity price.

To ensure that the advantages of e-mobility are reflected in the cost accounting of companies, a reform of the vehicle taxation system is needed with the expiry of the purchase premium. An effective reform would be moving the vehicle tax towards a bonus-malus system that taxes vehicles with high fuel consumption more heavily at purchase. This way, efficient electric vehicles can still be promoted for some time to accelerate the market ramp-up in terms of climate protection, argue the authors.

Mobility budget: Promoting alternatives to cars and avoiding routes

As an alternative to company cars, some companies now offer a so-called mobility budget, which employees can use freely for various modes of transport, the authors further outline. However, company cars are still tax-privileged compared to sharing services and rail. To make the mobility budget more attractive, the tax regulations for using sustainable modes of transport should be standardized and simplified. Companies can also avoid many trips by enabling work from home and replacing business trips with digital collaboration wherever possible.

Flagship project "compan-e": How companies become sustainably mobile

In the project "compan-e," numerous practice-oriented information on sustainable corporate mobility was compiled over its nearly three-year duration. The publication forms the framework, summarizing the project's results and specific recommendations for action to those responsible in companies and politics. It covers topics such as electric corporate fleets, workplace charging infrastructure, company cars, mobility budgets, and mobility in the era of home office. The content is based on a total of eight papers as well as numerous other publications and information offerings in the form of a website and blog. The project was led and scientifically supported by the Oeko-Institute. Project partners were Agora Verkehrswende and Stiftung KlimaWirtschaft. The publication "Sustainable Corporate Mobility" by Oeko-Institute, Agora Verkehrswende, and Stiftung KlimaWirtschaft is available for free download.