Last year, Waberer’s Group unveiled its new business strategy, which was accompanied by a group-level ESG strategy. The company has for many years prioritised the development of its sustainable services portfolio and has been actively addressing issues affecting the sector, such as labour shortages and low female employee participation, but for the first time now, it organised its objectives along ESG lines into a complex entity. In an unusual move for the industry, Waberer’s publicly launched its ESG strategy at a Women’s Day brunch organised exclusively for female partners.
Organizing ESG efforts into one unit
As a publicly listed company, Waberer’s has a strong focus on sustainability, mitigating environmental impacts, addressing labour shortages and serving employee needs, but for the first time, it presented a comprehensive, group-level ESG strategy with specific targets.
“ESG compatibility is important not only for investors looking for ESG aspects, but employees, especially younger ones, and customers also have serious expectations. The majority of our clients are large companies that also have a sustainability strategy and typically they themselves have set expectations for their subcontractors. For example, at Waberer’s we have already taken many measures to reduce carbon emissions and to make our operations more environmentally friendly, and we have launched several initiatives for our employees. However, it is for the first time that we have organised these efforts into a complex entity that forms our ESG strategy along the environmental, social and governance sustainability pillars,” said Krisztina Patai, ESG Director at Waberer’s.
Significant reductions in emission by using alternative fuels
In recent years, Waberer’s has already formulated several goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and in the fuel use of the fleet, thanks to which the Group currently operates one of the largest fleets of trucks with alternative drive chains in Hungary, with a total of more than 20 trucks with alternative drive chains.
Since 2023, it has been using HVO 100 second-generation biofuel, one of the most sustainable fuels on the market, made from vegetable and animal waste: it is compatible with diesel vehicles and generates up to 90 percent less carbon dioxide emissions than conventional diesel fuel. In 2023, for transportations using HVO 100 Waberer’s achieved CO2 savings of more than 55% compared to conventional diesel. The Group recently signed an agreement with Moll and the MÁV-Volán Group regarding hydrogen technology, as its main goal is to establish an operation based on hydrogen technology in Hungary in the coming years.
In addition to electric propulsion and HVO fuel, Waberer’s has also been using LNG-fuelled vehicles since 2021, which are a greener alternative that reduces carbon dioxide emissions by around 20 percent.
In the future, the Group will continue to expand its alternative powertrain fleet: for WSZL, the logistics subsidiary of the Waberer’s Group, it is planned to increase the size of the alternative fleet by 50 percent in 2024, and to extend by 2025 the alternative powertrain operation to the international transport segment as well.
Combining multiple modes of transport
In 2021, Waberer’s introduced the intermodal service, that is, service that connects multiple modes of transport. One way of doing this is to combine rail and road transport, thus taking advantage of the high capacity of the railroad and the flexibility of the road transport. Rail transport is a more cost-effective, green solution that can also reduce congestion on the road network, but air and sea transport can also be a real option for offering green services. Waberer’s goal in international carriage is to increase the share of rail and intermodal transport, for which there has been a steady demand from clients over the past three years.
It is already at the forefront of gender equality
In addition to its environmental commitments, Waberer’s has set out a number of ambitions for its employees. In recent years, the Group has done a lot for the well-being and satisfaction of its employees, offering, for example, special education and programmes focusing on health preservation and community building. In the future, it will continue to focus on creating and maintaining an attractive and progressive workplace, offering professional training and monitoring points for improvement. An important objective is to sensitise employees on issues such as freedom from prejudice and equal opportunities.
Diversity and gender equality are also key elements of the strategy. The labour shortage is strong in the logistics sector, therefore, of its 3,700-strong driver workforce, the company employs ‑ in a small proportion ‑ foreign workers as well, and the resulting diversity offers many opportunities to strengthen the employee community. Waberer’s is already at the forefront of increasing the female gender ratio: a significant proportion of its managers are women, it provides female training mentors to train female drivers and last year it established the ‘Female Logistics Professional of the Year’ award to highlight successful women in the profession. Waberer’s is continuing these initiatives this year as well and is trying to find additional solutions to help recruit female colleagues.
Source: Waberer’s
For your logistics and transportation management needs
Providing high frequency logistics and supply chain data and analysis for all those invested in the industry.