Solaris publishes its Sustainability Report for 2021

The 2021 Sustainability Report by Solaris has just been published on the company’s website. The manufacturer is thereby continuing to pursue activities based on transparency and dialogue with its surrounding environment and employees.

Solaris Bus & Coach has just published its second Sustainability Report. The company has summarised its activities for 2021 when it comes to minimising its impact on the environment, performing positively in the social arena, and ensuring compliance with the highest corporate governance standards.

“Solaris has been striving to enhance the quality of life of city residents and to provide public transport passengers with the best travel experience possible. As part of the CAF Group and as an international company with 16 subsidiaries Europe-wide, Solaris is fully aware of its impact on international communities and, at the same time, of its responsibility towards these groups. That is why Solaris is continuously working to reduce its potential adverse effects and to amplify the positive effects of its business activities, all of which have been presented in the latest Sustainability Report in a very detailed and comprehensive manner”, said Javier Calleja, CEO of Solaris Bus & Coach sp. z o.o.

The report includes an extensive description of measures undertaken by Solaris as a response to challenges posed by increasing urbanisation as well as global climate and civilisational changes. It is split into four chapters: “Sustainable Cities”, “Environment”, “People” and “Governance”. This is Solaris’s second report and it confirms its determination when it comes to undertaking and reporting ESG measures. It has been drawn up in accordance with the international GRI reporting standards. Relevant sustainability aspects and the scope of reported data have been selected with the involvement of stakeholders strategically relevant to Solaris’s operations.

A great deal of space in the report has been devoted to activities that lie behind the company’s success stories, i. e. product innovations, various investments and resource-saving solutions, both applied in the production process and in vehicles when they are in operation. The Development Department’s intensive work to increase the nominal energy capacity of our batteries has resulted, for example, in significantly higher vehicle ranges. The Solaris Charging Park for electric vehicles, one of the most innovative sites of its kind in Europe, was among the remarkable investments carried out in 2021.

Additionally, in 2021 Solaris began to conduct LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) studies for two of its bus types - the Solaris Urbino 18 electric and the Solaris Urbino 12 hybrid buses - and, in April 2022, it received Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for these vehicles based on these LCA analyses. This assessment has allowed the company to identify processes, materials and components with the greatest impact on the environment, and thus to devise measures to reduce their adverse effects on the environment.

An important factor contributing to a company’s growth is the development of its employees. In its report, Solaris sets out a variety of activities undertaken for the sake of its employees to provide them with opportunities to improve themselves in areas that both support the achievement of business objectives and also broaden their professional skills. As regards social issues, last year the company put new educational initiatives in train for the younger generations to enhance their environmental awareness and encourage them to use public transport. The CityMission project was devised for children in grades 1 to 3 of primary school and included a creative competition, educational workshops and an “urban game”.

The Sustainability Report, which provides an overview of Solaris’s ESG-related activities in 2021, is a result of many months of efforts by our employees representing various departments of Solaris Bus & Coach sp. z o.o. and different subsidiaries within the Solaris Group. The report is available in Polish and English. For the sake of the environment, the company has decided to only publish the report online.

The report is available at: www.solarisbus.com/en/about-us/esg