The Brenner Motorway: an increasingly sustainable piece of infrastructure

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – Identification of a total of 34 targets, 16 of which relate to environmental issues. These figures form the basis of the Autostrada del Brennero 2025 sustainability report, which represents a further step in defining the Group’s sustainability strategy, namely the development of the sustainability plan. This process sets out the objectives, actions and measures to integrate ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) practices into the business model through the definition of measurable targets and KPIs.

“In 2025, too, the Autobrennero Group continued to pursue its projects with determination, whilst maintaining a strong focus on the principles of sustainability. The results are duly reported in this Sustainability Report, which has once again been drawn up this year in accordance with the international standards set out in European legislation (EU Directive 2022/2464, known as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive or CSRD), which has been transposed into national law. This is a decision which – as in previous years – has gone beyond the requirements of the legislation, which, even for 2025, did not impose any reporting obligations on the Group’s companies,” explain the Chairman, Hartmann Reichhalter and the CEO, Diego Cattoni. “However, this decision was taken in recognition of the growing importance of ESG issues, both within the local and economic context in which the Group’s companies operate and externally, in order to have data and performance figures that can be compared with those of other industry peers and with all the major European businesses. It is in this context that the decision was taken to add another element to the document regarding reporting: the sustainability plan.” According to management, “this approach systematically integrates ESG priorities into the business model, aligning governance, industrial planning and operational management with long-term objectives, backed by measurable targets and KPIs. The Group is, moreover, firmly convinced that the challenge of sustainability cannot be met through isolated actions, but by implementing a strategy based on a wide range of tools.”

In environmental terms, the results show that 100 per cent of Autobrennero’s electricity comes from renewable sources; +75 per cent in investment to expand the network of electric charging points; +98% of waste sent for recycling; a 9.42% reduction in water abstraction and a 35.7% increase in investment in technology. In purely energy terms, 1,195,806 kWh of energy was supplied, representing a 47.12% increase compared with 2024. Significant attention has been paid to the charging station for lorries inaugurated in May last year: 1,000 kW of maximum power output and 102,383.08 kWh of energy supplied. In particular, over a six-month period, there were 815 charging sessions, equivalent to an average of four lorries per day.

Another key aspect of the sustainability report concerns the rail sector , with over 99 per cent of the kilometres travelled by the Group’s trains powered by electricity; 30,000 trains operated by the group; around 1,500 lorries a day travelling by rail rather than by road; and 300,000 tonnes less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

“The decision to invest in a potential competitor to relieve heavy goods traffic on the motorway has proved to be the right one: in 2025, too, the Group’s railway companies handled around 30,000 trains, 99 per cent of which were powered by electricity,” explain the Chairman and the Chief Executive. “The benefits are also clear in terms of the network’s efficiency and quality of life for the local communities through which it passes, which represent not only a stakeholder group but also 84.75 per cent of the shareholding.”