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Switzerland is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2050. This is an ambitious goal and Swiss companies will play an important role in achieving it.

UBS provides its corporate clients with access to a range of services to support them in their efforts to become more sustainable. For example, the bank offers a one-time discount on leasing fees for capital goods that have a positive impact on a company’s carbon footprint. Sion-based Berthold Transports took advantage of this discount for a pilot project with which it wants to make the company more sustainable in the future.

The haulage firm is pursuing various initiatives aimed at reducing its carbon footprint. For example, the company’s drivers now take courses in economical driving and solar panels have been installed on the roofs of its warehouses. “For more than a year now, our fleet has also included a truck that runs on liquefied natural gas (LNG),” reveals Director Xavier Berthod.

This was Xavier Berthod’s first attempt to reduce the CO_2��emissions attributable to his armada of 40-tonne vehicles powered by combustion engines. “For the most part, testing the LNG-fueled truck was a positive experience. Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, however, the price of LNG has tripled, if not quadrupled. Under these circumstances, the solution is no longer viable.” Another solution was therefore needed.

This spring, Berthod Transports became the first company in the canton of Valais to purchase a 40-tonne truck with an electric drive. “In making this purchase, we are taking a big step towards making our road haulage activities more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” says Xavier Berthod.

The electric truck provides Berthod Transports with the basis for a perfect circular economy: it is powered by lithium-ion batteries and offers a range in excess of 300 kilometers, a distance equivalent to the journey between Sion and Zurich. Not only does the quiet truck produce no CO₂ emissions whatsoever, the electrical energy it needs to run is also produced by the company’s own solar panels.

Anyone belonging to a family that has been involved in the truck business for several decades will certainly understand the Berthods when they say it is difficult to imagine that the roar of big diesel engines will be completely consigned to history any time soon. However, times have changed: the company’s biggest clients now also demand that their suppliers work in a sustainable manner, with this being especially true in the case of multinational groups. And the situation is no different with the cantons and municipalities, for whom sustainability is increasingly playing a pivotal role as a criterion in the awarding of mandates. Transitioning to electric trucks therefore doesn’t only represent a good deed for the environment, but will also be essential for the company’s survival over the long term.

We are happy to have taken a further step towards becoming a CO₂-neutral company with our first electric truck. This is our way of protecting the planet and helping to ensure a sustainable future.

Xavier Berthod

Berthod Transports SA is already ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and Valais excellence certified. UBS wanted to provide the company with further support in its efforts to become more sustainable and therefore assumed the implementation costs for ESG certification. This certification is of great significance, as it attests to the fact that the SME is using an electric, CO₂-neutral solution.