Press release

• Engine manufacturer continues to drive innovation for emission-free flight
• Geothermal energy project launched with successful test drilling
• New organizational unit for sustainability created

Munich, May 17, 2024 – MTU Aero Engines AG reaffirms its commitment to a more sustainable future for aviation at a time characterized by uncertainties and challenges. The Sustainability Report for the 2023 financial year – available online at https://sustainability.mtu.de/en/ – documents this comprehensively. It focuses on the six action areas of MTU’s sustainability strategy: product, production & maintenance, corporate governance, employees, procurement and society. Innovation is the key to progress and change. “For us, standing still means going backwards. We tackle challenges with the motivation to find effective solutions, though we are aware that these will certainly not always be straightforward,” emphasizes Lars Wagner, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer at MTU.

With its ambitious Claire (Clean Air Engine) technology roadmap, MTU aims to shape the future of aviation and enable climate-neutral flying. The innovations the company is working on are therefore comprehensive and far-reaching. While every aircraft flies on kerosene today, there will no longer be just one solution for the future. The propulsion technologies will differ depending on the application. This is why MTU is working on various approaches as part of Claire – ranging from evolutionary developments to revolutionary concepts. One of these is the fuel cell, which could fly fully electrically and with virtually zero emissions. It is for that reason, for example, that the company acquired the electric motor specialist eMoSys in 2023 as a key building block.

The climate strategy for site operations also made further progress in 2023. The company has extended its ecoRoadmap to all fully-consolidated production and maintenance companies in the MTU network.  The goal: By 2030, MTU aims to reduce its CO2e footprint by 60 % compared to the base year 2019 (Scope 1 and 2). The core elements are sustainable, energy-saving measures, the increased use of green energy and the expansion of the company’s own emission-free energy generation. To this end, the company intends to use geothermal energy instead of gas as the heating resource at its Munich site in the future. In the reporting year, MTU began drilling its first geothermal well on the site. This has now been successfully completed and the second drilling path is already well-advanced. The long-term goal of the ecoRoadmap is climate-neutral production and maintenance operations. 

Equal opportunities and inclusion are essential for the company’s high level of innovation and long-term success. “We’re proud of how our employees do everything they can to implement our sustainability strategy across all areas; working day in, day out to drive forward the transformation of aviation together. To make sure we achieve this, we actively live by a culture of tolerance, diversity and respect – together and every day,” emphasizes Wagner.

MTU is also committed to protecting human rights along the value chain and has further strengthened its principles of responsible corporate governance. Wagner: “We firmly believe that economic growth and social responsibility must go hand in hand.” In 2023, MTU adopted a declaration of principles for the protection of human rights and committed itself to the due diligence with respect to the cornerstones of human rights.

In the area of sustainability, companies are confronted with growing demands for control and transparency. MTU is responding to this by setting up a new, central “Corporate Sustainability Management & Reporting” organizational unit, which is part of the CFO’s organisation. The department is responsible for strategic corporate sustainability management and company-wide sustainability activities. It is also responsible for MTU’s regulated sustainability reporting.