SBB consumes a total of around 2,300 gigawatt-hours of energy each year in the form of electricity and combustible fuels. Rail traffic accounts for four-fifths of this.

SBB requires the remaining one-fifth for heating, as power for railway equipment, lighting and computers and as fuel for road vehicles. Thanks to new heating systems and more efficient use of buildings, SBB has been able to reduce its consumption of energy for heating purposes by about 10 percent since 1999.

SBB trains need just 8.2 kilowatt-hours of electricity to take one passenger one hundred kilometres. This corresponds to the consumption of almost 1 litre of petrol. Rail freight traffic is also very economical: an SBB freight locomotive uses an average of 6.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity to transport a tonne of freight one hundred kilometres. This translates into 0.6 litres of diesel.

The reasons for this frugality are the low resistance of steel wheels on rails, the reduced wind resistance due to train profiles, the high efficiency of electric locomotives and the recovery of energy thanks to regenerative braking systems.

In the interests of its customers, SBB is constantly expanding its range of services. With higher speeds and greater comfort – through air conditioned trains, for example – SBB is making rail travel even more attractive. However this also requires more energy. SBB is currently working on an energy procurement strategy which will secure its energy supply in the future too. As of 2013, the company will use 100 percent renewable energy from hydroelectric sources to cover its additional requirements. This will increase the proportion of renewable energy consumed by rail operations to over 80 percent from 2013.

To counteract its rising energy consumption, SBB introduced a Group-wide energy saving initiative back in 2008. In 2011 it increased the impact of this to 145 GWh, which is equivalent to the energy consumption of more than 36,000 households. SBB wants to expand its energy saving initiative and raise its targets in the medium term.