Which innovations are transforming markets? Which products combine responsibility with economic strength? Which solutions show how transformation succeeds? The GSA (German Sustainability Award) honors innovations that create real impact – for competitiveness, resilience, and a strong economy.
Applications for the
German Sustainability Award – Products
are open until June 7, 2026.
The German Sustainability Award Products makes these innovations visible. It seeks products, services, and (digital) systems that demonstrate how companies shape transformation, how innovation strengthens competitiveness, and how responsibility becomes economic strength.
The award puts entrepreneurial leadership and concrete implementation at the center.
The product award provides a stage for targeted breakthroughs: products, services, (digital) systems, campaigns, or initiatives that achieve tangible progress in at least one of the five transformation fields:
Participation is simple and digital: Submit your market-ready solution concept online. You can find a quick overview of the application scope here. Describe the challenge addressed, your approach, the impact achieved, and your narrative. Additional information such as product photos or sustainability reports can be added via upload or link.
An assessment team – including experts from the international management consultancy Kearney – evaluates all submissions and creates a shortlist of nominees for the independent expert jury. The jury then decides on the finalists and winners.
You can find the methodology, decision criteria, and processes of the product award in detail here.
All previous winners of the Products competition can be found here.
The DNP Products seal can be used in compliance with EmpCo; more information can be found here.
This year’s award ceremony for the Products competition will take place on December 4, 2026, at the Maritim Hotel in Düsseldorf as part of the 19th German Sustainability Award. Attractive AwardPackages are available for nominees, finalists, and winners.
Companies can make a significant impact through energy-saving and CO2- neutral solutions, efficient resource use, innovations for the energy and mobility transition, highly energy-efficient production methods, and the adoption of renewable energy. Materials with minimal energy consumption, as well as technologies for sustainable CO2 removal and reutilization, also play a crucial role.
Additionally, the focus is on solutions that enhance climate resilience and protect against extreme weather events, including flooding, heat waves, and droughts.
Lecturer for Sustainability, Senior Consultant at ecosign Institute for a Sustainable Future
Managing Director of corsus – corporate sustainability GmbH
Circular Economy Expert & Head of Business, Impact Hub Hamburg
Sustainability Consultant, Wandel & Wirkung
Owner of lanz.design.consulting
Companies also contribute by adopting highly material-efficient production methods, ensuring high-quality circularity throughout a product’s lifecycle—following approaches like circular design or cradle-to-cradle—and replacing physical products with digital or service-based alternatives. Solutions that promote efficient and sustainable water use in agriculture and sanitation, help close water cycles, and minimize water loss are also gaining significance.
Cradle to Cradle Expert at epeaswitzerland gmbh
Managing Director of corsus – Corporate Sustainability GmbH
Professor of Product and Interior Design, Senior Consultant at ecosign GmbH & Co. KG
Senior Design Manager & Head of Center of Competence Design, Robert Bosch Power Tools GmbH
Sustainability | Material und Technologie Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (HTW) Berlin
By using raw materials from sustainable agriculture and forestry, prioritizing materials that do not threaten protected areas, waterways, or endangered species, and eliminating harmful substances, innovative products and solutions help preserve and protect nature. Circular management of critical materials further enhances sustainability. A key criterion is minimal land use throughout the entire lifecycle. Solutions that actively regenerate ecosystems—such as oceans, rivers, soils, and natural habitats—through new technologies, digital tools, or sustainable management practices are increasingly in demand.
Managing Director of corsus – Corporate Sustainability GmbH
Sustainability | Material und Technologie, Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (HTW) Berlin
Professor of Biogenic Fiber Materials Vice Dean at the Faculty of Technical Systems, Processes, and Communication, Munich University of Applied Sciences
Head of Sustainability at Pfleiderer Group & Chairwoman of the Board at Biodiversity in Good Company e.V.
Senior Consultant at ecosign – Institute for Sustainable Futures
This includes solutions that actively counter discrimination or unequal treatment, for example based on gender, age, origin, or cultural and religious orientation. Affordable innovations with real added value, intercultural communication, and new models of the sharing economy can also strengthen social cohesion and promote positive social development.
Managing Director of corsus – Corporate Sustainability GmbH
Expert in circular economy and regenerative business | Co-founder of CRITICAL FRIENDS
Project Manager at the Hans Sauer Foundation
Managing Director Designing Future
Managing Director of VDMD – THE.FASHION.COMMUNITY
This includes transparent and cooperative value chains, fair treatment of employees and partners, as well as the use of conflict-free materials and reliable suppliers. Solutions that improve health and safety in the workplace, promote training and qualification, or enable new, family-friendly working models are also sought.
Managing Director of corsus – Corporate Sustainability GmbH
Lecturer in Sustainable Product and Interior Design at ecosign GmbH & Co. KG
Expert in circular economy and regenerative business | Co-founder of CRITICAL FRIENDS
Owner of lanz.design.consulting
Sustainability Consultant at Wandel & Wirkung
Geopolitical tensions, dynamic markets, and increasing regulatory requirements are shaping economic development. Especially in such times, responsibility, innovative strength, and resilience become key success factors for companies. The DNP Products recognizes innovations that make measurable contributions to the environment and society while also demonstrating economic strength. The awarded solutions stand for progress, competitiveness, and leadership – and make visible that future-oriented innovations “Made in Germany” can convince internationally. The competition highlights particularly impactful products, services, and (digital) systems: solutions that provide orientation as beacons of transformation and set new impulses.
Within the DNP, products are understood as individual solutions of any kind, meaning not only physical objects but also services, (digital) systems, campaigns, and initiatives that address and effectively solve concrete challenges of transformation through effectiveness (“doing the right things”), efficiency (“doing things right”), and/or sufficiency (“doing less”).
The DNP Products honors solutions that have an impact in at least one of the five central transformation fields of sustainable development:
An independent expert jury decides on the finalists and winners for each field.
Companies of any size with a location in Germany that offer products or services for the German market can submit up to three solutions via an online form.
The application is subject to a fee:
Small companies (up to 49 employees) pay €190, medium-sized companies up to 249 employees €390, large companies up to 4,999 employees €690, and corporations with 5,000 or more employees pay €890 per submission (each plus statutory VAT; 25% discount for multiple submissions).
To apply for the product award, you first register and briefly introduce your company. You then provide the relevant information about your solution:
From all submitted profiles, the assessment team identifies the submissions with particularly impactful, innovative, and pioneering contributions to transformation. The team analyzes the information provided on the main questions regarding the problem, solution, impact, and narrative (supplemented by the information in the attachments). Using a points-based model, the assessment teams create a shortlist to determine the nominees. These are then submitted to the expert jury in the respective field for decision.
Nominees, finalists, and winners are selected in each category by an expert jury. The expert jury is independent and not bound to any particular interests. Its decision-making is guided exclusively by the ethical standards of sustainability and the objectives of the DNP. When appointing jurors, the German Sustainability Award Foundation (Stiftung Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis e.V.), in coordination with the board of trustees, considers both the personal and professional qualifications of each member and a balanced representation of different stakeholder groups within the overall expert jury. The expert jury is responsible for selecting the nominees, finalists, and winners of the DNP Products in each sector. The basis for its decisions includes the rankings prepared by the research partners, publicly available materials, and the personal expertise of the jury members. Each expert jury consists of approximately five experts.
Solutions that make particularly effective contributions to transformation and serve as role models in their markets are recognized. The focus is on products, services, and (digital) systems that drive successful change and provide orientation as “beacons” in their sectors.
In addition, jurors may consider different product groups to highlight exemplary examples from various sectors. They may also take into account development dynamics, for example where it becomes clear that a solution has evolved from previously problematic sustainability balances.
In the first jury round, the finalists are determined. The research partners present the juries in the five categories with the highest-rated product profiles. Through an online vote, jury members decide which products are considered beacons of transformation in their category. The finalists are then informed.
In the second jury round, the juries decide on the winners. For this purpose, the assessment partners prepare the documents for a meeting in each of the five categories. During this meeting, the jury members answer the question of which companies should receive the DNP in their category in 2026. With this decision, the list of winners from the five juries is finalized.
With an AwardPackage, your recognition at the German Sustainability Award becomes a visible advantage. It combines the award ceremony and communication into one comprehensive package – including tickets for the congress and award show, presence on stage, access to networking opportunities, and the use of the DNP seal for your awarded solution.
In this way, recognition becomes real visibility: at #DNP26, in your communications, and in the market.
The seal of the German Sustainability Award Products is generally not an environmental label in the regulatory sense and does not constitute a product-related environmental claim or certification. It identifies an award granted within the framework of an independent competition.
It may be used by nominees, finalists, and winners as part of the respective award packages for communication purposes and can also be used in the context of products, provided it remains clearly recognizable that it refers to the award received.
The design of the seal makes it unmistakably clear that it represents an award within a competition. The name, year, and context of the German Sustainability Award make clear that the mark does not represent an official recognition, certification, or product approval.
The use of the seal serves exclusively to inform about the award received. It must therefore not create the impression that a product has been tested, certified, or awarded an environmental label by the German Sustainability Award.
In particular, the following applies: The seal must not be presented as a product certificate or environmental label and does not replace specific environmental or performance claims. Product-related statements about environmental impacts must continue to be supported by the company’s own scientific evidence.
However, companies can safely use the seal to communicate their recognition, provided it remains transparent that it refers to a nomination, finalist status, or award within the competition.
Companies applying for the DNP Products or receiving an award should generally ensure that their environmental claims are scientifically substantiated, transparently documented, and verifiable. In doing so, they comply both with current requirements for responsible communication and with the expected developments of European Green Claims regulation.
In this context, the German Sustainability Award sees itself as a guidance system for innovations with impact – not as a regulatory environmental label.
From 2020 to 2022, the DNP “Design” honored innovative products, systems, and services as role models for sustainable design. Since 2024, a revised concept has been used to recognize 50 outstanding products that set new standards in sustainability. Here you can find all award winners since 2020 at a glance.
