The German Sustainability Award Products aims to encourage companies based in Germany that offer products or services for the German market to engage in sustainable practices and to help anchor the principles of sustainable development more firmly in public awareness. At the same time, the competition demonstrates that responsible business practices not only contribute to solving social and environmental challenges but can also strengthen economic success and competitiveness.

At the same time, as challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, and biodiversity loss intensify, the expertise of sustainable business in Germany continues to grow. Many companies are already demonstrating which solutions work and how transformation can be implemented in practice. The German Sustainability Award therefore recognizes “beacons” – solutions with impact and visibility that make important contributions to sustainable transformation.

The award is hosted by the German Sustainability Award Foundation. To strengthen the project, the foundation collaborates with institutions, companies, and organizations.

The number of nominees, finalists, and winners depends on the quality and number of submitted applications. The decisive factor is which solutions, after evaluation by the assessment teams and expert juries, demonstrate particularly convincing contributions to sustainable transformation.

Solutions are recognized that make especially effective contributions to transformation and thus serve as role models in their markets.

The focus is on products, services, and systems that provide the right impulses for successful transformation and act as “beacons” in their sectors.

Participation in the competition gives companies the opportunity to have their solutions evaluated independently by experts and specialist juries and to make their innovative strength visible. Nominees, finalists, and winners are published on the website of the German Sustainability Award with their respective status and receive digital certificates; winners additionally receive a published jury statement.

In addition, finalists and awarded companies can further increase the visibility of their success through an optional award package – for example through participation in the certificate presentation, award ceremony and congress, stage appearances, networking opportunities, and communication services such as the use of the respective DNP seal.

The seal of the German Sustainability Award documents an outstanding position in the field of responsible innovation – toward customers, partners, the media, and the financial community.

Depending on the competition status, three seal variants are available: “Nominee,” “Finalist,” and “Winner,” each with the respective year. They indicate the status achieved in the competition and can be used indefinitely to communicate the awarded solution.

The use of the respective seal is part of the award packages, through which nominees, finalists, and winners can make their recognition visible and use it for communication purposes. If you are interested in an award package, please contact buero@nachhaltigkeitspreis.de.

For general inquiries about the German Sustainability Award, please contact the German Sustainability Award office at buero@nachhaltigkeitspreis.de or +49 211 5504-5510.

Yes. The DNP Products seal can be used in compliance with EmpCo, provided it remains transparent that it identifies an award within the framework of an independent competition and not an environmental label, product certificate, or official approval. It may also be used for communication purposes in the context of products, but must not suggest that the product has undergone an environmental assessment or certification. Specific environmental claims about a product must still be scientifically substantiated by the company itself.

Eligible to participate are companies of any size with a business location in Germany that offer products, services, and systems from all sectors for the German market.

The application period runs from March 16, 2026, to June 7 2026.

To participate in this year’s DNP Products competition, please complete an online questionnaire. You can do so here.

Yes, you can participate in multiple DNP competitions with your company. An overview of our competitions can be found here.

A participation fee is charged per submission for entering the competition; from the second submission onwards, a 25% discount applies:

• up to 49 employees: €190
• up to 249 employees: €390
• up to 4,999 employees: €690
• 5,000 or more employees: €890

(each plus VAT)

The participation fee covers the full professional evaluation process. This includes a qualifying preliminary review based on a standardized framework to determine whether the profile is submitted to the jury, plausibility and consistency checks including formal verification, as well as the preparation of the information into a jury-ready solution profile. It also includes the announcement of the competition status (nominee, finalist, winner) on the DNP website and, where applicable, a digital winner’s certificate.

Participation in the congress and award ceremony, the winner’s trophy, and the German Sustainability Award seal are not included. Nominees, finalists, and winners may optionally purchase an award package with tickets and additional services. The purchase of an award package has no influence on the jury’s decision, especially since it generally takes place afterwards.

Up to three fields of transformation can be assigned to the solution profile, with the assignment of one field being mandatory. A detailed description of each field can be found here.

After submitting your application, the documents are first reviewed by an assessment team. The experts evaluate the submitted solutions based on a set of criteria and identify particularly compelling contributions to sustainable transformation. The top submissions are then published as nominees on the website of the German Sustainability Award.

No, only the nominees, finalists, and winners from each field of transformation are announced.

A written jury statement is provided for all winners and published on our website.

The award ceremony for the product award will take place on December 4 as part of the German Sustainability Award (#DNP26) at the Maritim Hotel Düsseldorf (Maritim-Platz 1, 40474 Düsseldorf), in close proximity to Düsseldorf Airport.

For general inquiries about the German Sustainability Award, please contact the German Sustainability Award office at buero@nachhaltigkeitspreis.de or +49 211 5504-5510.

Yes. A preview of the online questionnaire is available as a PDF. This allows you to get an overview in advance of the requested content and the scope of the application.

You can find the questionnaire preview here: Questionnaire Preview (PDF).

It is recommended that your information is based on publicly accessible sources—such as product pages, reports, or other published materials from your company. This allows the jury and assessment team to more easily verify the described impacts and characteristics.

For this reason, the application form includes a mandatory field for a link to a public digital source with further information about the solution (e.g. website, document, or video). Additional information can also be provided as part of the application.

Some mandatory fields in the application form will be published on the website of the German Sustainability Award in the event of a nomination. These fields are clearly marked in the form.

All other information will only be accessed by employees of the German Sustainability Award, the assessment team, and the jury members, and will be used exclusively for evaluating the application.

Yes, the application can only be completed and processed online.

Access to your application is only possible during the application period. Once the application has been formally submitted, the profile is closed and can no longer be edited.

If you have urgent requests for changes during the application period, please contact buero@nachhaltigkeitspreis.de by email.

While completing the online form, you can save your entries at any time and continue editing them later.

To help you prepare, we provide a preview of the questionnaire as a PDF. This allows you to review the requested content in advance and coordinate information internally.

No, unfortunately an automatic transfer of data from the previous year is not possible. To participate in the current competition, the application form must be completed again. However, you can use your own documents or the content from your previous application as a reference.

If you have forgotten your password, you can easily reset it. Simply use the “Forgot password?” function near the password field on the login page. There, you can request a new password.

No. After the application deadline has passed, access to the application profile is no longer possible.

The results of the evaluation are treated confidentially - with the exception of the publication of the nominees, finalists and winners. The data will only be viewed by a small group of people directly involved in collecting and analysing the data and preparing the jury meetings; these are employees of the German Sustainability Award office and the assessment partners. The jury members are also bound to secrecy. Evaluations that are published are exclusively anonymised in the form of statistical averages and/or trend curves. Participants will only be published if they are honoured (as nominees, finalists or winners).

Your personal data will be collected for the following purposes:
- Participation of your company in the competition for the German Sustainability Award
- Evaluation of the application documents in the event of your company's participation

- In the event that your company is nominated:
- To coordinate the joint communication work
- If applicable, for the licensing of the seal

If your company is selected as one of the finalists:
- to coordinate the joint communication work
- if applicable, for licensing the seal

If applicable, for participation and involvement in the German Sustainability Day events

- Information about competitions in subsequent years

- Your data will be processed on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. a GDPR.

Personal data will be passed on to the members of the evaluation team and the jury.

Your data will be stored by the controller for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected. We always delete or block your personal data when the purpose of storage no longer applies. However, data may be stored beyond this point if this is provided for by legal requirements to which we are subject, for example with regard to statutory retention and documentation obligations. In such a case, we delete or block your personal data after the end of the corresponding requirements.

The General Data Protection Regulation grants you the following rights:
If your personal data is processed, you have the right to obtain information from the controller about the personal data stored about you (Art. 15 GDPR). If incorrect personal data is processed, you have the right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR).

If the legal requirements are met, you can request the erasure or restriction of processing and object to the processing (Art. 17, 18 and 21 GDPR).

If you have consented to the processing by the controller by means of a corresponding declaration, you can revoke your consent at any time for the future. This does not affect the legality of the data processing carried out on the basis of the consent until the revocation.

If you have any questions about data protection, please contact the German Sustainability Award office at buero@nachhaltigkeitspreis.de or +49 211 5504-5510.