How do your offerings make a difference in the world? Which products and solutions does your company use to drive sustainable change? And what are the standout innovations in your portfolio?
Global uncertainties, shifting markets, and political pressures—especially in challenging times, sustainability remains the key to long-term success. The GSA Products honors innovations that drive real change, advancing both the environment and society, strengthening Germany as a business hub, and proving that sustainable solutions made in Germany are globally competitive.
While the DNP evaluates entire business models, the Product Award provides a stage for groundbreaking achievements—whether products, services, systems, campaigns, or initiatives—that deliver tangible progress in at least one of five transformation fields:
Participation is simple and fully digital: submit your solution profile through our partner score4more. A quick overview of the application process can be found here.
Describe the sustainability challenge you are addressing, your approach, the impact achieved, and the story behind it. Additional materials, such as product photos or sustainability reports, can be uploaded or linked.
An assessment team, including experts from the international consulting firm Kearney, will conduct an initial review of all submissions. Five expert juries will then select the nominees, finalists, and winners.
Detailed information on the methodology, decision criteria, and selection process can be found here, and the winners of 2024 can be discovered here.
The awards ceremony this year will take place on December 4th and 5th, 2025, at the MARITIM Hotel in Düsseldorf as part of the 18th German Sustainability Award.
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.
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.
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.
Through innovations in education, health, inclusion, and social participation, as well as solutions for regional development and community empowerment in both urban and rural areas, companies contribute to social cohesion. By actively supporting democracy and an open society while combating discrimination and inequality—whether based on gender, age, culture, origin, or sexual and religious orientation—they help create a more inclusive future.
Affordable, consumer-friendly innovations with real added value, along with intercultural communication and broad participation, further strengthen positive social development.
Through innovations in education, health, inclusion, and social participation, as well as solutions for regional development and community strengthening in both urban and rural areas, companies contribute to social cohesion. By actively supporting democracy and an open society while combating inequality and discrimination—whether based on gender, age, culture, origin, or sexual and religious orientation—they help build a more inclusive future.
Affordable, consumer-friendly innovations with real added value, along with intercultural communication and broad participation, further promote positive social development.
Products
At the GSA, products are considered all forms of sustainable solutions—not just physical goods, but also services, systems, campaigns, and initiatives. What matters is their contribution to sustainability through effectiveness ("doing the right things"), efficiency ("doing things right"), and sufficiency ("doing less but better").
Categories
The GSA Product Award is presented in five categories, based on the transformation field in which the submitted product achieves or aims to achieve the greatest impact:
Application
From March 1 to June 15, 2025, companies of all sizes, designers, and start-ups can submit up to three solutions via score4more. Each submission requires a solution profile with an image. Optionally, an DIN-A0-poster can support the application.
Fees: Small businesses €250, SMEs €550, large companies €950 (plus VAT; 25% discount for multiple submissions; start-ups participate for free).
Sustainability Profiles
To apply for the Product Award, companies must first introduce themselves—either through an existing score4more profile or by registering a new one. The solution profile includes:
Preliminary Evaluation
From all submitted profiles, the assessment team selects entries that demonstrate the most effective, innovative, and pioneering contributions to transformation. The team evaluates key aspects such as the sustainability challenge, solution, impact, and narrative, supplemented by additional materials. Using a scoring model, the assessment team compiles a shortlist, which is then presented to the expert jury in each transformation field for final selection.
Expert Juries for All Transformation Fields
Five independent expert juries select the best products, finalists, and winners within the transformation fields. Each jury consists of around five professionals from industry, civil society, consulting, and research. The selection process ensures both subject-matter expertise and a balanced representation of stakeholders.
Decision Criteria
The award recognizes solutions with a strong transformative impact that serve as "beacons" within their industry. Evaluations are based on innovation potential, future viability, measurable impact, and scalability. A holistic sustainability strategy, social responsibility, and strong communication are also key factors. Long-term impact and transferability to other industries are crucial considerations. Juries may take into account different product categories and development trajectories, acknowledging solutions that have evolved from unsustainable practices toward greater sustainability.
Decision Process
The five expert juries select the best products in a two-stage process.
By licensing the DNP seal, companies can highlight their products and showcase their leadership in sustainability—gaining recognition among customers, suppliers, media, and the financial sector. The GSA seal is a prestigious external endorsement that distinguishes pioneering products and provides a competitive edge in the market.
For consumers and potential business partners, the seal serves as a trusted guide in identifying sustainable alternatives. Small businesses and start-ups receive the seal free of charge.
From 2020 to 2022, the GSA "Design" honored innovative products, systems, and services as exemplary models of sustainable design. Since 2024, with a revised concept, 50 outstanding products have been awarded for setting new sustainability benchmarks. Here, you can find all award winners since 2020 at a glance.
With the Green Claims Directive, the EU wants to create clear and transparent standards for the use of environmental claims for companies' products and services. In the interests of consumers, the main aim is to counter vague, unfounded or false climate claims.
In future, environmental claims may only be made if they can be scientifically proven (the regulation does not apply to claims relating to the social pillar of sustainability). The first step will probably focus on life cycle analyses (LCA), with the "Product Environmental Footprint" (PEF) and science-based environmental labels such as the "Blue Angel" being discussed as assessment tools. In the second step, environmental claims on products and services are to undergo testing by accredited independent bodies before they are made.
The directive will not be adopted before summer 2024 and must then be transposed into national law by the member states within two years, meaning it will not come into force until 2026/2027. However, in view of competition law and the forthcoming Empowering Consumers For The Green Transition Directive, companies should already be able to substantiate green claims now.
The GSA Products seal is not an environmental statement, but documents the decision of an independent jury. Nevertheless, the GSA Products already aims to provide scientific evidence in the solution profiles and focuses on life cycle analyses, impact assessments and standards such as the "Blue Angel". These documents can be submitted to the jury as annexes, measurably underpinning green impact statements and thus anticipating the forthcoming Green Claims Directive.
The Green Claims Directive does not apply to communication about the company as a whole (and therefore to the seals of the GSA Unternehmen), as it only relates to products and services. The GSA Company label can therefore be used for corporate communication as a whole without restrictions even after the Directive comes into force. It bears the term "company" and thus clearly distinguishes itself from product labeling, even when used on products.
