The award aims to support businesses in sustainable actions, highlight where advancements succeed and connect those, that facilitate and encourage the change. It aims to prove that responsible actions do not just aid in finding solutions to economic and social problems on a local and global scale, but can also enhance profitability and competitiveness.

The award will evaluate the provided information regarding the following transformation topics:

• Climate
• Resources
• Nature
• Work
• Society

Beyond these, aspects like effectiveness, innovative strength, scalability, responsibility and European connectivity will also play an important role in the evaluation by the independent jury.

The German Sustainability Award for Businesses will be split into three size categories for 2026:

• SME (1-249 employees)
• Large Companies (250-999 employees)
• Corporations (starting at 1.000 employees)

Finalists and winners will be selected in each size category.

The German Sustainability Award for Businesses is following the rules of the European Sustainability Award (ESA) and will not, as in previous years, be divided by industries and sectors.

The European Sustainability Award is the European evolution of the German Sustainability Award and will officially start in 2027. The GSA for Businesses 2026 will be conducted accoding to ESA rules and regulations in Germany. The winners of the GSA in Germany will be attending the ESA in 2027. The ESA offers participants the opportunity to earn the title European Leaders alongside peers from across Europe, exchange knowledge, and build a network of transformation pioneers across all size categories.

The foundation German Sustainability Award e. V. is the basis for the award. To strengthen the project, the foundation cooperates with various institutions, businesses and organisations.
All partners and supporters can be found here.

For general questions concerning the GSA, please contact the office German Sustainability Award, either per mail buero@nachhaltigkeitspreis.de or by calling +49 211 5504-5510.

Eligible to participate are companies that have their headquarters or significant business operations via subsidiary in Germany.

Applications can be submitted until the 14th of September 2026.

To apply for the award you need to fill out the company questionnaire https://de.sustainability-award.app/register-company. It is customized according to your company's size and sector.

The questionnaire will be evaluated through a process with several stages by a qualified and diverse jury of experts, as well as through our data-research and scoring partner score4more.

The first evaluation of the application will be carried out using clearly defined and standardised criteria. Following this, the application will be reviewed, discussed and evaluated. There are different juries for the different size categories and each of the juries will consist of experts in the field of economics, politics and science. The jury will make their decisions based on indivdual impressions of the company profiles and vote on the winners in the different size categories. The finalists will probably be informed in October. The winners will be revealed during the ceremony #DNP26 on the 3rd and 4th of December in Duesseldorf.

The winners, which will also be named National Champions Germany, participate in the European Sustainability Award 2027.

The evaluation is based on uniform criteria and a structured evaluation logic. This includes scoring, pre-examination, a plausability check, as well as the evaluation by experts panels and the jury.

Among others:

• Transformation Performance
• Measurable Impact
• Innovative Strength
• Scalability
• Transparency
• Supply Chain Responsibility
• Social Impact

No, only the finalists and winners in each size category will be revealed.

The event #DNP26 takes place on the 3rd and 4th of December 2026, in the Maritim Hotel, Duesseldorf. The German Sustainability Award for Businesses will be awarded on the evening of December 3rd.

Upon the registrationn and acceptance of the terms of service, a participation fee becomes due. The fee depends on the size of your business:

• SMEs (up to 249 employees): 190 €
• Large Companies (250-999 employees): 490 €
• Corporations (starting at 1.000 employees): 890 €

All fees are subjected to statutory VAT.

By participating, companies accept that they are bound to purchase the Impact Benefits for their respective size category. More about the Impact Benefits and any possible additional costs here.

The participation fees cover the professional evaluation process (for example the pre-examination, the scoring, the compilation of the questionnaires into the business profiles for the jury evaluation). The participation fee is to be payed independent of the competition.

The German Sustainability Award (GSA) helps companies accelerate their own transformation, differentiate themselves in a positive way on the market and to use sustainability reports as a valuable tool.

The GSA offers the possibility of exchanging experience, know-how-transfer and deep insights into the transformation within all size categories and sectors. In the new format of the GSA, category winners, pioneers across all competitions, industry associations, media representatives, policymakers and civil society come together.

The Impact Benefits enable you to unlock the full potential of your finalist status. They assist businesses in classifying their own accomplishments, communicate with impact and engage with key stakeholders. The Impact Benefits turn recognition into impact.

The benefits include: Benchmarking, GSA-/ESA-platform profile, Award Briefing, Communication Kit, Video Portrait, Brand Assets & Seal Rights, Award Packaging, Participation in the congress and award, European Sustainability Summit and ESA award ceremony.

More information about the Impact Benefits, here.

No. With the application you enter a binding agreement to purchase the Impact Benefits, should your company reach Finalist Status.

The costs of the Impact Benefits are connected to the size of your business:

• SMEs (up to 249 employees): € 3.900
• Large Companies (250-999 employees): € 6.900
• Corporations (starting at 1.000 employees): € 9.900

All fees are subject to statutory VAT.

Generally, the questionnaire will include questions concerning the following topics: business data, business model and strategy, sustainability management, effect and key figures, innovation and solutions, value chain, employees and social engagement.

All questionnaires consist of a general section and a customized part, to ensure comparability as well as accuracy of fit. In the general part concerning businesses, you will be asked about your business's basic claims data, as well as general descriptions of your activities and business models. Additionally, all applicants fill out a uniformly constructed topic block on sustainability. This part already holds data concerning sustainability accomplishments and highlights as well as information about objective sustainability standards and your present key figures.

The following part includes various fields of transformation and subordinate thematic blocks. The underlying structure works in concert with the priorities of the EU Green Deal and the structure of the CSRD and the ESRS. These questions concern information about the transformation fields: Climate (including the obligatory topic climate protection), Nature, Resources, Work and Society. The relevant modules depend on the size of your business and sector. Since greater organizational size is associated with more extensive data capture and availability, the scope of reporting fields expands with company size.

Yes. All information concerning sustainability needs to be verifiable through openly available sources, for example reports, key figures, certificates or audits.

Many businesses, and especially SMEs, do not yet have a sustainability report or a statement of intent towards the German Sustainability Codex. Businesses without a report can still fill in the questionnaire and, as an alternative, add a URL-link to the openly available source. It is important that any information given in the questionnaire is openly accessible and verifiable. Descriptions of sustainable practices on a businesses’ webpage can be helpful here as well.

The questionnaire will only be visible to you, your assessment team and the expert jury.

In general, you can always and permanently access and change your questionnaire. Please keep in mind though that - in the case of an application - only the information entered before the application deadline will be considered for the evaluation. You can still access your questionnaire afterwards.

Yes, under the "Additional Information" tab you can add texts and uploads that highlight the sustainability quality of your business and were not yet sufficiently covered in the previous sections.

Please resepct the instructions attached concerning the amount of data you can add and the format in which to add it.

We ask you, in the spirit of sustainability, to not send any additional materials by post.

You can use the browser function to print out the profile or save it as a PDF.

The evaluation results will be treated confidentially, with the exception of the finalists and winners. The data will only be seen by a small group of participants, which will be entrusted with the elicitation and evaluation of said data; these will be employees of the German Sustainability Award office and the assessment partners. The jury will be bound by confidentiality. Participants will only be published if they receive an award - either as finalists or winners.

Your personal data will be used for the following:

• Pre-Examination of the application documents for the German Sustainability Award Businesses and the European Sustainability Award
• If applicable, for the participation of your business in the German Sustainability Award Businesses and the European Sustainability Award
• the examination of your provided data for the possibility of your participation in the competition
• In the case of your business reaching the Finalist stage: to coordinate the cooperative communication; if applicable, for licensing the seal; if applicable, for the participation and cooperation at the #DNP26 event and the ESA event

Your data is processed based on Art. 6 Abs. 1, S.1 lit. a DSGVO.

Your personal data will be sent to the members of the evaluation team, as well as the members of the jury.

Your data will be recorded and saved with the responsible people for as long as it is needed to achieve its intended purpose.

We delete or block your personal data when there is no longer a need to keep it. Storage of data can also occur due to stipulations of laws we are under, for example due to the legal obligation to retain data or the obligation of documentation. In cases like these, we delete or block your data once these obligations have ended.

According to the General-Data-Protection-Regulation you have the following rights:
If your personal data is being processed, you have the right to receive information about your data from those responsible.(Art. 15 DSGVO). In the case of there being false information in the data being processed, you have the right of Correction (Art. 16 DSGVO).

If the legal requirements are met, you can demand the deletion or restriction of your data, as well as enter objections against the processing (Art. 17, 18 und 21 DSGVO).

If you have agreed to your data being processed or a contract of data processing exists and your data is being processed with the help of an automated system, you might have the right of data portability (Art. 20 DSGVO).

You also have the right to appeal to a surveillance authority (Art. 77 DSGVO).

Even if you agree to the processing of your data by a responsible party through an appropriate statement, you can still retract this agreement at any time. The legality of the data processing under the agreement up until that point will not be touched.

For questions concerning data privacy please contact the German Sustainability Award office either per mailbuero@nachhaltigkeitspreis.de or by calling +49 211 5504-5510.