For the first time in its company history, KHS GmbH has been awarded a platinum medal by EcoVadis. The rating platform thus certifies the system provider’s excellent achievements with respect to sustainability and the progress it has made in this field. Compared to the previous year, KHS has improved further and now received 86 out of 100 possible points.
The Dortmund turnkey supplier is thus among the top 1% of the companies rated by EcoVadis – with this figure currently at over 150,000. Depending on the size of the company and the branch of industry, the rating includes up to 21 different sustainability criteria. These are based on various ESG topics and split into the categories of environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.
Last year, KHS scored 75 points and won a gold EcoVadis medal; this time around, the engineering company upped its rating by eleven points. One reason for this was the company’s extended guideline and certification management program that considerably helped to better KHS’ achievements in the ethics and labor and human rights categories in particular.
Moreover, as in previous years KHS was able to further improve in the sustainable procurement section and more or less keep its magnificent performance to date in the environment sector at the previous year’s level. What's particularly pleasing is the recognition given to KHS’ reporting across all four topics that has been steadily further developed over the years.
Reliable basis for assessment of ESG commitment for customers
“We’ve met the strict requirements of EcoVadis and had our sustainability achievements rated since 2012. Our platinum medal sends both an important message to our customers and acts as confirmation for the KHS Group that we’re taking our responsibility to sustainable business seriously and are on the right track here,” says Kai Acker, CEO of KHS GmbH.
Regarding climate protection, the Executive Management Board is consistently guiding the engineering company towards net zero by 2050 at the latest. For several years now, EcoVadis has also enabled a company’s carbon management system to be independently assessed using what’s known as the carbon scorecard. This is not yet part of the overall rating; however, KHS has already actively incorporated it into its own carbon management setup. “In this way, we can gage the effectiveness of our climate strategy and the operational measures derived from it, plus of those throughout our value chain,” Acker explains. KHS thus again significantly improved this year and achieved the highest rating of “leader”. This provides proof of its outstanding management of the decarbonization of its business activities.
KHS relies on the CSRD in its reporting
KHS also scored points for its voluntary sustainability reporting. In the current report, for the first time the company has also accounted for a number of requirements specified by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This applies uniform rules to the disclosure of sustainability data to ensure transparency and comparability between different companies and their sustainability achievements.
As a subsidiary of Salzgitter AG, KHS is included in the consolidated Group management report. KHS is active in a completely different market environment, however, and for many years has therefore disclosed its own sustainability achievements and progress in a voluntary report. “With this, we want to provide our stakeholders with a detailed insight into our system of sustainability management, “ says Nicole Pohl, senior ESG manager at KHS.
Since the publication of its first voluntary sustainability report for 2013/2014, KHS has made reference to the reporting standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). To progressively adjust these to the criteria of the CSRD, in the current edition KHS has effected a first extensive comparison of GRI reporting standards with the ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) listed by the CSRD. The aim in the next few years is to gradually bring the voluntary KHS report into line with requirements for obligatory reports governed by the CSRD. “In doing so, we’ll be heading for a successful rating in the future, too, and can further strengthen our position,” states Pohl.