back
Report
back
Support
back
Reporting Obligations
back
About the Code
back
Create a Report
Access the early access version of the new Sustainability Code Database, where you can create your CSRD-compliant report (currently only available in German).
Create CRS-compliant reportYou can access the previous Sustainability Code Database here. It will be available to you until November 2025 for the creation of reports.
Create a Sustainability Code reportAccess the early access version of the new Sustainability Code Database, where you can create your CSRD-compliant report (currently only available in German).
Create CRS-compliant reportYou can access the previous Sustainability Code Database here. It will be available to you until November 2025 for the creation of reports.
Create a Sustainability Code reportYou have the option of creating your sustainability reports in the new DNK platform or the old database.
Learn moreInstead of the previous reporting standard, the Sustainability Code will offer a wide range of support for CSRD reporting starting at the beginning of 2025.
Learn moreWith our user-friendly DNK platform, you can create your CSRD report digitally and free of charge while benefiting from various application aids.
Learn moreWe have summarized the complex ESRS reporting requirements for you in a clear and easy-to-understand checklist.
Learn moreOur helpdesk team will accompany you on your way to your finished sustainability report. In addition, we offer a comprehensive and practical range of information and training in accordance with CSRD.
Learn moreIn order to comply with the Sustainability Code, companies prepare a DNK declaration covering the twenty DNK criteria and a selected set of quantifiable performance indicators.
Learn moreA Code declaration of conformity must always include the 20 German Sustainability Code criteria as well as your chosen set of performance indicators.
Learn moreIn order to help structure the CSR reporting, we have integrated policy frameworks that directly relate to sustainability into the German Sustainability Code.
Learn moreThe database is at the heart of the Sustainability Code and is where you can find every declaration published to date from more than 1,000 user companies.
To the databaseUse this function to read what users report on individual criteria and performance indicators.
CompareThe Code Office is happy to answer all questions regarding the creation of a declaration of conformity.
Learn moreThe Code Office will provide feedback and support in navigating the database.
Learn moreIf you need further information on the Code or how to use it, you will find all the relevant documents here.
Learn moreHere you will find explanations of terms relating to the German Sustainability Code.
Learn moreIn this section, we provide an overview of the regulatory requirements for sustainability reporting and how companies can fulfill them with the DNK.
Learn moreThe CSRD requires more than 15,000 companies in Germany to report their sustainability performance transparently in accordance with a uniform EU reporting standard.
Learn moreThe CSRD determines which companies will be required to report on sustainability as of 2024 and how this reporting should be designed.
Learn moreThe CSDDD aims to ensure that companies are held accountable for their respect of human rights and the environment in global value chains.
Learn moreWith the Sustainability Code, the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) aims to promote sustainable business practice.
Learn moreThe Sustainability Code provides a framework for organisations and companies of any size or legal structure to report on their non-financial performance.
Learn moreA project of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), the Sustainability Code is designed to promote sustainable business practice.
Learn moreThe Sustainability Code became part of the political debate and continued to evolve with input from relevant stakeholders.
Learn moreThe German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) is contributing to the international debate with its experience of introducing the Code.
Learn moreThe value chain extends from raw material production and creation of the actual product or service through to its recycling after use or end of service. While some of this value added occurs within your company, other aspects of value added are outside of your company’s direct control. Assuming responsibility here and actively influencing the value chain in the interests of sustainable development can offer new opportunities on the one hand (e.g. in terms of product development) and can avoid risks on the other. Public reaction to scandals in the supply chain in the past has clearly shown that negative impacts in the value chain can also harm companies’ reputations.
Even if the creation of your products/services involves only a few stages which you perhaps primarily handle yourself and do so exclusively in Germany, we would ask that you give as specific an account of your company’s value chain as possible. When doing so, consider also purchased base materials, products and services such as IT, office materials and outsourced customer service.
In describing your value chain, you lay the foundations for the details of the criteria that follow. Therefore, if in doubt, when describing your service provision process err on the side of providing more detail rather than less. In particular, criterion 10 regarding innovation and product management relates to innovation processes all along the value chain to reduce the negative impacts of your products and services and to make a positive contribution to sustainable development. Wherever possible, reference your core business activities in your description, i.e. the business fields that represent your company’s key value drivers.
Please note when describing your company’s communication of problems with suppliers, service companies or other business partners throughout the value chain that how you answer this question can vary depending on your company’s sector and size. Regular frank discussions can serve as an answer here, as can more formal communication based on codes of conduct and auditing procedures.
Describe the steps that your products/services go through in the value chain (e.g. from the purchasing of raw materials to service performance or recycling).
State which sustainability aspects are of relevance to the value chain stages presented. Explain also how deep in the value chain the sustainability criteria are verified.
State whether the respective social and ecological problems that arise at the individual stages are known and how these problems are approached.
State whether and in what way your company communicates with suppliers and other business partners regarding the problems mentioned and works on solutions together with them.
In line with criterion 2, sustainability aspects are the topics that enable sustainable development in the first place. The aspects of particular significance to the companies within your value chain can differ from the aspects that you have identified as material for your company.
The value chain comprises not only suppliers, purchased services and their precursors, but also the users of your products and services and possibly also recycling or service performance effects. For example, a value chain can comprise the following stages: raw material procurement, prefabrication, finishing, sales, logistics, and the recycling and disposal of used products.
Sustainability criteria are specifications stipulated by your company (possibly on the basis of sustainability standards) which business partners and their subcontractors must comply with in order to be allowed to work with your company.
Here you will find further insights into DNK reports.
Do you already know this function? Using the Code database, you can compare answers from different users and read what companies reported on individual criteria and performance indicators.
Learn more| Audit |
| Biodiversity analysis |
| Commonwealth |
| Conduct that complies with the law |
| Consistency |
| Corporate citizenship |
| Corruption |
| CR-Kompass |
| Diversity |
| Due diligence |
| Eco-efficiency analysis |
| Ecological footprint |
| Economy for the common good |
| Ecosystem services |
| EFFAS |
| EMAS |
| Employability |
| Employee engagement |
| Employees’ rights |
| Equal opportunities |
| EU Directive on Disclosure of Non-Financial Information |
| German Sustainable Development Strategy |
| Greenhouse Gas Protocol |
| GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) |
| Human rights |
| ILO (International Labour Organization) |
| Incentives |
| Innovations |
| ISO 14001 |
| ISO 26000 |
| ISO 50001 |
| ISO 9000 group of standards |
| Life cycle approach |
| Lobby lists |
| Management systems relating to aspects of sustainability |
| Materiality |
| Materiality analysis and materiality matrix |
| National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights |
| Objectives |
| Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) |
| Operationalising |
| Performance indicator |
| Policies |
| Political influence |
| Process |
| Product life cycle |
| Reliability |
| Resources |
| Resource efficiency |
| Risks |
| Rules and processes |
| SA 8000 |
| Scope of reporting |
| Stakeholders |
| Stakeholder dialogues |
| Standard |
| Supplier management systems |
| Supply chain |
| Sustainability aspects |
| Sustainability Code |
| Sustainability process |
| Sustainability strategy |
| Sustainable Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) |
| Sustainable Development Goals |
| Sustainable value |
| Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) |
| UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights |
| United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) |
| Value chain |
| VfU environmental performance indicators |