Third place for KfW's 2015 Sustainability Report

• KfW comes third in IÖW/future ranking of sustainability reports issued by major companies
• KfW satisfies a remarkable 72% of the criteria
• Award presented at the German Federal Labour Ministry

KfW's 2015 Sustainability Report came third out of 79 in the “major companies” segment of this year's rankings issued by the IÖW Institute for Ecological Economy Research and the “future – verantwortung unternehmen” business initiative. KfW's sustainability report satisfies a remarkable 72% of the comprehensive social, ecological, management-related and communication-oriented criteria, and garnered 510 out of a possible 700 points. The report, which is entitled “Verantwortung wirkt” (“Responsibility works”), stands out on account of its detailed description of the mechanism by which KfW Group's promotional activities have an effect and how that effect is measured. The award was presented today at the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in Berlin.

“On the whole, KfW Group's sustainability report provides a very good overview of industry-specific sustainability issues,” said Gerd Scholl, an IÖW researcher. “It provides a particularly detailed explanation of how KfW measures the impact of its promotional activities. The report also explicitly responds to criticism, for example regarding the financing of coal power or transparency in relation to the use of funds, and openly presents external assessments.”

“We are very proud of this award, since sustainability is our company's goal. KfW's financing and promotional measures make it possible to sustainably improve the living conditions of people in Germany, Europe and around the world. That makes today's award a strong incentive to keep doing what we're doing,” said Dr Ulrich Schröder, CEO of KfW Group.

With the support of the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the IÖW and “future – verantwortung unternehmen” have been evaluating and ranking the sustainability reports issued by German companies since 1994. A total of 119 current sustainability reports issued up to and including January 2016 by large corporations (including all of the reports issued by Germany's 150 biggest companies) as well as small and medium-sized enterprises were assessed and evaluated. The main criteria include aspects such as the company's profile, its strategy and objectives, ecological issues, credibility and the quality of communications.

Find out more about the ranking at:

• www.ranking-nachhaltigkeitsberichte.de

KfW's 2015 Sustainability Report can be accessed online at:

• Sustainability Report 2015(Online Report)
• KfW's 2015 Sustainability Report (PDF)