With an overall score of 81 per cent, Ottobock is one of the pioneers in the economy who have recognised the importance of transparent sustainability reporting and successfully put it into practice. During the European Sustainability Week the company has now been presented with the ESG Transparency Award for this commitment.

The ESG Transparency Award honors organizations that have successfully implemented groundbreaking sustainability concepts in their company and communicated them transparently in a sustainability report. These companies take on an important role model function by showing that profitability and sustainability are not mutually exclusive, but together form a forward-looking strategy.

The award recognizes outstanding transparency in ESG reports as well as the sustainability goals and measures behind them. In 2024, the best companies from over 15 industries in Europe were awarded – including corporations, large and medium-sized companies. All organizations that offer goods or services in Europe and have already published a sustainability report are eligible to participate.

Christin Franzel, Head of Global Sustainability at Ottobock, accepted the prize at European Sustainability Week, which was held in Königswinter in mid-December. Transparency, environment, social issues as well as corporate governance and compliance were assessed. Ottobock was able to achieve more than 70 per cent in all clusters. In the social field, the figure was over 80 per cent and in compliance even over 90 per cent – a great result for the first voluntary report according to the new European Sustainability Reporting Standard (ESRS).

In 2024, double materiality, whereby companies have to evaluate sustainability issues for themselves and which is mandatory under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), was also included as an additional score in the Compliance cluster. If fulfilled, this evaluation contributes to improving the result. In preparation for the CSRD, Ottobock conducted the materiality analysis last year and based on this included the key reporting indicators.

Sustainability reporting at Ottobock

In recent years, Ottobock has continuously professionalized its sustainability reports. The company has published an annual sustainability report based on the principles of the UN Global Compact since 2016. The report was prepared according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard in 2021 and 2022. The CSRD has changed the legal framework for sustainability reporting. On a voluntary basis, Ottobock published the Non-Financial Report according to the new ESRS standard in 2023 and will continue to do so in 2024.