In its eighth voluntary sustainability report, the Dortmund specialist for filling and packaging systems transparently discloses the progress it has made in corporate governance, social responsibility and environmental protection. Based on the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the report was independently audited and granted limited audit assurance.
“In 2025, we reached further important milestones regarding our ambitious environmental targets,” says Kai Acker, CEO of KHS GmbH. “Here, we take our responsibility as a globally active company extremely seriously and believe in providing full transparency.” For the very first time, the current report therefore now includes a concise dashboard reliably mapping the progress the Dortmund company has made in key areas such as climate protection, working conditions at its own facilities and throughout the value chain.
Clear alignment with EU reporting standards
KHS has further developed its sustainability report to meet the requirements set out by the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). “Our main aim is to create maximum transparency and enable our customers to directly compare our performance with that of others,” explains Nicole Pohl, senior ESG manager and human rights officer at KHS. “Although we’re not legally obliged to do so as a Group company, we consistently align our voluntary report with the standards and requirements specified by the European Union.”
KHS thus had a business audit performed for the first time in 2025 in order to obtain limited audit assurance. “For us, this independent limited assurance review is an important step towards ensuring transparency. It officially confirms the customary high credibility of our sustainability data for our stakeholders,” Pohl continues.
Important milestones in environmental protection
Last year, KHS considerably intensified its sustainability efforts towards better climate protection. One of the measures completed was to commission two large-scale photovoltaic systems at its sites in Bad Kreuznach and Worms, following on from the example set by Dortmund in 2023. Further PV systems have supplied KHS’ international locations in Kunshan (China) and Ahmedabad (India) with green electricity since the end of 2025 and March 2026 respectively. In 2025, EcoVadis honored the company’s sustainability achievements by presenting KHS with its first platinum award. This places the Salzgitter subsidiary among the top 1 % in the EcoVadis rating across all assessed branches of industry worldwide. The next step is to join the UN Global Compact and in doing so clearly position KHS as an endorser of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. “We want to stringently continue our drive for decarbonisation and are aiming for net zero in scopes 1 and 2 by 2045. In addition to protecting our climate, we also focus just as clearly on the needs of our employees and actively shoulder our holistic corporate responsibility in the context of ESG,” claims Kai Acker.
You can find our current sustainability report here: https://www.khs.com/en/company/sustainability/sustainability-report
- Platinum EcoVadis medal confirms KHS’ outstanding achievements in sustainability
- KHS customers and partners now have a reliable basis for assessing the company’s ESG commitment
- KHS plans to further develop its ESG reporting for the upcoming rating
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.
- Validation at overall Salzgitter AG Group level
- Net zero by 2050 at the latest
- Ambitious plan with decarbonization measures adopted
Binding targets for and holistic commitment to climate protection: together with Group parent Salzgitter AG the KHS Group pledges to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The results of the now completed validation by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) confirm that the Dortmund systems supplier is on the right course.
The independent climate protection organization SBTi develops standards, tools and guidelines which enable companies to set concrete greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. These are transparently validated in a recognized audit procedure. At the end of last year, together with all other Salzgitter AG companies and through the overall Group KHS submitted binding short-term and long-term targets for science-based CO2 reduction. The results that are also based on the Paris Climate Agreement and are in accordance with the 1.5 °C target have now been validated by the SBTi. Compared to base year 2021, in the short term the KHS Group will cut its greenhouse gas emissions generated directly by combustion (scope 1) and indirectly by the use of purchased electricity (scope 2) by around 36 % at all of its sites by 2028. Furthermore, in the same period the greenhouse gas emissions from the company’s upstream and downstream value chain (scope 3) will be lowered by 20 %. “Alongside the long-term and science-based Group target of net zero by 2050 at the latest, our short-term goals for 2028, approved by the SBTi, are just as ambitious, as important measures such as the switch to green electricity at our German plants were already fully implemented before base year 2021. We’re now concentrating on further energy efficiency measures and our international facilities. These act within very different energy markets,” explains Kai Acker, CEO of KHS GmbH.
KHS adopts ambitious plan
“We only have a few years in which to achieve our intermediate goal,” Acker continues. “We thus put the time up until validation to good use and have adopted a number of specific decarbonization measures. The first steps will now be initiated in the near future. Our ambitious plan is both an incentive and an obligation. We’re also showing our customers that we act responsibly and with transparency when it comes to protecting our climate,”Acker concludes.
The KHS GmbH Supervisory Board has appointed Dipl.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Kai Acker as the new Executive Management Board Chairman, effective October 15, 2018. He will be responsible for the technology, development/production, and human resources areas.
Mr. Acker, born in 1968, is currently managing director at LEONI Special Cables GmbH, Friesoythe and director of the “Enterprise & Industrial Projects” segment. After training as a power electronics technician, he studied electrical engineering at RWTH Aachen University and completed MBA postgraduate courses at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
With regard to this personnel decision, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heinz Jörg Fuhrmann, Salzgitter AG Executive Board Chairman, stated, “We are pleased to have acquired in Mr. Acker a competent executive with a broad range of industrial experience for this demanding position. I am sure that Mr. Acker will have a decisive impact on the growth-oriented development of the KHS Group. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my executive board colleague Burkhard Becker for laying the foundation for promising structures and the associated improved profits as the interim KHS CEO.”
As an internationally-operating manufacturer of filling and packaging systems for the beverage, food and non-food industry, KHS GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of the Salzgitter Group, plays a leading role in this sector. It is an essential member of the Salzgitter AG technology division.
