The German Council for Sustainable Development has passed as resolution the German Sustainability Code (PDF, 2020 KB) in his plenary session Oct 13, 2011. The Code was sent with a recommendation for implementation to the German Federal Government.

The German Sustainability Code makes sustainability efforts of companies visible and with greater bindingness relevant and comparable. It provides a broader basis for the realization of sustainability. The Sustainability Code is suitable for companies of every size and legal form.

Some statements of prominent people and institutions illustrate the potential effect of the instrument:

" In addition to many other possible ways of demonstrating corporate social responsibility, the German Sustainability Code represents a good tool for documenting sustainable corporate governance. The German Sustainability Code is a useful instrument for providing even greater support for German industry´s efforts to achive sustainable development. It offers companies a reliable and above all voluntary basis for evaluating, expanding and communicating their activities in a credible manner. The Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce intends to continue supporting efforts to drive forward the issue of sustainability in business, and the Code will be of considerable use in achieving this."

Dr. Eric Schweitzer, Member of the German Council for Sustainble Development and President of the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce

"The German Sustainability Code provides companies with a powerful incentive for higher transparency and sustainable responsibility. It is particularly engouraging that the German Sustainability Code was developed within the framework of a cemplrehensive dialogue - initiated by the Council for Sustainable Development and supported by numerous parties concerned. The focus is now on consistently continuing this collaboration in order to ensure thas as many companies as possible put the German Sustainability Code into practice. Especially in light of the current discussion on a European Sustainability Strategy, the REWE Group will continue its active involvement with emphasis on the principles of transparency, credibility, responsibility and voluntary participation."

Alain Caparros, CEO REWE Group

"The political value of the German Sustainability Code for large, globally active companies is indisputable. They face considerable effort to meet the very different information requirements of investors. The German Sustainability Code is highly suitable to achieve harmonization. It is good for Germany, to be pioneer in this concern. Small and medium-sized enterprises, for which management systems and predefined report formats are not suitable, can nevertheless draw from the approaches of the Sustainability Code important and helpful inspiration for sustainable management."

Peter Clever, member of the Executive Board of the German Employer Association (BDA)

"The German Sustainabilit Code is an instrument that can be used by companies with all kinds of legal structure to achieve transparency on sustainability and enables quality comparisons to be made. With the right framework the Code will have a clearly positive impact on the capital markets and all stakeholders."

Christian Strenger. Supervisory Board Member at DWS Investment, Fraport, Evonik, TUI

"Sustainability is now more important than ever - which makes the commitment of the German Council for Sustainable Development all the more welcome. For the Association of Local Authority Enterprises (VKU), the green economy has always been part and parcel of our basic make-up. The Sustainability Code is an attractive instrument for local authorities, as it makes sustainable actions transparent. Anyone wishing to shape the future has to make a start today. And where better than at grass-roots level, i.e. in the local authorities."

Hans-Joachim Reck, Managing Director, VKU

The German Sustainability Code describes in 20 criteria with up to two key performance indicators each the environmental, social and governance aspects (ESG). The Sustainability Code is set up on principles such as UN Global Compact, the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises, the guidance document ISO 26.000 and the reporting standards of the Global Reporting Initiative and EFFAS. A systematic comparison of the German Sustainability Code with the principles of UN Global Compact and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises can be found here (PDF, 61 KB). It is completed by a commentary, in which terms and definitions and a description of the steps towards compliance are given. The declaration of conformity can be furnished using a template (Word/DOC, 189 KB).

The German Council for Sustainable Development will until further notice on this website link on company´s declarations of conformity.

Following extensive groundwork at expert level, the German Council for Sustainable Development submitted a draft on such a code on 29.11.2010 and invited the general public and companies to engage in a dialogue on it. The Council got about 80 discussion contributions by 25.02.2011. At a qualification workshop attended by various companies on 09.05.2011, the draft was continuously further refined.

The German Sustainability Code was practice proofed in a participation phase for which various companies – listed and capital-market-oriented companies from the product, wholesale/retail and services sectors – have volunteered. This phase examined the extent to which the Code is suited to unfolding the hoped-for potential impact on a realignment of the mainstream capital market and whether it provides the information required to do so. A summary of the findings can be found here (PDF, 113 KB).

The question of what scope of validity the Code should have and of its implementation was put up for public discussion in a Multistakeholderforum on Sept 26, 2011 in Frankfurt a.M. Further information on how the Code was conceived, its intended aims, the key points of discussion during the process to date and the conceivable alternatives, e.g. with respect to entrenching the Code, can be found in a summary (PDF, 296 KB) prepared by Prof. Dr. Alexander Bassen from the University of Hamburg, whose contribution is greatly acknowledged at this juncture.