German Sustainability Code adapted to CSR law:

Following adoption of the CSR Directive Implementation Act by the Bundestag in March this year, the German Sustainability Code (DNK) has now been brought into line with the changed legal situation. Through this amendment, all of the aspects required by the “German Act on Strengthening Non-Financial Reporting in Companies in their Management and Group Reports” are now clearly indicated in the DNK check lists.

In particular, Criterion 1 “Strategic analysis and measures” and Criterion 2 “Essentiality” have been clearly separated from each other and the essentiality concept has been adjusted to the wording of the law. Furthermore, the structure for describing the individual concerns of concept, concept results as well as risks and indicators as required in the Act has been incorporated into the examination process. In order to clearly assign the individual criteria to the Act, new classification levels have been created and some new definitions together with the GRI SRS indicators introduced.

The changes will now be integrated into the DNK database and are valid from 2018. Until then, companies will continue to report in accordance with DNK 2016. The revised DNK including check list can be found here.