Latest news on KLINGER Group
Latest news on KLINGER Group
ESG - Environmental Social Governance

What ESG reporting means in practice

The clock is ticking: By 2025, ESG reporting must provide reliable sustainability data from the KLINGER Group. Ines Weikl is the person responsible for reporting and Yusuf Avci is in charge of operational implementation.

Ms. Weikl, you and Yusuf Avci have been working together on a major project for several months now: the KLINGER Group’s ESG report. How are you approaching this project?

INES WEIKL: I have been with the company since October 2021 and work in Group Accounting. As such, I cover all of our accounting and controlling activities, which come into play in sustainability reporting. I’m still new to the topic of sustainability as such. I’m more of a numbers person, and that’s where I can draw on my experience in preparing annual reports.

What figures do you have to deal with in the ESG report?

They range from energy consumption and headcount to the gender pay gap and supplier data. To meet our reporting obligations, we have defined around 100 key performance indicators (KPIs), which our subsidiaries must provide to varying degrees. To collect the data needed for the ESG report, we use our existing financial reporting infrastructure, i.e. the same system that provides us with an overview of the financial situation of the entire Group.

Ines Weikl has more than 15 years’ experience in reporting key financial figures and preparing annual reports.

With this reporting procedure, the KLINGER Group complies with its obligation under EU law to contribute to meeting the climate targets. What benefits do you expect from ESG reporting?

Our first task is to define uniform standards for all KLINGER Group subsidiaries to allow comparisons and to provide us with a clear idea of the status quo. The report helps us establish a common starting point. This is the foundation upon which we can then build the necessary optimization measures. If we don’t know where we stand, we cannot know where we need to go. The facts and figures that ESG reporting yields will help us move in the right direction.

Yusuf Avci has held various positions within the KLINGER Group since 1992. He has been ESG Manager at KLINGER Holding since September 2023.

In preparation for meeting our reporting obligation, you have already spent the past months working on creating a standardized framework for the Group. What are the challenges here?

AVCI: The KLINGER Group has a diversified make-up, comprising a wide variety of companies. There’s a difference, of course, whether you are reporting climate data as a production company with energy-intensive manufacturing or as a trading company that operates large warehouses. So, we will have to make individual adjustments on site at each company to ensure that they can provide us with the required figures.

WEIKL: To distill the various approaches into a common denominator, we have defined ten fields of action (see infobox), which we derived from the ten ESG criteria. These apply equally to all subsidiaries. We’ve also drawn up specifications that say exactly who has to disclose what data, the period within which this should happen and even which unit of measurement to use.

Contacts mentioned in the article:

Yusuf Avci, Sustainability Manager at KLINGER Holding

When will the first ESG report be compiled?

AVCI: This comprehensive report is subject to strictly defined legal regulations and must be submitted for the first time in 2026. That means we have to collect the data for the 2025 financial year to be able to prepare and submit it within this time frame.

WEIKL: Just like annual reports, the ESG reports must undergo an external audit.

What findings from the report are you especially looking forward to?

WEIKL: The social data will certainly be interesting, because ESG reporting is also about the well-being of employees and not just about environmental issues. We have already done small-scale surveys in this area, but in future we will get a more comprehensive picture.

And it will also make the data comparable throughout the KLINGER Group for the first time. It’ll be interesting to see what effects the standards will have on a global scale, especially with regards to what potential we can still leverage here.

Fact Box

The ten ESG fields of action at KLINGER

  • Climate change
  • Water consumption
  • Water pollution
  • Substance of Concern
  • Circular economy
  • Customers and end users
  • Workers conditions
  • Workers in the value chain
  • Corporate culture and values
  • Compliance

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What specific measures will be derivable from the facts and figures in the KLINGER ESG report?

The law requires companies to submit a plan for achieving climate neutrality. The EU’s climate targets stipulate that climate-damaging emissions must be cut by 50 percent by 2030 and reduced to zero by 2050. What projects and measures we can implement to achieve this will then be decided based on the figures and assessments in the ESG report.

How does KLINGER go about collecting the data for the ESG report?

The KLINGER Group has set up a governance structure for which each company must name a sustainability expert. This person will manage sustainability issues within the company and be responsible for communicating the relevant key figures for the ESG report.

What does the abbreviation “KPI” stand for?

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators. These can be used to measure whether the desired result has been achieved at the end of a process. In business administration, they are used to determine companies’ success, performance and capacity utilization. In ESG reporting, key performance indicators include a company’s CO2 emissions, energy usage and water consumption.

Fact box

Did you know ...

  • … that over 1000 key performance indicators (KPIs) have been defined in the legal framework for ESG reporting? Together, they form guidelines that companies can use to formulate their own climate targets and reporting practices.
  • … that KLINGER also places a stronger emphasis on the topics of job security, health, and lifelong learning as part of its corporate governance guidelines? These summarized aspects include social responsibility as well as compliance and integrity approaches in corporate ethics.
  • … that certifications such as EMAS and ISO 14001 have already provided important data on the achievement of sustainability goals in the past? Much of this existing information can be used for the ESG reporting criteria.
  • … that the legal text specifying the form and structure of the ESG reporting spans more than 300 pages of small print?
Connect with us

We appreciate your feedback:

Go back

Zum Seitenanfang navigieren