Sustainable actions are built on a foundation of transparent, open communication. This Sustainability Status Report is designed to create that basis; for the second time, we are dedicating a separate publication to the ecological, economic, and social impacts of our business operations.

This Sustainability Status Report covers our activities in the years 2019 and 2020 and clearly focuses on the main fields of TÜV SÜD’s work. It shows how we fulfill our corporate responsibility at TÜV SÜD and proactively embed relevant topics in our business processes. The Sustainability Status Report complements our Annual Report and is updated annually. In the event of discrepancy between this translation and the original German version, the latter shall prevail.

Once again, this year we based this Sustainability Status Report on the relevant standards without striving for full compliance. The Report was produced on the basis of the GRI Standards issued by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). A table in the Appendix provides an overview of all GRI standards or parts thereof selected as relevant. Our goal for the future is to report in compliance with the GRI Standards ‘Core’ option. Our target for achieving this is the 2022 reporting year.

The reporting period covers fiscal 2020 (January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020). Fiscal 2019 was taken for comparison. The content of the report was produced in cooperation with the various responsible corporate functions and legal entities of the TÜV SÜD Group.

Because of rounding, in this Sustainability Status Report sums of individual figures may not precisely equal totals and percentages may not reflect the precise absolute values to which they refer.

Where this Sustainability Status Report includes statements by TÜV SÜD concerning the future, they are based on current expectations, plans, goals and targets, and forecasts and estimates by management. Many of the assumptions and factors on which they are based are beyond the control of TÜV SÜD and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. Given this, actual developments may differ from projections given in this publication.