To date, 172 companies or organizations used the German Sustainability Code, to report on non-financial aspects of its activities. 2016 was, according to own data, the most successful year of the DNK. 58 new users have reported on the DNK, an increase of about 30 percent. In addition, 48 companies have updated their statements from previous years. The DNK was able to benefit from the upcoming reporting obligation.

As a low-threshold entry into the reporting, the DNK Declaration of Conformity is also a suitable standard for SMEs in particular. However, the DNK database also contains numerous large companies and internationally active corporations. The increasing interest in the DNK is also documented by the access numbers to the website. Around 240,000 times the page was called last year, in the previous year it was still 154,000 hits.

The interest in the DNK, which is already available in several languages ​​and is called the “Sustainability Code”, also grows abroad. Currently, the code is available in English, French, Greek, Russian and Hebrew, a Spanish translation is in progress. Interested countries can adapt the standard and adapt to the respective national circumstances. At present, the RNE provides four separate approaches to the use of the “Sustainability Code” and its database for EU partners. As the first European country has Greece taken the opportunity, based on the GNC to develop a two-year-year dialogue process the Greek Sustainability Code.

When issuing the Code’s declarations of conformity, the user reports relate to twenty qualitative Code criteria, plus 28 GRI and 16 EFFAS performance indicators. Users report on whether they have met the indicator in question (comply) or provide reasons for deviating from it (explain). By doing so, they indicate what is at the core of their organization’s corporate sustainability. Financial market players use the Code’s declarations of conformity to evaluate the non-financial performance of business enterprises.