I’m delighted to welcome you to our first Sustainability Magazine, which is now part of the annual report. There’s a clear rationale behind this new initiative: We are convinced that financial performance and sustainability go hand in hand – including their interdependencies.

The EU has significantly watered down the originally planned requirements on sustainability reporting, which were due to first come into effect during the 2025 reporting year. Consequently, dpa is now reporting voluntarily in accordance with the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard. Even though we’re not legally obliged to do so, we remain committed to transparent sustainability reporting. In doing so, we are underlining our social responsibility – and continuing to demonstrate how, step by step, we’re developing dpa into a sustainability-oriented company.

The triad of Planet, People and Prosperity remains our guiding principle. A few examples: We have reduced our total CO₂ emissions by almost 10 percent. The fact that we have been able to significantly lower staff turnover at dpa, and that women now account for 70 percent of our trainees, sends important signals to the labour market. Not to mention the strong progress made with #UseTheNews. Through this initiative, we are working with our partners to promote news literacy among young people.

As you can see, we mean business. Sustainability and social responsibility are not just pass­ing trends. dpa – committed to the facts for over 75 years – will continue to report openly on progress, challenges and developments in the future.

Kindest regards
Andreas Schmidt
(May 2026)