Sustainability

Sustainability is a core component of our DNA. With our expertise and our sustainable mindset we support our clients in their transformation to create sustainable value for the economy, society, and the planet.

Helmut Ahr, CEO

Our projects support the sustainable transformation of our clients. We empower our people, people in our ecosystem and beyond. We live responsibility for our planet.

Stefan Hiendlmeier, CPO

Three dimensions of sustainable development

We pursue a holistic understanding of sustainability, with a focus on three main dimensions: PEOPLE, PROJECTS, and PLANET.

In doing so we empower our staff, as well as the people in our ecosystem and beyond. We do this by means of ESG training and education, both internally and externally.
Our projects support the sustainable transformation of our customers. We are committed to promoting our clients’ ESG efforts and ensure that the projects we implement do not conflict with our own ESG objectives.
We actively take responsibility for our planet in what we do. We play our part by being as sustainable as possible in our operations, continuing to be climate-neutral and trying to give back wherever we can.

To contribute toward a sustainable, climate-neutral, just and healthy society, Horváth engages in various projects in line with the United Nations’ sustainability goals and the Paris Agreement on climate and emissions.

Since 2021 we have been a party to the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. By adding our signature to this, we have committed to its ten principles which encompass areas including human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption, and as such instituted another guide for our own sustainable business and actions.

In 2024 the independent international rating agency EcoVadis awarded us the silver medal for our sustainability activities. This puts us in the top 15 percent of companies rated by EcoVadis in general and the top nine percent within our industry.

Our understanding of sustainability includes the implementation of various environmental, economic and social goals, which is why we are continuously expanding our commitment in these areas. Read more in our latest sustainability report.

Sustainability Report

Sustainable environmental commitment: Horváth is climate-neutral

Horváth has been climate-neutral in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol standard since 2020. This takes into account all direct and indirect emissions that we generate as a result of our business activities. To ensure our climate-neutrality, we have set ourselves ambitious targets and implemented measures that span the areas of green mobility, green building and green consumption. With these principles guiding us, we want to continuously refine our activity and reduce our carbon emissions.

Green mobility: In the area of mobility, we promote the use of low-emissions travel options, for example by extending the use of rail travel even further, offering work bicycles, and with our Green Car Policy which subsidizes the switch to electric and hybrid vehicles.
Green Building: Our offices in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are already sustainable, powered by 100% green electricity.
Green consumption: Our actions follow the principle of “reduce, reuse and recycle”. One example is our collaboration with the company AfB (Arbeit für Menschen mit Behinderung), a non-profit organization which specifically employs people with disabilities, as well as pursuing other socially positive objectives), which enables our old IT equipment to be recycled and reused. We also use water dispensers and offer an abundant selection of regional fruit.

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Learn more about our collaboration with AfB

Through our collaboration with AfB, Europe’s largest non-profit IT company, our old and faulty laptops, smartphones and other devices are dismantled and recycled in accordance with the highest ecological and ethical standards. This creates new resources in Europe. The overhauled and reusable IT devices are sold by AfB with a warranty of up to three years. The refurbished IT hardware they offer in this way means access to laptops and mobile phones with all the benefits of a warranty, even for those who cannot afford to purchase new equipment. So disposing of our IT equipment in an environmentally friendly way has a positive impact more widely than just in ecological terms: It enables us to also make a contribution to society and at the same time secure jobs.

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Certified climate protection combined with additional commitment

Source: ClimatePartner

This combined project contributes to the financing of a certified climate protection project and also supports tree planting in Germany. For each ton of CO2 saved through the contribution from a certified climate protection project, one tree is planted in Germany. This promotes the conversion of structurally poor forest stocks and monocultures into more resilient mixed forests that are better able to adapt to changing climate conditions.

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Clean Trinking Water in Uganda

Source: ClimatePartner

Many people still lack access to clean drinking water. To prevent diseases, the water must be boiled before using it. Since this is usually done over open wood fires, large amounts of CO₂ emissions are released and, in addition, indoor smoke burdens people's health.

The project is implemented in several districts in Uganda and counteracts both problems: With the involvement of local communities, damaged wells are located, repaired and maintained. At the same time local forests are also relieved, as less firewood is consumed.

In response to discussions on the topic of climate-neutrality, we have changed our label to “Business operations with a financial climate contribution.” This demonstrates that we are now more focused on avoiding emissions rather than solely being concerned with climate-neutrality.

Sustainable social commitment

Social justice is important to us. Horváth enacts its responsibility to society through financial support as well as active cooperation in the form of pro bono projects in which we can achieve concrete improvement based on our core expertise. In doing this, we seek to sustainably improve our fellow human beings’ chances to have an independent future and self-determined life. In our social commitment we focus particularly on the areas of health, education and culture.

Here you can find some examples:

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Péter Horváth Foundation

Péter Horváth founded a non-profit foundation in 2002 and transferred his shares in the Horváth Group thereto. The foundation engages in the fields of science, culture and understanding between nations.
In science, it predominantly supports projects and themes in the field of business economics. Two examples out of many are the annual awarding of the Green Controlling Prize as well as the Péter Horváth Dissertation Prize. The foundation runs the non-profit IPRI Research Institute together with the University of Ulm.

In culture, projects as well as the activities and training of creative individuals are supported, with a focus on young artists. In the field of understanding between nations, ties with Hungary are of special concern to the foundation. The Center for Family Business was established by the foundation in collaboration with the Family Enterprise Foundation at Corvinus University, among other things.

The foundation makes its funding decisions according to its statutes, fully independently from the Horváth Group. Projects are primarily financed from the profit shares of the Horváth Group.

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Purpose Days

JOBLINGE

At JOBLINGE, the economy, the state and private individuals work together to support young, disadvantaged people, with the objective of helping them to access real job opportunities and achieve long-term integration into the labor market and society. By providing tailored qualification, voluntary mentoring, and support during training, the initiative achieves far above-average success, with over 70% of participating young people making the leap into professional life.

As part of our collaboration with Joblinge Stuttgart, one example of our work is collaborating on ways to improve performance management, engaging with questions such as: How can planning be even more efficient, how can the management of the organization be simplified for managers and the Supervisory Board, and how can processes be faster and automated? For this purpose, the job candidates and our interdisciplinary project teams have spent several months developing solutions in various workshops, and have tried them out and implemented them directly in practice at the sites.

TAFEL

Saving food and helping people. Our employees regularly support the Tafel at our office locations. We provide support from setting up, unloading and sorting the food to distributing it and the final dismantling of the space. The great demand for helpers shows us how important this commitment is and how many people depend on the help. In addition to financial donations, the time and active commitment is an indispensable component.

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Uthingo

For many years we have been working closely with the organization Friends of Uthingo e.V., which was founded by our former colleague Axel Goedecke.

Friends of Uthingo e.V. takes care of abused children in the townships of South Africa. Every day, children who have been victims of sexual or physical violence seek refuge in the safe house run by the Uthingo organization near Durban. They receive medical and psychological care there – and, crucially, find a place where they can feel safe and secure.

However, not all children can be reintegrated into their families, so Friends of Uthingo helps these children by meeting their basic needs, improving their housing situation, and enabling them to attend school and receive education.

Horváth has also been able to play a part, for instance by making urgently needed repairs to the houses, financing an industrial oven for the largest house, which accommodates around 30 children, and culinary and housekeeping courses, after-school classes and school uniforms.

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Light of Love

Thanks to one of our colleagues from Vienna, we have come into contact with Rosemarie Wagner from "Light of Love", a non-profit association that finances educational projects in northern India. Together with Rosi, we decided to support Premjyoti, a private school for disabled children in Varanasi, northern India. Set up by an Indian couple in 1998, Premjyoti was founded with the intention of facilitating the education of disabled children.

These children are very often rejected by their parents due to their disability, and do not have access to a normal education. The school currently has around 450 students, of whom around 1/4 have a significant disability. Together with Light of Love we have supported the school in various projects such as funding teacher salaries, school and winter clothing, the building of a ramp for disabled students, and drilling to support the school’s water supply, as well as enabling the supply of classroom disinfectants and masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sustainable economic success

As an employer, it is important for us to ensure our long-term economic viability so we can offer our employees secure jobs with which to sustain their families. The people who work at Horváth play a key role in shaping our corporate success. That is why we act to contribute to sustainable and responsible corporate management, as well as to meet growth and profitability targets.

Find out here how we can help our customers take a responsible and sustainable path into the future

Our consultancy expertise in sustainability

Sustainability

Taking a responsible approach into the future

Three dimensions of sustainable development

Sustainable environmental commitment: Horváth is climate-neutral

Sustainable social commitment

Here you can find some examples:

Sustainable economic success

Read more about the topics we stand for as an employer here

Find out here how we can help our customers take a responsible and sustainable path into the future