Impact Report 2025: Our 5% Promise
CSR Tools' Impact Report 2025: Transparent insights into measures, donations, handprint, and sustainability contributions from core business.
- CSR Tools commits at least 5% of annual turnover to sustainability investments and donations.
- In 2025, the total invested or donated was 10,000 euros across both own measures and external organizations.
- Our core business contributes indirectly: lower barriers for SMEs, reduced reporting effort, and better decision-making.
- We funded a biodiversity flower meadow on our property and donated to six specialized organizations.
- We select donation partners based on scientific impact criteria and the DZI seal for transparency.
We work in sustainability by choice. But does a service provider that offers companies pragmatic templates and consulting for sustainability reporting actually have a positive ESG impact? Does the CSRD Compass Newsletter make our world a little bit better? Here is our Impact Report 2025.
Our impact
Our positive influence falls into two areas: the impact through our core business, and the sustainability effect achieved through donations and investments. We disclose both transparently in this Impact Report 2025.
Does our core business have a positive impact?
Whether our activities have a clear sustainability effect cannot be answered in full. Companies gain relevant insights through the efficient implementation of the double materiality assessment, but that alone does not save a single gram of CO2. Our approach follows the handprint principle: we help people and companies tackle sustainability in a structured way, remove barriers to entry, and implement it cost-effectively.
These are the positive effects we achieved with our core business:
- Lower barriers for SMEs. Thanks to cost-efficient templates, clear structures and pragmatic advice, smaller companies can address sustainability and regulatory ESG requirements that they would otherwise lack resources for.
- Less bureaucratic effort. Standardized processes and clear prioritization help implement reporting more efficiently and avoid duplicated work.
- Potential resource shift. Less time and money spent on ESG reporting can free up capacity for concrete sustainability measures. Whether this happens is something we cannot yet measure.
- Better decision-making. Structured analyses such as double materiality and climate risk analysis make competing objectives, risks and impacts more visible.
- Stronger internal responsibility. Through our educational work and consulting, sustainability is understood less as a one-off exercise and more as a management topic and value driver.
The 5% Promise
On our "About Us" page, we commit to investing or donating at least 5% of our annual turnover in sustainability. For us, this promise is a binding benchmark, not a marketing tool.
With this Impact Report 2025, we want to make transparent what we implemented this year, why we chose these measures, and which criteria we use to select organizations.
Own measures: Strengthening biodiversity on site
We invested part of our turnover (4,000 euros) in a concrete, own measure. This year, we had a fallow area on our property upgraded to a biodiversity-friendly flower meadow. A specialist company prepared the area and planted native shrubs and perennials that directly contribute to local biodiversity.
Biodiversity is often underestimated in the sustainability debate, even though it is a central foundation for stable ecosystems. Local measures can make a direct and measurable contribution. We also learned a great deal ourselves, which we can apply in customer projects.
Donations: Impact through specialized organizations
We see great leverage in supporting organizations that have been working professionally and effectively in various sustainability fields for many years. These are the donations we made this year:
| Organization | Amount | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| WWF | 2,000 euros | Protection of biodiversity and ecosystems; structural causes of environmental and climate crises |
| Deutsche Umwelthilfe | 1,500 euros | Enforcement of environmental and climate protection via political and legal levers |
| Future Cleantech Architects | 1,500 euros | Development and scaling of effective climate and cleantech solutions |
| OroVerde: Die Tropenwaldstiftung | 350 euros | Protection of tropical forests and promotion of sustainable utilization concepts |
| Wilde Wälder | 350 euros | Preservation and development of near-natural forests through permanent protected areas |
| Sustainability Reporting Navigator (SRN) | 300 euros | Promoting transparency and comprehensibility in sustainability reporting |
The selection deliberately covers different levers: climate and environmental protection, biodiversity, forest protection, and systemic approaches such as cleantech and sustainability reporting.
In total, we invested or donated 10,000 euros in sustainability in 2025.
How we select measures and organizations
Our environmental protection measures and donations should have real impact. When selecting donation organizations, we do not rely on awareness or gut feeling alone. We use external guidance:
- Effektiv-spenden.org identifies organizations that achieve a particularly high impact per euro spent, based on scientific findings. This approach makes sense especially with limited budgets.
- The DZI seal (German Central Institute for Social Issues) checks organizations for transparency, efficiency and the correct use of funds. This helps us handle our resources responsibly.
No greenwashing, no claim to perfection
We do not claim to be "perfectly sustainable". We try to act as sustainably as possible in everyday life: we use green electricity from our own PV system, travel by public transport where possible, and use an electric car as an alternative. We do not compensate ourselves with labels or buzzwords. Instead, we aim to act consistently, honestly, and transparently. That also means regularly questioning and developing our decisions. We will certainly make mistakes along the way.
Just do it. Sustainable action does not have to be perfect from the start. Honest transparency about what you do and how you select your measures is worth more than polished greenwashing.
Want to make your own sustainability reporting more structured and efficient? Our Excel-based materiality analysis template gives you a practical starting point.
Frequently asked questions about our Impact Report 2025
What is the 5% Promise at CSR Tools?
We commit to investing or donating at least 5% of our annual turnover in sustainability each year. This covers both our own environmental measures and donations to specialized organizations. The promise is binding and tracked transparently in our annual Impact Report.
How does CSR Tools select its donation organizations?
We use two external guides: Effektiv-spenden.org ranks organizations by their scientific impact per euro spent, and the DZI seal checks for transparency and responsible use of funds. We deliberately spread donations across different sustainability levers.
Does offering sustainability reporting templates actually help the environment?
Our direct environmental footprint as a service provider is small. Our impact is more of a handprint: by lowering barriers and reducing effort for companies implementing sustainability reporting, we help organizations focus more resources on actual sustainability measures. Whether that happens is something we cannot yet measure, and we are honest about that limit.
How much did CSR Tools invest in sustainability in 2025?
In 2025, we invested and donated a total of 10,000 euros. This included 4,000 euros for our own biodiversity flower meadow project and 6,000 euros in donations to six specialized organizations covering climate, biodiversity, forest protection and sustainable reporting.
