News
“Connecting worlds” – HGB celebrates in Hamburg’s Green Bunker
30 years of HGB – and we’re celebrating with an inspiring mix of knowledge, networking and vision. At our “Connecting Worlds” symposium on June 24, 2025, business expertise, sustainability and a festive atmosphere come together. Top-tier speakers, a spectacular location – the Green Bunker Hamburg – and fresh ideas await our guests.
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Among the top 1 %
Anyone who supports companies in matters of sustainability communication is well advised to do their own homework in this area. This is why we have been assessed by the EcoVadis sustainability rating for several years now, in order to have our own sustainability performance objectively scrutinized. Our efforts have been rewarded! For the second time in a row, we were able to improve our EcoVadis rating. With 85 out of a possible 100 points, we have received a platinum award, putting us in the top 1% of companies rated by EcoVadis in the last 12 months. Find out more about how we turned gold into platinum here….
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Is voluntary reporting based on the ESRS the right way forward?
Germany is one of the EU member states that did not transpose the CSRD reporting obligation into national law by January 1, 2025. As a result, companies that are still required to prepare a non-financial statement for the 2024 financial year under CSR-RUG, in force since 2017, are currently in a state of uncertainty. Here we provide an overview of the latest developments and recommendations.
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Barrier-free annual reports: Is that even possible?
Barrier-free access will become mandatory as of the end of June – at least for many products and services. In an initial project, we were able to gather some experience in what this means for annual reports and how to implement a barrier-free PDF from a design perspective.
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“At HGB, I truly learned what it means to work”
HGB apprentice Wiebke Meyer completed her training as a “Digital and Print Media Specialist” in January 2025. Reason enough to make us proud – especially as she is our first trainee at HGB. And we are even more delighted to be able to take her on directly as a Social Media Manager.
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In the shadow of CSRD and ESRS
Die kommende EU-Berichterstattungspflicht zur Nachhaltigkeit (CSRD) wirft schon ihre Schatten voraus. The upcoming EU sustainability reporting obligation (CSRD) is already casting its shadow. This is the conclusion of an HGB analysis of the annual and sustainability reports of SDAX, MDAX, and DAX40 companies published until the end of September. More and more companies are integrating their sustainability information into their management reports, with 10% already aligning their reporting with the European ESRS reporting standard. We analyzed a total of 214 reports to inform our comprehensive HGB Reporting Compass. Read the most important conclusions of the analysis here.
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Prestigious design award for thyssenkrupp nucera
This makes our design hearts beat faster. Our client thyssenkrupp nucera has won the prestigious German Design Award 2025 in the “Excellent Communications Design” category for its 2022/2023 annual report. The electrolysis specialist’s report, created with our support, was recognized for its outstanding and exemplary design achievements.
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“Sustainability reporting can learn a lot from financial reporting.”
CSRD sustainability statements spanning more than 100 pages might seem like a dream to ESG experts. But are companies truly meeting the informational needs of their stakeholders? Less, but meaningfully aggregated sustainability data would certainly give the report higher informational value and at the same time reduce its volume. In this interview, HGB expert and trained financial analyst Jochen Klusmann explains why sustainability reporting would benefit from adopting financial reporting practices.
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Every beginning has its own magic
… and so we are delighted to finally unveil our new branding! Since we last updated our corporate design in 2010, not only have the markets and our business areas evolved, but also our team and range of expertise. We have now captured this evolution in our new logo and color scheme.
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“The focus is functionality”
System-supported reporting is increasingly becoming the standard in corporate reporting. Companies are processing data for annual and sustainability reports in editorial systems. Nicole Schröder, graphic designer at HGB, explains what this means in technical terms and why the human eye continues to play a valuable role.
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Integrity Award: A strong debut
For the first time, the Integrity Star Award 2024 will evaluate sustainability reports with a focus on detailed ESG criteria. In 26 webinars, participants will also gain valuable insights into transparency requirements, industry-specific analyses, and best practices for greater sustainability.
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Reinforcement in the graphics department
Hanna Schröder has been with our graphics team as Junior Art Director since mid-September. We were immediately impressed with her unsolicited application and enthusiasm for informative illustrations and business reports. Welcome to the team, Hanna!
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HGB appoints new management from within the company
HGB is delighted to announce the appointment of two new managers from its own ranks: With immediate effect, our long-standing team members Claudia Gutsche and Boris Fister have joined the newly created HGB management team. This move establishes a new management level that encompasses responsibility for personnel, operational and commercial matters. Olaf Köhnke and Peter Poppe will continue to oversee the company.
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An exciting year!
Reporting in the face of dynamic developments: New requirements are casting their shadows ahead, bringing movement to well-established reporting processes. How reassuring it is, amidst all this change, that one thing remains constant: the top-quality reports from HGB. Check out our portfolio of our latest client projects …
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Think big, win bigger
At the ARC Awards 2024, HGB clients won a total of 5 awards with 6 entries. At the top of the winner’s podium was our client Armacell, receiving one Gold and one Grand Award for the “PDF Version of Annual Report” category. Evonik was also catapulted to the podium with one Gold and two Honors. Congratulations to our two award winners!
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“Getting the best results for our clients”
For anyone involved in the reporting business, the term “system-based reporting” is almost inescapable at the moment. Boris Fister, Director of Consulting & Processes at HGB, explains in an interview what this trend is all about, what it means for clients, and how HGB is responding.
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A smooth touch in a digital world
They still exist. Publications you can pick up and leaf through, made of real paper and high-quality print. In a business that is now almost exclusively digital, magazines like the one we created for our customer Salzgitter stand out as special highlights. This particular issue is about the green transformation of the steel industry, making it only fitting that the magazine’s production is sustainable too. Our passion and expertise for print seem to come across – so much so that paper manufacturer IGEPA featured this hot-off-the-press publication in the latest edition of its customer magazine, CIRCLE.
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HGB on tour
Travel broadens the mind – even when it comes to reporting. In May and June 2024, the HGB team embarked on a tour to key industry events, making stops in Berlin, Zurich and Vienna. Our journey focused on issues relating to sustainability: How can companies shape the transformation? What impact do regulatory requirements have? What role do data and software play? Events like MOVE, the CCR Annual Report Symposium and the firesys Business Conference provided the perfect platform for networking, identifying trends and sharing experiences. Our expertise was also in demand, as highlighted by our presentation at MOVE, the premier German-language conference for sustainability communication.
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“A quality seal with substance”
Debuting in 2024, the Integrity Star Award promises to enrich the award landscape for sustainability reports. This award has an exciting, truly innovative concept that relies–solely on an unbiased perspective based on data and analyst evaluations. As such, it provides a seal of quality with substance for the ever-important topic of sustainability, backed by a forward-looking evaluation method. HGB Managing Director Peter Poppe explains why this concept has won our endorsement and why we have become an agency partner of this competition.
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Integrity Star: A sign of quality in sustainability reporting
There is no shortage of awards – including in the field of sustainability reporting. So what makes the new Integrity Star Award so special? The name says it all: the highest standards of integrity, transparency and objectivity are what make this award stand out. Instead of using a jury, reports are assessed in a completely unbiased manner based on a scoring system of around 4,000 variables. We think this is an exciting concept for assessing the quality of sustainability reporting – and why we are involved as a partner.
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“A marathon that pays off in the long run”
ESG, CSRD, Green Deal – short words with a big impact. Regulatory requirements and reporting in the area of sustainability are increasingly on the minds of companies. The days when this was a “nice-to-have” topic are certainly over. The new requirements mean that substance counts more than ever when presenting corporate sustainability performance. A bothersome obligation or a huge opportunity? Peter Poppe has a clear opinion on this matter and explains it in an interview with Tonno Digitale, a blog for B2B PR and digital corporate communications.
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A two-pack punch
Around the turn of the year, we strengthened our team with two new experts: Ute Kollross, who started on December 1, 2023 as Project Manager, to be followed by Kristina Röver in mid-January, also as Project Manager. Welcome, both of you!
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Why only substance counts
It’s less and less about the narrative, and more and more about the facts. Under this motto, around 30 participants at the HGB event “sustainability – it counts” discussed why the future of sustainability management and communication will be about stringency, substance and transparency. After a lively day full of exchange, interaction and insights, employees, clients and representatives of HGB’s partner companies all agreed that the pilot project had been a success and would like to see it repeated next year!
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Where’s the story?
Is CSRD becoming a storytelling spoiler in sustainability reporting? HGB Managing Director Peter Poppe explores this question in his guest article in the current issue of new business, a trade magazine for communication and media. Poppe is certain that the new EU standard will fundamentally change sustainability reporting. He’s also certain that there’s always room for compelling corporate stories – what’s needed is just the right concepts and formats.
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Under the spotlight
Where are the trends in reporting headed? As an agency specializing in corporate reporting, naturally this is something we always precisely want to know. To find out, we take a look at the annual and sustainability reports of SDAX, MDAX and DAX40 companies every year. Once again, we have compiled the results in detail in the extensive HGB Reporting Compass – You can read the key findings of the analysis here.
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Getting a taste of the real world
Maxi Kohrt and Anna Juling, both work students, are a breath of fresh air at HGB. They support our team with a wide range of tasks and are getting familiar with reporting processes hands-on. Welcome, and we hope you enjoy your time with us!
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A complete set of medals
Gold, silver and bronze: all made an appearance at the ARC Awards 2023! Five of our customers landed at the top at this year’s “Reporting Oscars”. All in all, there were 10 reasons to celebrate: 2x gold, 4x silver and 4x bronze for the 2022 reporting year, all from the house of HGB. We congratulate our customers and thank them for their excellent cooperation!
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Together at the starting line
With fresh ideas, we have won over two fantastic new clients. We are very proud to be supporting ARAG SE and DIC Asset AG with our services in the 2023 reporting season. Smart concepts and creative design are in demand. The HGB team is ready at the starting line to dive into the topics of the insurance and real estate worlds! We are looking forward to these exciting collaborations.
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Sharpening up
The topic of sustainability is a growing concern, not just for society as a whole but also for us as a specialized agency for high-quality reporting. We believe it is appropriate and credible for us to have our own sustainability performance scrutinized objectively. In 2022, we underwent an assessment for the EcoVadis sustainability rating for the first time. But we’re ambitious – so we sharpened up our organization and strategy ahead of the 2023 assessment. The result: an outstanding gold medal! Here you can find out more about how we turned silver into gold …
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5 pillars – 5 heads
Reporting, sustainability, design, digital and content: these are the five pillars of our service offering. To make these capabilities even more accessible internally as well as externally, each of them now has a responsible head. By assigning each core topic a specific contact person, we ensure a clear line of responsibility and efficient processes. The new team of five work closely together and bring the best ideas from HGB to the table. This approach makes us confident that we are well-positioned for the challenges in our business. Curious about who these five “heads of” are? Then continue reading here …
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At “fure”/The Future of Reading
Just because it’s peak season in the reporting business, doesn’t mean we are missing out on anything new and exciting. In March, we visited the fure design conference on the future of reading – 10 hours. 13 contributions. 200 designers, media professionals and creatives. Our impression: The topics and participants were refreshingly diverse. The atmosphere was stimulating and open – and so were the in-depth discussions and networking.
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New year, new colleague
The HGB graphics team received reinforcement in January. Martin Baars – a true “Hamburg boy” with extensive agency and corporate experience – has a soft spot for design, brings stamina and a dash of punk to the agency. We will be making good use of him in current and future annual reporting seasons. Welcome aboard!
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Team player
What a corporate report and a muesli bar have in common, why van life is the new ski vacation, how it feels to hand over the captain’s role, and what her favorite adjectives are – Christa Eickmeyer tells us this and more in an interview that includes a look back at 25 years of HGB along the way.
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Taking off in a new position
Good performance pays off – this is also true at HGB, and why two employees were internally “upgraded” in December 2022. Katharina Marx is now the Creative Director responsible for HGB’s creative performance, and Jenny Beyer can now call herself Junior Art Director. Well done and well deserved, both of you!
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Well prepared
Markets, industries, and companies: Some areas of the economic environment are currently evolving at breakneck speed – and we are also feeling these changes in our own business. This is evident when looking at the development of sustainability reporting, which is becoming increasingly complex and ever more important for our business. We are expanding our knowledge and range of services to ensure that we deliver excellent reporting in this area as well.
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Highly motivated into the new season
For most people it gets noticeably cooler in the fall, but at HGB, this is when the hot phase begins! We have started the new reporting season – as always with heart and soul and highly motivated – and are looking forward to taking on some exciting challenges from our customers. We are pleased to welcome several of them on board for the first time. Where is the journey heading? A look at the projects shows: Sustainability ranks high on the agenda.
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25 years on the move
“Never! I will never stay at one company for 25 years!!!” Oh how easily we can deceive ourselves, dear Christa Eickmeyer: Congratulations on your anniversary and on an eventful, extremely successful quarter of a century at HGB! Her career at the agency is filled to the brim with stories and experiences, and a host of wide-ranging tasks and encounters. For Christa, the focus has always been on teamwork and collaborating with customers, employees and business partners.
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And the award goes to…
15 times a report from HGB stands at the end of this sentence. Our customers were big winners at the ARC Awards – the “Oscar” for corporate reports. The 2021 annual reports won 1 time in the highest category, shining furthermore in Gold (4 times), Silver (4 times) and Bronze (3 times), in addition to 3 Honors awards. We congratulate our customers on this great success!
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Here’s to good cooperation!
Global player with a long tradition and exciting plans for the future: We welcome our new client Salzgitter AG and are pleased to be able to support the listed steel group with its annual report, non-financial statement and a magazine. To kick off the collaboration, we had a very impressive meeting in Salzgitter.
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Our new website gets to the heart
Boom! Bam! – there’s not much more to be said. We have relaunched our website with our “reporting heart” going boom for everything that we do. And our powerful, edgy design conveying strong content goes bam. Our expertise makes us courageous and our experience makes us dare to always try something new. This is the spirit of this relaunch.
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HGB provides vocational training
We are delighted to welcome our first trainee on board: Wiebke Meyer started her vocational training on 1st August. After successfully passing her Abitur (German A-levels), Wiebke is now starting her vocational training as Medienkauffrau Print und Digital at HGB.
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HGB reporting compass
PDF, print or online? Integrated or combined? Gender sensitive language – yes or no? Who reports in what form and with what focus? Where are we heading in the ever more important field of sustainability reporting? To find the answers, we have taken a closer look at the annual reports of the 160 S-DAX, M-DAX and DAX40 companies. Our comprehensive reporting analysis once again shows the latest trends in the reporting world!
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Sustainability starts with ourselves
HGB receives EcoVadis certification for the first time in January 2022 and immediately gains silver medal. This ranks HGB in the top 25% of the “management consultancy” sector.
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New addition to the HGB team
Dorothee Grün joined the company on 1st of May and supports our activities as a project manager.
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