“Your Ideas for Sustainable Impact”: Your chance to win our Sustainability Innovation Award!

By celebrating 120 Years of Knorr-Bremse, we’re also looking forward to building a brighter future together! To mark this anniversary, Knorr-Bremse is launching a global sustainability competition called “Your Ideas for Sustainable Impact”. Our employees around the world are the company's greatest source of original, innovative ideas – and we would like to draw on your expertise to make Knorr-Bremse even more sustainable.

Do you or your team(s) have ideas on how we can further strengthen sustainability at Knorr-Bremse?

In recent years, Knorr-Bremse has very successfully combined sustainability with business success. With the help of your ideas, we’d like to continue this exciting journey! For example: Do you have innovative proposals for making our production, products or processes even more sustainable? Or for strengthening our social responsibility, or making our business practices more transparent and innovative? Or perhaps you could help us reduce the amount of plastic we use, or increase the amount of recycling we do?

If you do, now is the perfect time to present your proposals for innovative solutions!

You can submit your ideas and concepts in one of two categories:

1. Sustainability

We’re looking for ideas for projects in the three key areas of corporate sustainability management: ESG (Environment, Social, Governance). In this category, we invite you to submit ideas that would have a positive, sustainable impact on one or more of these three areas:

Environment – How could we use resources more efficiently, reduce emissions, or develop sustainable production processes? Examples: by boosting our circular economy, improving the way we recycle materials, reducing our use of chemicals, cutting down emissions or conserving water
Social – How could we improve our working environment for our employees, or encourage social responsibility in our communities? Examples: by improving occupational health and safety, promoting our corporate culture or supporting local initiatives
Governance – How could we make our business practices more sustainable and more transparent? Examples: by developing new, sustainable business models, or improving transparency in the various ways we communicate and collaborate

2. Special category: Plastic

As part of our collaboration with Parley for the Oceans, the competition will also focus in particular on the whole issue of plastic. How could we further reduce or avoid the use of plastics in our value chain? How could we minimize plastic waste? Where do we see opportunities to foster a circular economy? Can we find ways to develop sustainable alternatives? Examples: by replacing single-use plastics in packaging, using plastic-free alternatives or recycled plastics, raising awareness of the importance of avoiding plastics both within Knorr-Bremse and in our supply chain

Knorr-Bremse CEO Marc Llistosella (right) talks to Cyrill Gutsch, founder of environmental organization Parley for the Oceans, about sustainability and plastics

Transparent judging criteria guarantee a fair competition

The ideas you submit will be assessed against the following criteria:

Impact: Does the idea produce measurable benefits in terms of sustainability? Does it also improve cost efficiency and/or resource efficiency?
Relevance: Does the idea help to achieve Knorr-Bremse’s sustainability targets?
Feasibility: Is the idea practical and could it be implemented at reasonable cost?
Innovation: How original or innovative is your proposed approach for Knorr-Bremse?
Scalability: Is the idea transferable to other locations?

Once the application deadline – June 30, 2025 – has expired, a jury of experts will draw up a preliminary shortlist of the best ideas. Each of the shortlisted applicants will be invited to present their concept to our global ESG Board in a five-minute elevator pitch. Based on these pitches, the ESG Board will select four finalists.

A worldwide online poll will then be held on the intranet to select the two award-winning projects from the four finalists. At the end of the year, the two winning projects will be showcased at the Leadership Conference and presented with the Sustainability Innovation Award.

What is the ESG Board?

The ESG Board is a central coordinating body made up of representatives of the Executive Board, the Management Boards of both divisions, the management teams of Knorr-Bremse’s North America/South America and Asia/Pacific regions, the Chair of Knorr-Bremse Global Care e. V., and the Head of the Group Sustainability function. The Board’s mission is to advise on the ongoing development of Knorr-Bremse’s sustainability program and continuously evaluate the latter’s progress against strategic metrics and targets.

Financial support for the award-winning projects

Knorr-Bremse will be presenting two awards: one in the “Sustainability” category, and the other in the special “Plastic” category. Knorr-Bremse will provide the winners with financial support for implementing the projects they submitted.

Make the most of this opportunity to turn your ideas into reality and make a truly sustainable difference!

Application process

Individual or team? How to apply for the Sustainability Innovation Award:

Individuals or teams from all parts of the Knorr-Bremse Group are welcome to take part in the competition. In the case of team participation, we would ask that all communication be handled by a single contact person representing the team submitting the application.

Option 1 (internal company email address):

Are you a Knorr-Bremse Group employee with an internal company email address (e.g. john.smith@knorr-bremse.com or sally.jones@bendix.com)?

In that case, you can directly access the Sustainability Competition entry form via the following link (Please apply in English only): Sustainability Competition entry form