About KPMG

In the 2023 financial year, we will continue to align our sustainability reporting with Our Impact Plan, the global sustainability programme of KPMG International. Our Impact Plan is made up of four areas of action: Governance, People, Planet and Prosperity¹. In each of these areas, we have made commitments to drive forward our contribution to sustainable development in society. In our Our Impact Report, we report annually on our activities and measures along our four areas of action, thereby creating transparency about our sustainability activities.

The standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the "Principles of Stakeholder Capitalism" of the World Economic Forum (WEF IBC Metrics) are used to prepare our sustainability report. The information in the Our Impact Report 2023 is also based for the first time on the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) as finalised by EFRAG in July 2023. Further information on these standards can be found in the index of the Our Impact Report.

The information and data in this year's report was collected by our specialist departments and business units using representative methods and carefully quality-assured. The Our Impact Report has not been externally audited.

This report covers the period from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023. In order to provide an up-to-date presentation of KPMG's sustainability activities, it also includes activities that extend beyond the 2023 financial year and were available up to the editorial deadline (15 March 2024).

The information and employee-related key figures in this report are based on the HGB consolidated financial statements of KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft including its three fully consolidated domestic Group companies as at 30 September 2023. Further key figures and information on the measures and activities that KPMG has undertaken in the above-mentioned areas of action can be found at the end of each chapter.

The requirements and regulations for non-financial reporting by companies in the EU are currently being significantly expanded. The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) adopted by the European Parliament and Council in November 2022 provides for far-reaching changes to the scope and type of sustainability reporting - for large capital market-oriented companies from the 2024 financial year and for all other large companies from the 2025 financial year. In the summer of 2023, the EU Commission published the delegated regulation for the adoption of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) into applicable law on 31 July 2023.

For KPMG as a non-capital-market-oriented large company, reporting in accordance with the CSRD will therefore be mandatory for the first time in the 2025 / 26 financial year. We are already making intensive preparations for this. As a first step, we carried out a materiality analysis for KPMG in the 2023 financial year in accordance with the principle of dual materiality. In addition, we have set up a cross-divisional project to enable future CSRD-compliant reporting through automated processes and the establishment of a corresponding reporting system. We have also already included some of the disclosures required in future along the ESRS in this year's report.

Further information on the materiality analysis along the CSRD requirements at KPMG can be found in the section on Key areas of action.

The following overview presents our material topics based on Our Impact Plan, their preliminary categorisation into ESRS (sub)topics and the result of our initial assessment according to the principle of double materiality.