FAIRESPONSIBILITY REPORT 2025

“Sustainability, made for people”

As a hotel group, we are challenged every day to reconcile ecology and economy. Finding the balance between feasibility and what we ideally want is a constant challenge in the hotel industry. To ensure that we can follow a clear structure on our path to greater sustainability, we are guided by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. In the fifth FAIRESPONSIBILITY REPORT of KONCEPT HOTELS, these are also our guidelines for more self-determination, gender equality, a healthy life and the preservation of natural resources.

We have again set ourselves three focus targets for 2025: We want to realize the water savings originally planned for 2024. We will press ahead with our new hotel project in Rottweil in accordance with the sustainable principles of circular construction. We are committed to increasing biodiversity by creating extensive grassland on our specially acquired biodiversity area.

The goals of the 2030 Agenda are essentially:

To end poverty, hunger and inequalities
To promote and shape prosperity and sustainable lifestyles for all people
To strengthen and safeguard people’s self-determination, gender equality and a good and healthy life for all
To protect human rights, ensure peace, good governance and access to justice
To respect the Earth’s ecological limits, combat climate change, preserve and sustainably use natural resources
To build a global partnership

Professionalization & partnerships

In addition to commitment and ambition, responsibility for people, nature, the environment and animals requires two other factors: professionalization and partnerships. To this end, we have raised sustainability to the highest management level and are forming a holistic, sustainable management strategy for the future from the many individual measures of recent years. It has also become clearer than ever that sustainability is teamwork – beyond the boundaries of our own company. In the FAIRESPONSIBILITY REPORT 2025, we report in three stories on different forms of partnerships for greater global sustainability. We are not primarily interested in generating economic added value as a company, but rather in demonstrating how we can create value for nature together. This is possible simply by exchanging and disseminating ideas and concepts.

Step by step to more sustainabilityThis is how KONCEPT HOTELS implement the 17 goals of the UN Agenda 2030:

Actively tackling poverty in old age

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms and everywhere

In addition to our global commitment in areas such as socially sustainable hotel textiles and fair coffee, we combat poverty by offering our employees an additional pension scheme. In doing so, we are also making a contribution to gender equality.

Since 2022, we have been offering all employees – whether mini-job or full-time – a company pension scheme when they join our company. The company pension, just like the salary, is financed by us as the employer. In addition, employees can also convert part of their wages or salary into a company pension to receive a company pension at a later date. Unlike the statutory pension, the company pension is not mandatory for us as a company and is a sustainable additional benefit provided by KONCEPT HOTELS.

Acting in biological partnership

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

We support sustainable cultivation. In the western world, many people can decide not only whether they want to eat, but also how and what they want to eat. By supporting sustainable agriculture, we want to give our guests the opportunity to eat food that is good for nature and good for people. To this end, at our KONCEPT HOTEL Neue Horizonte in Tübingen, we have been able to focus our food and beverage offerings entirely on sustainability.

In the regional company b2 Bio pur, we have found a partner that produces, processes and sells high-quality organic products under fair conditions in the region. We spoke to founder and Managing Director Stefan Schopf about his path, his company and his motivation.

Opportunities through culture for cultures

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

We promote employees from different cultural backgrounds. A company like KONCEPT HOTELS lives through people for people. It is our employees who make our performance possible and help shape the special character of the different hotels. For this to work, we focus on the well-being of people with different cultural backgrounds. With our People and Culture Manager Lucia Aponte-Khemili, we actively promote cooperation and enable shared perspectives.

Because human issues are usually best discussed face to face, Lucia takes care of our employees’ minor and major problems on site in our hotels. “It’s important to me to really understand the concerns of each and every individual,” explains Lucia. “That way, we meet our employees at eye level. That’s why I travel between Cologne, Siegburg, Tübingen and Bern.” In this way, our KONCEPT HOTELS develop a sustainable environment of respect and appreciation.

Opening up long-term prospects

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive, equitable and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

We offer people opportunities. We noticed Nana when he did an outstanding job in our cleaning department. At the time, he was still working for an external service provider that looked after our KONCEPT HOTELS. His remarkable work inspired us to hire him directly. Today, Nana manages our housekeeping team at the KONCEPT HOTEL Zum Kostbaren Blut, trains new employees and now takes responsibility for their personal prospects.

By enabling Nana to grow professionally and personally, we ourselves have grown one step further. Nana’s professional development at our KONCEPT HOTEL has
become a calling for him and is such a positive example for us that we have madehim a central part of our recruitment campaign video.

Egalitarianism does matter

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

We offer opportunities, regardless of gender identity. The gender pay gap is narrowing, but only very slowly. We are counteracting this by offering gender-independent pay. To enable us to determine and shape this ourselves, we have brought the housekeeping of our KONCEPT HOTELS back into our company.
We also calculate our Gini coefficient every year. Named after the Italian statistician Corrado Gini, this shows how equal or unequal the pay of employees of different genders is. The coefficient is expressed with a number between 0 and 100: zero indicates that everyone within a population group has or earns the same amount, while 100 stands for absolute inequality. With our KONCEPT HOTELS, we achieved a significantly better score of 15 for women, 18 for men and 16 overall in 2024.

Flow velocity reduced

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

We are pursuing ambitious goals for clean water. For the first time in the history of our sustainability efforts, we suffered a setback in the area of water. To our great regret, we did not achieve our goal of introducing flow limiters across the board in all KONCEPT HOTELS in 2024. The reasons are twofold: firstly, we were not convinced by the products tested and secondly, against the backdrop of price increases in almost all areas of the company, we had to prioritize economic factors and thus the preservation of jobs. For us, however, postponed does not mean postponed, and so we want and plan to catch up on the measures in 2025.

We are already protecting water by only using sustainable cleaning agents that are based on soda, vinegar or spirit and are certified with the Blue Angel environmental label. At our KONCEPT HOTEL Neue Horizonte in Tübingen, a rainwater cistern stores surface water that we use ourselves. It also helps to protect against flooding during heavy rainfall. Our near-natural meadow area with fruit trees around the hotel is used for the large-scale infiltration of rainwater and thus for groundwater protection.

Good energy for heating

Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

We are switching to CO2-neutral heating with wood chips. A hotel not only needs energy itself, a hotel also creates a temporary living space in which guests live from and with the energy provided. If we supply KONCEPT HOTELS with sustainable energy, we also enable people who stay and work with us to do so in a responsible environment. Our commitment to sustainable energy is thus also transferred to others.

In our new KONCEPT HOTEL Altes Spital in Rottweil, which is due to open in 2026/2027 following intensive renovation and refurbishment measures, we are integrating a highly energy-efficient wood chip heating system. This will enable us to heat in a CO2-neutral way, as burning wood chips only releases as much carbon dioxide as a tree has previously absorbed during its growth. The heating system also ensures very good fine dust values thanks to efficient exhaust gas aftertreatment.

In addition, we will be working with a local partner who supplies wood chips from landscaping work in the neighboring Neckar Valley, just two kilometers away. This will also allow us to minimize our CO2 footprint for energy logistics.

Challenge as an opportunity

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

We give special support to special people. Those who open their eyes and look at things from unusual perspectives recognize opportunities where others overlook them. In times of a shortage of skilled workers, we have changed our perspective. We have asked ourselves how we can shape the working world at KONCEPT HOTELS in such a way that it suits people who often do not fit into familiar workplace patterns. We see great potential in mothers and people with special needs in particular. We offer them opportunities to contribute to our company according to their abilities.

For example, around 25 percent of all employees at KONCEPT HOTELS today are mothers, 100 percent of whom are wonderful. Mothers are a real treasure for our company, they think in a solution-oriented, constructive and responsible way. Our flexible working models ensure that mothers can develop both privately and professionally.

Step by step, we are also expanding our opportunities to integrate people with special needs into our company. Together with Caritas Wertarbeit Köln, we are developing workplaces that do far more than just employ people. We want to enable work in our company that creates meaning and provides recognition.

Ideas for tangible beauty

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

We support innovative developments. Sustainability requires a viable economic basis. We therefore promote infrastructures that combine economy and ecology in a natural and innovative way. In one area, we have succeeded in doing this with a new partner from Munich, which not only sets an example with its expressive name, but has also been consistently going its own way for around 10 years.

A shower gel is a shower gel is a shower gel? You might think so, but far from it. If a hotel company wants to offer its guests a shower gel that is as sustainable as possible – made from natural ingredients, free from mineral oil, without animal testing and manufactured in Germany – then it becomes demanding, not to say complicated.

This was not the first time we discovered this in 2024 during our search for a new shower gel supplier. Once you have finally found a product line that meets your own requirements in terms of content, the brand’s look and feel should of course also match your own hotels – our KONCEPT HOTELS – and emphasize what makes them special. Because we are pretty uncompromising when it comes to such things, we looked for a company that sees it the same way. With I WANT YOU NAKED, we have succeeded in doing just that.

Every skill counts

Goal 10: Reduce inequality

We strengthen the strengths of our employees. Some people are special. However, this is often seen as a disadvantage and thus also becomes a professional disadvantage for the individual. We see things differently. We see the strengths of special people and use them in such a way that they become an advantage for our employees. This is what we do in our collaboration with Caritas Wertarbeit Köln and our fantastic employee Angelique. For Angelique, we have identified the areas in our working environment and aligned them with her job profile in which she can contribute her strengths. These are, for example, accuracy, concentration and attention to detail in cleaning, tidying and maintenance work in our housekeeping department.

After intensive on-the-job training with Caritas Wertarbeit, Angelique has now been working for us since September 2023. She and we are thrilled. Enthusiastic also because Angelique’s special nature has a positive effect on our working environment. With her open and very happy mood, she has a wonderful effect on those around her. Angelique always makes it clear to us that work is more than just earning money.

Die erste Betriebsintegrierte Mitarbeiterin der KONCEPT HOTELS

Preserving substance in a climate-friendly way

Goal 11: Make cities and settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

We build on circular concepts. We have opened four of our KONCEPT HOTELS in existing buildings. The idea of appreciating and preserving established substance is part of our sustainable approach to buildings. In our latest project, the KONCEPT HOTEL Altes Spital in Rottweil, we are going one step further and are focusing on the concept of circular construction. We work with and not against natural cycles and, wherever possible, decouple our economic activity from the consumption of non-renewable resources. This means that we are actively involved in upgrading and activating the largely listed building stock and preserving and even increasing its value. Our goal is the long-term use of buildings and the materials used for refurbishment and renovation.

Quality of life becomes tangible

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

We refill responsibly. In a hotel, products for body cleansing and care have a close impact on people. Conventional shower gels and creams pollute the environment. The majority of common care and cosmetic products are based on mineral oils, which is unsustainable for both the skin and waste water. We are doing things differently: all KONCEPT HOTELS have been using vegetable oil-based shower gels and soaps right from the start. Depending on the location, we currently use products from the natural cosmetics line I WANT YOU NAKED manufactured in Munich or from the French family business GM Groupe.

Both manufacturers use ingredients that are 99 percent natural. Only natural fragrances, herbal extracts, essential oils and plant oils are used. Animal-free production is carried out without the use of formaldehyde, phthalates and para-benzene.

Feasible energy-efficient refurbishment

Goal 13: Take immediate action to combat climate change and its impacts

We renovate in an energy-efficient way. Hotels offer people living space. This requires energy. The better we renovate our buildings in terms of energy efficiency, the lower the energy requirement and our CO2 footprint. This is a real challenge, especially in existing buildings with older construction years. At our first KONCEPT HOTEL Zum Kostbaren Blut, in the heart of Cologne’s city center, we have been tackling this challenging task since 2024. In doing so, we are pursuing a step-by-step concept with which we are subjecting each building section to an individual energy-efficient refurbishment.

First of all, it should be said that although existing buildings generally have a very low energy efficiency rating by default, they can have an advantage over new buildings in terms of so-called gray energy over the years. The term “grey energy” refers to the total primary energy required to construct a building, from the materials themselves to the transportation of people and building components. In order to become energy-efficient in our KONCEPT HOTEL Zum Kostbaren Blut beyond the area of gray energy, we have developed a medium-term renovation plan, which we will continue in 2025.

Natural cleaning and washing

Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

We protect water, the elixir of life. The consequences of water wastage and pollution are not usually felt directly in Central Europe. We are committed to protecting water, a resource that is essential to our lives, so that it can be preserved globally in the long term. The best way to do this is to use it as consciously as possible in our hotel operations. Our proven environmentally friendly cleaning products from the sustainable Tana-Professional product line are particularly eco-friendly thanks to their biodegradable ingredients. We also use innovative, recyclable packaging. The cleaning agents we use have the EU Ecolabel and are very kind to the skin. A specially created cleaning plan ensures particularly efficient use. Our dry steam cleaner cleans completely without chemicals.

In addition to our direct impact on water purity, we attach great importance to sustainable suppliers in areas that are indirectly linked to the topic of water. For example, since 2022 we have been using textiles made from a special yarn that absorbs very little water during the washing process. This not only means that less water is used, but also that less moisture has to be dried out of the laundry and less detergent has to be used.

Open for life

Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems

We give insects a home. The progression of insect extinction in Europe is striking. But do we at KONCEPT HOTELS have an opportunity to have a direct impact? We have found one: with the acquisition of a 5,000 square meter meadow and its gradual renaturation. Initially planned as a leasing project, we decided to purchase the meadow area in order to consistently implement our high sustainability goals.

What in the past was worked and fertilized up to eight times a year with heavy machinery, we are developing back into a species-rich rough pasture. We are turning intensive cultivation into extensification of the current grassland use. To achieve this, we are reducing the mowing intervals to twice a year and consistently avoiding fertilization. The Tuttlingen District Office approved the renaturation measure under nature conservation law in July 2024.

Our biodiversity area under the project name HOTEL FOR NATURE is a vital and valuable part of our holistic sustainability management. Guests contribute to species conservation with their overnight stay and private individuals and companies can also get involved in our renaturation project through sponsorships.

Managing sustainability professionally

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development

We professionalize ESG. Even though sustainability has been part of the DNA of KONCEPT HOTELS from the very beginning, we have often worked selectively in many areas over the years. At a certain stage of development and complexity, our own desire and need to take an even more holistic approach across all areas of the company arose almost naturally. This is why we made sustainability a top priority in the person of our authorized signatory and Head of Finance, Elena Linke. To this end, she has undergone further training to become a sustainability manager in accordance with the ZNU standard at Witten/Herdecke University.

With Lena – as we call her at KONCEPT HOTELS – sustainability has become an integral part of our management system in black and white. Positioned at the highest level, in the management, we can further professionalize our commitment to the well-being of people and nature today and in the future.

By structuring our sustainability strategy across the entire company, we are able to take an even more targeted approach and focus even more strongly than before on the aspect of measurability.

Lena Linke Mitarbeiterin des KONCEPT HOTEL

Sharing sources of sustainability

Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

We make common cause. In a commercial enterprise such as our KONCEPT HOTELS, sustainability also means passing on knowledge to others – without the intention of making a profit. In this particular case of our Agenda 2030 goal, there was already a certain profit motive, but it was not projected onto our own company, but onto the well-being of people and nature. And in return, we are prepared to share our many years of experience in developing sustainable concepts.

“Hello Mr. Stockburger, I’m Nicole Bernadzik from the ”mainhaus Stadthotel Frankfurt”. We are a city hotel with high sustainability standards and think your seed bags for guests are great. Could you tell me how you did it? And would you have a problem if we did the same?”

Of course, that was no problem for us. Even if it wasn’t an everyday request. The classic entrepreneurial reflex would have been to meet the spontaneous demand with a corresponding offer. But in our eyes, sustainability is not a matter of negotiation, but a commodity – including an intellectual and conceptual one – that should be available to everyone.

Three major goals for 2025

Energy-efficient refurbishment: In 2025, we will renovate our new hotel project in Rottweil in line with the principles of circular construction, preserving its substance and modernizing its energy efficiency. The existing building will be upgraded and activated for long-term use.

More biodiversity: On our 5,000 square meter biodiversity area at the foot of the Swabian Alb, we want to implement all the steps defined in the nature conservation measures. The aim is to consistently convert it into extensive grassland.

Saving water: We now want to realize the water savings planned for 2024 through the area-wide use of flow limiters in 2025. Following further in-depth product selection procedures, a gradual rollout of the products is planned.

Our 2030 target: maximum emissions reduction

The Paris Climate Agreement gave global climate policy a new binding framework in December 2015. To date, 188 countries have signed the agreement. They have thus committed to the goal of limiting global warming to well below two degrees. This is to be achieved by reducing CO2 emissions, among other things. The result is a balance between emissions caused on the one hand and emissions avoided on the other.

At KONCEPT HOTELS, we want to have achieved maximum emissions reduction by 2030 at the latest. This means that we will measure our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, draw up a reduction plan and offset the emissions. By 2035, we have set ourselves the goal of “net zero” and thus also the inclusion of Scope 3 emissions.

Martin Stockburger sitzt auf einer Kommode