Material impacts, risks and opportunities and disclosure requirements included in the sustainability statement (IRO-2)

Our material IROs are listed at the beginning of each topic chapter.

DB Group’s material topic set has changed in 2025 compared to the previous year. Five topics have been added and one topic has been dropped. A total of 27 topics were identified as material in 2025 (previous year: 23).

With the sale of DB Schenker in spring 2025, the business unit was removed from DB Group’s materiality assessment. As a result, the topic of water pollution (E2: Pollution) has been dropped. The topics of adequate wages (S1: Own workforce) and political engagement (G1: Business conduct) have been added. For both topics, the score of the IROs concerned was above the materiality threshold without consolidation with the DB Schenker IRO assessments.

We have also made adjustments to individual IROs based on initial findings from the application of the ESRS. This led to the materiality threshold being exceeded for the following topics: gender equality and data protection (S1: Own workforce) and data protection (S4: Information-related impacts for consumers and end-users).