Better Health for All

Knorr-Bremse's core products, such as driver assistance systems and braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles, are designed to prevent accidents, mitigate collisions, reduce injuries, and prevent fatalities, thereby delivering substantial preventative health benefits.

The company supports social projects through its Global Care initiative, investing €3.18 million in 2023, which benefited 109,160 people in areas like education and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene). However, 74% of these funds were directed to countries where Knorr-Bremse has existing locations, indicating a more localized rather than global reach to vulnerable populations. The company offers employee assistance programs (EAPs) for crisis counseling and mental health support to German employees and their families, along with workshops on mindfulness and resilience. A health center at its Huntington site provides preventive, primary, and acute care services to employees and their families. Data protection measures are in place, aligned with EU GDPR and other regulations, with a data protection organizational structure established in 2018. Knorr-Bremse also supports educational initiatives, including resume training for refugees.

Fair Money & Economic Opportunity

Knorr-Bremse AG is a manufacturer of braking systems and sub-systems for rail and commercial vehicles, not a financial institution.

The company does not offer lending or deposit services, consumer credit products, or financial products that would generate customer finance data. Therefore, KPIs related to financial services, such as underserved client share, pricing fairness, exploitative fee exposure, inclusion initiatives (in the context of loan/insurance books), data accessibility (for financial data), fair lending compliance, wealth building outcomes, financial literacy initiatives, debt burden ratio, geographic inclusion (for banking services), and product simplicity (for financial products), are not applicable to its core business model. While the company engages in social commitment and donations, these are general community support and not specifically identified as 'community finance' or 'profit-sharing with underserved communities' in the context of financial services.

Fair Pay & Worker Respect

Knorr-Bremse reported a recordable occupational injury rate (TRIR) of 0.7 per 200,000 hours in 2023.

The company's employee engagement score was 71 in 2023. The voluntary staff turnover rate, based on resignations only, was 7.4% worldwide in 2023. Between 2000 and 2023, the company had two substantiated wage and hour violations and nine substantiated workplace safety or health violations, totaling 11 violations.

Honest & Fair Business

Knorr-Bremse reported zero ethics-related regulatory fines and zero significant environmental fines in 2024, indicating a clean record for the past three years.

The company achieved an 'A' score in the CDP Climate Change assessment in 2025, representing the highest possible transparency tier. A global whistleblower system, IntegrityVoice, is in place, offering confidential and anonymous reporting channels to all stakeholders, supported by an external ombudsperson. The system recorded 174 reports in 2024, 112 in 2023, and 90 in 2022, with rules of procedure agreed by the Executive Board governing the process, responsibilities, and rights of whistleblowers. However, the company restated values for Scope 3 emissions for the base year 2021 and the previous year 2023, and also recalculated 2018 baseline levels due to M&A activities and reporting unit broadening. Knorr-Bremse has Group-wide anti-corruption guidelines, a Code of Conduct, and a Supplier Code of Conduct, with two confirmed incidents of corruption or bribery in 2024, resulting in two employee dismissals or disciplines. The company's updated climate targets (Scope 1-3) were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and the Compliance Management System received an unqualified certification from PwC for May-October 2023. The Group Sustainability Statement was audited by KPMG with limited assurance.

Kind to Animals

Knorr-Bremse AG manufactures braking systems and sub-systems for rail and commercial vehicles.

The provided articles do not contain specific, concrete data points related to animal welfare, animal testing, or animal-derived inputs that would allow for scoring against the defined KPIs. While some articles mention general supplier audits and conservation projects, they lack the specific details (e.g., percentage of animal-related suppliers audited for welfare, measurable biodiversity impact, or investment in animal-free R&D) required by the rubric's quantitative thresholds. Therefore, no KPIs can be scored for the 'Kind to Animals' value.

Planet-Friendly Business

No data could be extracted from the provided articles as both URLs returned a 404 error, indicating the requested webpages were not found.

Therefore, no information is available to assess the company against the Planet-Friendly Business ethical value.

Respect for Cultures & Communities

Knorr-Bremse provides a whistleblower system for reporting human rights breaches or complaints, and in 2024, 174 whistleblower reports were received across all categories.

The proportion of local residents filling top management roles in regions was 84.1% in 2023.

Safe & Smart Tech

Knorr-Bremse demonstrates strong employee training, with 96% of employees with e-learning access completing Code of Conduct training in 2022.

The company states it takes data protection requirements into account at the product development stage. It adheres to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other relevant regulations, including the EU's NIS Directive for rail operators. The company logs website data for a maximum of six months, which is a longer retention period than optimal for data minimization. There are no documented incidents of unauthorized data use. Users are provided with standard rights such as access, rectification, deletion, and data portability. Knorr-Bremse develops a modern and agile platform to identify and eliminate cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and its Selectron division offers a Threat Detection Solution that monitors for anomalies.

Zero Waste & Sustainable Products

Knorr-Bremse achieved an overall waste diversion rate of 80.79% in 2023, with 83% of non-hazardous waste and 66% of hazardous waste being recycled from a total of 69,000 tons of waste.

The company reports that over 90% of its rail vehicle products are recyclable. Circular design principles, referred to as EcoDesign, are mandatory in new product development, focusing on recyclability, longevity, and resource conservation. The company implements waste reduction initiatives such as value stream analyses to eliminate waste in production and has a metal briquetting machine that processed approximately 20 tonnes of material in 71 days in early 2024. For hazardous waste, 66% of the 13% total hazardous waste was recycled in 2023. Knorr-Bremse focuses on extending product lifespan through remanufacturing programs (EconX® brand), saving 3,648 metric tons of CO2, 1,220 metric tons of material, and 18.98 MWh of energy in Europe in 2023. The company reported no waste disposal violations. Knorr-Bremse has company-wide waste reduction targets, including a goal to reduce production-related carbon emissions by at least 50.4% by 2030. Quality guidelines for suppliers urge them to use recyclable materials and containers. The company conducts regular internal and external audits to monitor environmental management and compliance.