The honor is conferred by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Protection (BMLUK). Only EMAS-validated companies in the DACH region can apply for the award.
“EMAS is a diamond of resource conservation that gets an enhancing cut every year. The Environmental Management Award is not the award of yesterday – with EMAS, it’s the award of tomorrow!” says Werner & Mertz owner Reinhard Schneider.
Excellent example for a functional circular economy
With the award, the German-Austrian jury commended the Recyclate Initiative founded in 2012 by Werner & Mertz and its cooperation partners along the supply chain, who worked together to develop and implement high-quality mechanical recycling of used plastic from post-consumer waste collection systems like the Yellow Bag.
Plastic recycling prevents the trashing of land and sea, conserves resources and stops the incineration of valuable plastic. By reducing the CO₂ emissions of every product packaging, the Initiative actively contributes to climate protection. It also makes environmental protection of integral components in product design, production, usage and disposal ecologically and economically effective. Over the years Werner & Mertz has been recognized as a cross-industry pioneer and a best practice example for high-quality recycling of plastic. In June 2025 the Recyclate Initiative announced a world record: one billion PET bottles produced from 100 percent recycled plastic had been made available for further recycling!
The jury based its assessment on several criteria, including effectiveness, innovative content, integration in corporate communications and corporate strategy, and transparency and comprehensibility of the presentation.
