on a limited and reasonable assurance according to ISAE 3000 (Revised) regarding the nonfinancial reporting
To Deutsche Post AG, Bonn/Germany
Engagement
We have performed a limited assurance engagement on the consolidated nonfinancial statement of Deutsche Post AG, Bonn/Germany, (“the Company”), which has been combined with the nonfinancial statement of the Company, for the financial year from 1 January to 31 December 2023 (“combined nonfinancial statement”) included in the group management report, which has been combined with the management report. In accordance with our engagement, we have performed a reasonable assurance engagement on the indicators presented in the combined nonfinancial statement
- Logistics-related GHG emissions (million metric tons of CO2e): Scope 1–3
- Realized decarbonization effects (million metric tons of CO2e)
- Total (group-wide) energy consumption (Scopes 1 and 2) (million kWh)
- Share of energy consumption from renewable sources (%)
- Total energy consumption from renewable sources (Scopes 1 and 2) (million kWh)
- Greenhouse gas intensity (grams of CO2e per euro of revenue)
- Total GHG emissions (logistics-related) (million metric tons of CO2e)
- Progress achieved compared to base year 2021 concerning sustainability-linked bond (%)
- Employee engagement (%)
- Response rate in the employee opinion survey (%)
- Employees: full-time equivalents at year-end and yearly average (number including trainees), headcount at year-end and yearly average (number including trainees)
- Unplanned employee turnover (%)
- Staff costs (€)
- Share of part-time employees average for the year (%)
- Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) per 200,000 working hours (work-related accidents resulting in at least one working day of lost time)
- Working days lost per LTI (number)
- Number of fatalities due to workplace accidents (number)
- Sickness rate (%)
- Share of women in middle and upper management (%)
- Share of women in workforce (%)
- External employees subject to the control and direction of the Group: full-time equivalents average for the year
- Performance-based remuneration in line with market standards and free of discrimination
- Approval rate: I am proud of my company’s contribution to society (%)
- Share of valid compliance training certificates in middle and upper management (%)
- Internal audits carried out by Corporate Internal Audit (number)
- On-site audits carried out (number of countries)
- Internal audits carried out by Corporate Internal Audit with regard to respecting human rights (number)
- Share of valid training certificates in middle and upper management relating to the training “Raise employees’ awareness for respecting human rights” (%)
- BitSight cybersecurity rating (points)
(hereafter “the indicators”) and performed a limited assurance engagement on all disclosures other than the indicators contained in the combined nonfinancial statement.
Not subject to our assurance engagement are the external sources of documentation and expert opinions as well as prior-year key ratios mentioned in the combined nonfinancial statement.
Responsibilities of the Executive Directors
The executive directors of the Company are responsible for the preparation of the combined nonfinancial statement in accordance with the requirements of Sections 289c to 289e German Commercial Code (HGB), Section 315c in conjunction with Sections 289c to 289e HGB and Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2020 on establishing a framework to facilitate sustainable investment and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (“EU Taxonomy Regulation”) and the Delegated Acts adopted thereunder, as well as for making their own interpretation of the wording and terms contained in the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts adopted thereunder, as set out in the section “EU Taxonomy” of the combined nonfinancial statement (hereafter “interpretation”).
These responsibilities of the executive directors of the Company include the selection and application of appropriate methods to prepare the combined nonfinancial statement and the use of assumptions and estimates for individual disclosures which are reasonable under the given circumstances. In addition, the executive directors are responsible for such internal control as they have determined necessary to enable the preparation of a combined nonfinancial statement that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
The EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder contain wording and terms that are still subject to considerable interpretation uncertainties and for which clarifications have not yet been published in every case. Therefore, the executive directors have disclosed their interpretation of the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts adopted thereunder in the section “EU Taxonomy” of the combined nonfinancial statement. They are responsible for the defensibility of this interpretation. Due to the immanent risk that undefined legal terms may be interpreted differently, the legal conformity of the interpretation is subject to uncertainties.
The preciseness and completeness of the environmental data in the combined nonfinancial statement, which include the indicators, is subject to inherent existing limitations associated with the manner in which the data was collected and calculated as well as assumptions made.
Responsibilities of the Independent Practitioner
Our responsibility is to express a conclusion with reasonable assurance on the indicators disclosed in the combined nonfinancial statement and a conclusion with limited assurance on all disclosures other than the indicators in the combined nonfinancial statement in each case based on our work performed within our assurance engagement.
Our audit firm applies the IDW Quality Assurance Standard issued by the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany (IDW): Quality Assurance Requirements in Audit Practices (IDW QS 1). We have complied with the German Public Auditor Act (WPO) and the Professional Charter for German Public Auditors and German Sworn Auditors (BS WP/vBP), including the requirements on independence.
We conducted our work in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information, issued by the IAASB. This Standard requires that we plan and perform the assurance engagement so that we
- can conclude with reasonable assurance whether the indicators disclosed in the combined nonfinancial statement of the Company for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2023 have been presented, in all material respects, in accordance with Section 315c in conjunction with Sections 289c to 289e HGB by the executive directors, and
- can conclude with limited assurance whether matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that all disclosures other than the indicators in the combined nonfinancial statement of the Company have in their entirety not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with Sections 289c to 289e HGB, Section 315c in conjunction with Sections 289c to 289e HGB and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder.
The procedures performed in the limited assurance part of our engagement are less in extent than for a reasonable assurance engagement; consequently, the level of assurance obtained in a limited assurance engagement is substantially lower than the assurance that would have been obtained had a reasonable assurance engagement been performed. The choice of assurance work is subject to the practitioner’s professional judgement.
Within the scope of our limited assurance engagement, we notably performed the following activities:
- Gaining an understanding of the structure of the Group’s sustainability organization and stakeholder engagement,
- Inquiries of relevant employees involved in the preparation of the consolidated nonfinancial statement about the preparation process, about the internal control system related to this process and about disclosures in the combined nonfinancial statement,
- Identification of likely risks of material misstatements in the combined nonfinancial statement,
- Analytical evaluation of selected disclosures in the combined nonfinancial statement,
- Reconciliation of selected disclosures with the corresponding data in the consolidated and annual financial statements and combined management report,
- Assessment of the presentation of the combined nonfinancial statement,
- Assessment of the process to identify taxonomy eligible and taxonomy-aligned economic activities and the corresponding disclosures in the combined non-financial statement.
In the course of our reasonable assurance engagement part on the indicators disclosed in the Company’s combined nonfinancial statement, we have performed the following assurance procedures and other activities in addition to those described above:
- Assessment of the concept and implementation of the systems and processes for determining, processing and monitoring the disclosures on the indicators,
- Assessment of the risks,
- Tests of details on the basis of samples.
In determining the disclosures in accordance with Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, the executive directors are required to interpret undefined legal terms. Due to the immanent risk that undefined legal terms may be interpreted differently, the legal conformity of their interpretation and, accordingly, our assurance engagement thereon are subject to uncertainties. In particular, these uncertainties also relate to quantifying performance indicators when they are measured or evaluated.
We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our conclusion.
Practitioner’s Conclusion
In our view, the indicators disclosed in the combined nonfinancial statement of the Company for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2023 have been presented, in all material respects, in accordance with Section 315c in conjunction with Sections 289c to 289e HGB by the executive directors.
Based on the work performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that all disclosures other than the indicators in the combined nonfinancial statement of the Company for the financial year from 1 January to 31 December 2023 do not comply, in all material respects, with the requirements of Sections 289c to 289e HGB, Section 315c in conjunction with Sections 289c to 289e HGB and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder as well as the interpretation by the executive directors as disclosed in the section “EU Taxonomy and its implementation at Deutsche Post AG” of the combined nonfinancial statement.
Not subject to our assurance engagement are the external sources of documentation and expert opinions as well as prior-year key ratios mentioned in the combined nonfinancial statement.
Restriction of Use and Reference to Limitation of Liability
We issue this report as stipulated in the engagement letter agreed with the Company (including the “General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften [German Public Auditors and Public Audit Firms]” dated 1 January 2017 of the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany). We draw attention to the fact that the assurance engagement was conducted for the Company’s purposes and that the report is intended solely to inform the Company about the result of the assurance engagement. Consequently, it may not be suitable for any other purpose than the aforementioned. Accordingly, the report is not intended to be used by third parties for making (financial) decisions based on it.
Our responsibility is to the Company alone. We assume no responsibility with regard to any third parties. Our conclusion is not modified in this respect.
Munich/Germany, 16 February 2024
Deloitte GmbH
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
Prof. Dr Frank Beine Sebastian Dingel
Wirtschaftsprüfer
(German Public Auditor)
