Sustainability as a strategic advantage:  The Sustainability osapiens Summit 2025

REWE, OTTO, Kühne+Nagel, and many more showcased concrete solutions for resilient, compliant, and more efficient supply chains. 

Mannheim, May 21, 2025 – One Planet. One Hub. One Event. Under this guiding theme, osapiens brought together more than 2,200 guests from politics, business, and technology at this year’s Sustainability osapiens Summit (SoS.25) in Mannheim, Germany. The focus of the summit: How can regulations be turned into strategic opportunities – and how can sustainability and transparency become real competitive advantages? The summit sent a clear message: Despite current debates such as the one over the EU Omnibus initiative, sustainability is not losing momentum – in fact, it’s gaining traction. An ever-growing number of companies are going beyond mere compliance – they are structurally transforming for sustainability and leveraging regulations as drivers for efficiency, resilience, and growth. 

Over 150 speakers contributed to SoS.25 through keynotes, panels, and practical deep-dive sessions. Across more than 20 focused tracks, participants gained insights into current and upcoming regulations such as CSRD, EUDR, EU Taxonomy, CBAM, NIS2, Product Compliance, and Traceability – enriched with industry-specific use cases. Leading companies such as REWE Digital, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, OTTO, and Kühne+Nagel were joined by organizations like Goldman Sachs Sustain, KPMG, UNIDO, EFRAG, GlobalG.A.P., Forrester, and GS1. A recurring question emerged across all formats: How can sustainability become measurable and manageable – and a unique differentiator? 

Cem Özdemir and Teresa Ribera call for strategic sustainability policy 

At the summit’s opening, former German Federal Minister Cem Özdemir emphasized in his keynote titled “Why Sustainability Is a Strategic Advantage” that companies must view sustainability not as a burden, but as an investment in their future viability. In today’s challenging geopolitical and economic environment, reliable frameworks are crucial, especially for SMEs. Solutions must be practical, affordable, and scalable. 

EU Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera emphasized the strategic importance of digital supply chains and business data for Europe. These form the basis for transparency, innovation, and economic independence – and thus, long-term competitiveness. 

Companies prove: Sustainability is more than compliance 

REWE Digital demonstrated how regulations such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) can optimize internal processes. Tommy Stellmacher, Director Procurement Solutions, reported that REWE has established a product-based approach using the osapiens HUB. This approach has reduced manual steps by half and supplier inquiries by up to 90%. The result is fewer interfaces, faster decisions, and significantly increased operational efficiency. 

OTTO is launching a strategic co-innovation with osapiens to help companies efficiently and sustainably meet growing product compliance requirements. This includes the Digital Product Passport (DPP), the EU Battery Regulation, and the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR). Alexander Rhetz, Head of Quality & Compliance Management, emphasized the importance of a central data backbone: “We are creating an end-to-end view of our products – from regulatory evaluation to integration into strategic supplier decisions.” 

Kühne+Nagel also stressed the need for transparency deep into the supply chain – down to Tier-n. With the osapiens HUB, the company automated risk profiling and introduced a standardized supplier evaluation process. Digital visibility enables early detection of vulnerabilities and targeted actions – a decisive step toward more resilient and efficient global logistics networks. 

“Transparent supply chains are a company’s most valuable asset,” said Alberto Zamora, Co-Founder and CEO of osapiens. “With the right information, companies can achieve three key objectives: In the short term, more resilience and flexibility to handle crises; in the medium term, the ability to quickly and reliably demonstrate compliance with new regulations; and in the long term, becoming catalysts for sustainable investment.” 

Transparency and efficiency combined: The osapiens HUB as a platform for sustainable growth 

To further drive this change, osapiens is expanding its HUB with new modules to enhance both efficiency and transparency. The platform links data from internal and external systems, intelligently standardizes it, and reduces manual effort. New features include: 

• The osapiens HUB Reporting Cockpit provides a unified interface for collecting and managing sustainability data from various sources. It links important key figures – such as emissions, energy consumption, and supplier data – in a central view via automated workflows. This ensures that KPIs remain up to date, structured, and fully adapted to your reporting requirements. The cockpit provides a consolidated overview of the most important sustainability KPIs for frameworks such as VSME, GRI, SASB, CSRD, and Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF).  

• Two new modules:  
  The osapiens HUB for Supplier Relationship Management enables companies to onboard new suppliers much faster and centrally manage all relevant supplier data in one place. The osapiens HUB for Supplier Risk Management helps companies identify, assess, and minimize supplier risks early on. They gain transparency across all supplier levels and simplify compliance with legal requirements. AI-powered real-time analytics enable monitoring of global events, cybersecurity threats, geopolitical risks, and sanctions for a holistic view of the risk landscape. 

• Audit Management: With the updated tool, audits can be planned digitally, simulated, and documented in an audit-proof manner. Integrated audit logic, central certificate management, and scalable escalation paths ensure maximum process reliability.