Assurance Statement
Limited Assurance Report regarding selected Scope 3 categories in the Sustainability Report1
To the Supervisory Board of Knorr‑Bremse AG, Munich
We have performed an independent limited assurance engagement on selected Scope 3 categories, published in the Sustainability Report of Knorr‑Bremse AG, Munich (hereinafter " company" or “Knorr‑Bremse”) for the business year from January 1 to December 31, 2022 (hereinafter “Report").
The following selected Scope 3 categories are included in the scope of the assurance engagement:
- GHG Protocol Scope 3 categories: 3.1 „Purchased goods and services“, 3.4 „Upstream transportation and distribution“, 3.9 „Downstream transportation and distribution“ and 3.11 „Use of sold products“
Management’s Responsibility
The legal representatives of Knorr‑Bremse are responsible for the accurate preparation of the selected Scope 3 categories in accordance with the Reporting Criteria. Knorr‑Bremse applies the principles and standard disclosures of the requirements of the GHG Protocol as Reporting Criteria. The responsibility of the legal representatives includes the selection and application of appropriate methods to prepare the selected Scope 3 categories and the use of assumptions and estimates for individual qualitative and quantitative disclosures, which are reasonable under the circumstances. Furthermore, this responsibility includes internal controls relevant for the preparation of selected sustainability performance disclosures of the Report in a way that is free of – intended or unintended – material misstatements.
Independence and Quality Assurance of the Assurance Practitioner’s firm
We are independent from the entity in accordance with the requirements of independence and quality assurance set out in legal provisions and professional pronouncements and have fulfilled our additional professional obligations in accordance with these requirements. Our audit firm applies the national statutory provisions and professional pronouncements for quality assurance, in particular the Professional Code for German Public Auditors and Chartered Accountants (in Germany) and the quality assurance standard of the German Institute of Public Auditors (Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer, IDW) regarding quality assurance requirements in audit practice (IDW QS 1).
Practitioner’s Responsibility
Our responsibility is to express a conclusion on the selected Scope 3 categories based on our work performed and the evidence obtained within our limited assurance engagement.
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” as well as ISAE3410: „Assurance Engagements on Greenhouse Gas Statements“, both published by IAASB. This standard requires that we plan and perform the assurance engagement to obtain limited assurance of whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the abovementioned selected environmental performance disclosures, for the business year from January 1 to December 31, 2019, have not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Reporting Criteria. In a limited assurance engagement, the evidence gathering procedures are more limited than in a reasonable assurance engagement, and therefore less assurance is obtained than in a reasonable assurance engagement. The choice of audit procedures is subject to the auditor’s own judgement.
Within the scope of our engagement, we performed the following procedures:
- Evaluate the design and implementation of systems and processes to identify, manage, and monitor Scope 3 emissions, including consolidation of data, risk assessments, and the control environment.
- Interviews with Group-level employees responsible for disclosing management concepts, including results and risks.
- Inspection of selected internal and external documents.
- Analytical procedures to determine in detail whether the disclosures are in line with the underlying relevant sources, especially using internal and external documents.
- Analytical procedures to evaluate the data and trends of the quantitative disclosures at Group level.
- Evaluating the overall presentation of the information within the scope of our engagement.
Conclusion
Based on the procedures performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the selected environmental performance disclosures, published in the Sustainability Report, for the business year from January 1 to December 31, 2019, are not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Reporting Criteria.
Restriction of Use/ Clause on General Engagement Terms
This assurance report is issued for the purposes of the Supervisory Board of Knorr‑Bremse AG, Munich, only. We assume no responsibility with regard to any third parties.
Our assignment for Knorr‑Bremse AG and professional liability is governed by the General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüfer and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (German Public Auditors and Public Audit Firms) (Allgemeine Auftragsbedingungen für Wirtschaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften) in the version dated January 1, 2017 (https://www.kpmg.de/bescheinigungen/lib/aab_english.pdf). By reading and using the information contained in this assurance report, each recipient confirms having taken note of provisions of the General Engagement Terms (including the limitation of our liability for negligence to EUR 4 million as stipulated in No. 9) and accepts the validity of the attached General Engagement Terms with respect to us.
Munich, 5. May 2023
KPMG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
1 Our engagement applied to the German version of the Report 2022. This text is a translation of the Independent Assurance Report issued in German, whereas the German text is authoritative.