Change that drives us forward.
ista Progress Report 2025/26
Making an impact together – for the environment, buildings and the future
Our environmental initiatives are not only about reducing our own carbon footprint, but also about working with our customers to actively shape the heating transition in the buildings sector.
By delivering more efficient processes and digital services, we help property owners and managers gain greater transparency into energy consumption and identify opportunities for savings.
What drives us: sustainability is not achieved through large-scale measures alone. Real impact comes from many small but tangible improvements made every day and from the conviction that every kilowatt-hour saved makes a difference.
EV transition gains momentum
100% electric by the end of 2028 – that is the target for our vehicle fleet in Germany. In the 2025 reporting year, significant progress was made: 165 vehicles were already fully electric. This increased the share of electric vehicles in the fleet from 33.6% in 2024 to 50.8%. The fleet also included 111 hybrid and 49 diesel vehicles.
As a result, a large proportion of the German ista fleet is already fully or partially electric. We are also continuing to advance the transition in other countries, as the following examples show: in Luxembourg, the fleet is already 100% electric. In Belgium, we are currently testing the use of electric vehicles for customer service technicians. And at ista Italy, all new vehicles are now ordered as EVs.
Working together for a greener future
Every year, numerous ista employees across Europe take part in local environmental initiatives and plant trees together. During the reporting period, this led to the planting of about 20,000 trees.
Most of these trees were planted by our colleagues in Poland. Employees from ista Customer Service Poland planted around 15,000 trees during a joint campaign in the regions surrounding Opole, Katowice, and Rudziniec. In a separate campaign, 29 employees from ista Technologies Poland planted a further 4,000 trees.
Employees in Romania also helped to create more green spaces. In November 2025, twelve colleagues took part in the “I am a tree, we are a forest” initiative and planted around 600 trees. Their commitment is helping to improve the local environment while strengthening ties with the community.
The ista Corporate Forest
These local initiatives are supported by the ista Corporate Forest, which includes nearly 8,000 trees across Asia, Africa, and South America.
Recovering raw materials
Old ista meters and components contain valuable raw materials, which we recover and recycle. In the 2025 reporting year, 125 tonnes of brass were recycled in Germany and 55 tonnes of printed circuit boards were returned to the recycling loop.
The materials are processed in collaboration with the Haus Hall workshops, with whom we have had a partnership since 2005. There, our end-of-life devices are carefully dismantled – by people with and without disabilities. In this way, we combine resource conservation with community engagement.
How we make an impact in commercial and industrial properties
In commercial and industrial properties in particular, transparent energy consumption data is increasingly key to efficiency and competitiveness. At ista, we help businesses gain a clear picture of their consumption and optimise it in a targeted way.
ESG Navi: greater transparency for energy consumption and CO₂ emissions
Reliable consumption data is crucial for ESG reporting in the buildings sector. The ista ESG Navi (short for navigator) centralises this data and reduces manual processes. It offers an integrated solution for the automated provision of heat consumption data, covering around 75% of emission-relevant information – and can be extended to include further environmental metrics. This provides a consistent database for efficient reporting.
A new feature is transparency right down to the individual user level: users can access annual energy consumption data and identify any anomalies. This makes deviations within a building visible and enables targeted action to be taken. Data is provided in strict compliance with data protection laws.
What's more, energy consumption data is now available on a monthly rather than an annual basis. Any anomalies can be detected earlier and action assessed and taken more quickly. This increases accuracy and facilitates continuous management of energy consumption and CO₂ emissions.
The decarbonisation feature has also been enhanced. The ESG Navi now shows the impact of planned action on the energy efficiency rating and on the allocation of CO₂ costs. This gives users a sound basis for investment decisions.
The latest updates are a direct response to what customers have asked for. About 600 customers are already using the ESG Navi, which is available free of charge for the first two years.
Remote-read rate continues to rise
The proportion of remotely readable meters in our properties in Germany continued to grow in the 2025 reporting year. As at 6 January 2026, the remote-read rate stood at 62.9% (2024: 58.3%). For residents, this means greater convenience, as on-site meter reading appointments are no longer necessary, eliminating many service visits and the emissions associated with them.
Transparency highlights potential savings
Through EcoTrend, we offer a digital service that provides residents with monthly information on their household's heating and hot water consumption, thereby meeting the requirements of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive. The app visualises consumption trends in an easy-to-understand way and enables comparisons with the previous month, the previous year and average households. This transparency can raise users’ awareness of responsible energy use by highlighting potential savings. EcoTrend has been available to around 2.6 million users since 2022.
In 2025, EcoTrend was further developed and expanded at international level – including successful market launches in Luxembourg and Switzerland. A new, even more user-centric front end for the app will be rolled out in 2026.
In addition, an AI-based voicebot ensures faster responses on the tenant helpline. A new interface for the automated transfer of recipient data reduces manual errors and reduces the workload of landlords. In this way, we are continuously improving transparency, efficiency and user experience.
Digital services are being used more and more
It’s that simple: for many years, we have provided our customers with a digital web portal that they can use as part of our billing services and our smoke detector services. Demand for this digital offering is steadily increasing: in the reporting year 2025, 88.49% of our customers used the web portal. This corresponds to an increase of around four percentage points compared to the previous year.