How we give buildings a future.
ista plays an active role in society, supporting people and institutions through various initiatives. One outstanding example of this is the annual Volunteering Day in Germany but ista employees in Poland and other countries also give their time and provide their skills to support charitable projects. This commitment fulfils ista's social responsibility as a company and increases social awareness and team spirit.
At the same time, we rely on trust-based cooperation with partners in certain areas, such as the EV charging infrastructure in the UK. This is how we ensure sustainability at all levels.
We encourage our employees to get involved and offer them the opportunity to volunteer during working hours. In the 2024 reporting year, this led to a total of 4,360 hours of voluntary work.
Discover all key figuresFor many years now, ista employees at the company's head office in Essen have been setting an example with their voluntary work. On Corporate Volunteering Day, they spend a day working for the environment and society. In 2025, 296 hours of community service were clocked up with various activities, such as collecting litter and an afternoon of playing games in a community centre for senior citizens.
ista is committed globally through a variety of programmes and initiatives aimed at addressing social and environmental challenges. This includes forming partnerships with non-profit organisations and supporting sustainable environmental projects.
In 2024, ista employees in Slovakia were involved in a charity run — some as runners, others as volunteers helping to organise the event. Together, they did 63 hours of volunteering. The entry fees went towards supporting kindergartens in the capital city of Bratislava.
In the summer of 2024, 11 ista employees in Belgium took part in a “Clean-up Day” to help tidy up the area around the Anderlecht site as well as a nearby park and school grounds — alongside other companies and around 200 children from a neighbouring school. Three other colleagues also volunteered for a half a day at a local animal shelter, taking several dogs for a walk and giving the animals some much-needed outdoor time.
In September 2024, employees from ista Customer Service Poland also took action for the environment. They collected waste from forests near their office locations. The results speak for themselves: 110 employees gathered a total of 180 sacks of waste, including packaging, old cassettes, cables, and even mattresses.
As part of their own "Yes, We Care" volunteering programme, employees also carried out many other impactful initiatives. For example, following the floods in September 2024, they helped clean cellars in two affected buildings. They also collected food donations for the “Freier Platz” foundation, which organises Christmas dinners for lonely people in Katowice and other cities in Poland. These are just two examples among many.
Another clean-up campaign took place in Poland. In October last year, employees from ista Technologies collected waste dumped in a forest area near Rybnik. In just one day, 23 colleagues filled 10 sacks with waste. A win for the forest — and a great opportunity for employees to contribute to a good cause while enjoying the fresh air.
For us, social engagement is part of our corporate identity. A look at Spain proves this where, since 2024, ista has been working with the ALAPAR Foundation — a non-profit organisation that supports people with intellectual disabilities. ALAPAR helps these people develop personal and professional autonomy through training programmes, work integration and social inclusion activities.
Several projects for ista are carried out in ALAPAR’s workshops. These include making Christmas gifts, birth gifts, and welcome packs for new employees. ista has also rented a garden plot on the foundation’s premises. There, ista volunteers grow vegetables together with ALAPAR’s community members. Teamwork, social engagement, and green fingers — this hands-on work in the garden has a positive impact on several levels.
"Our collaboration with ALAPAR reflects our deep-rooted commitment to social responsibility. The various initiatives support the personal and professional development of people with disabilities – a tremendously important mission that we are proud to be part of.”
Ignacio Abati García-Manso
Country Manager ista Spain
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We give buildings a future. To do this, we start very early on and raise awareness of the proper use of energy among even the youngest children. As part of the “ista in school” programme, we have been visiting schools and nursery schools for the last eight years to educate children about energy consumption in buildings and homes.
“ista in School” has two main components: “Energy detectives” is designed for nursery and primary school children while “Climate hour” is aimed at secondary school kids. Both programmes are delivered by ista employees – volunteers who give up their time during working hours to share their knowledge of energy with young people in nurseries and schools.
In the 2024 reporting year, 44 employees invested over one hundred hours of their time at ten schools in Germany. The “Climate hour” has been such a success that we are now also offering the programme in Spain and Poland.
In addition to the voluntary work carried out by ista employees in many countries, regular donations are also an integral part of who we are. In the 2024 reporting year, ista Austria donated €10,000 to Children’s Cancer Aid. In Spain, employees raised funds for victims of the devastating floods that hit parts of the country. The ista sales team in Germany hosts an annual charity golf tournament, with all proceeds going to a non-profit organisation.
As well as financial contributions, ista also provides material donations. For example, ista Technologies in Poland donated PC monitors to a hospital to help ease the daily workload of the staff. ista teams in France collected goods and filled "solidarity boxes" for the Red Cross in Massy, just outside Paris. Each box contained an article of warm clothing, a food item, a handwritten note, a game, and a hygiene product for either a woman, man or child. In total, 38 boxes were packed and distributed to families and individuals in need.
There are also regular blood donation drives – in 2024, for example, in Belgium, Germany and Poland. The best part: these events are usually scheduled to fit smoothly into the working day, ensuring maximum participation.
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In certain areas, we rely on trusting cooperation with partners, for example when it comes to charging infrastructure. In this way, we ensure sustainability at all levels.
The energy transition isn’t just about buildings. Without tackling the transport sector, the EU’s climate goals cannot be achieved. A key part of the solution is the shift to zero-emission mobility — charging electric vehicles must become possible wherever people live and work. That’s why ista has been expanding charging infrastructure across several European countries — right at residential and commercial properties.
One example is in the United Kingdom. ista has been partnering with the energy provider Drax there since 2021. Together, they have installed 86 charging stations at 33 commercial sites. Among the customers are well-known hotel chains and a supermarket chain with locations across the UK.
In France, ista is also supporting clients from the industrial, commercial, and residential sectors on their journey towards a CO₂-neutral future. There too, charging infrastructure has become a standard feature of modern properties.
In Germany, ista is also continuously stepping up its efforts in the field of e-mobility infrastructure. The acquisition of charging infrastructure specialist Chargemaker in 2024 laid the foundation for further growth. ista plans to install around 25,000 new charging points in the years to come — a clear sign of where things are heading.
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In 2023, our company launched the ista Heiz-O-Meter, a unique, easy-to-understand tool designed to provide greater data transparency on heating-related issues. It is the only data source in Germany that can calculate current heating energy consumption during the heating period. It does this by continuously evaluating consumption data from over 500,000 households. This data is anonymised, weighted, and compared with data from the German Weather Service. The result is highly up-to-date, representative, weather-adjusted consumption data for Germany, each German state and the 20 biggest cities every month.
"Our ista Heiz-O-Meter data clearly show how consumption and costs are changing. It helps tenants to understand their heating costs better and act more prudently.”
Hagen Lessing
CEO ista SE