February 13, 2026: Lead battery manufacturer Hoppecke has hailed a golden endorsement for its operations from global business sustainability ratings firm EcoVadis.

The European lead major announced it had been awarded gold status last month — following two consecutive platinum awards from EcoVadis in recent years.

The latest accolade means that the battery maker continues to be among the top 5% of all companies that EcoVadis evaluates worldwide.

“Achieving a gold medal confirms our strong performance in the areas of environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement and demonstrates the consistently high quality of our sustainability management,” Hoppecke said.

In addition to the EcoVadis accolade, Hoppecke said it had again been included in a list of Germany’s ‘500 world market leaders’, as compiled by Switzerland’s University of St Gallen in cooperation with German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

These awards underline the company’s strategic performance — from excellent products and sustainable processes to a modern, employee-oriented corporate culture, the company said.

In January 2025, Hoppecke unveiled its ‘Clean Lead R3’ branding to underscore the group’s development of advanced lead products.

R3 — signifying the ‘robust, resilient and recyclable’ properties of lead technology — underscored Hoppecke’s continuous development of lead and improved manufacturing processes, the company said.