Karos wins the 2026 KS Energy and Environment Award

Receiving the 2026 KS Energy and Environment Award was a special moment for us at Karos. The award recognises our work to make carpooling a practical and reliable mobility option for commuters in rural and suburban areas – exactly where everyday mobility can become particularly challenging.

These are the places where public transport cannot cover every route, where shift times do not always match timetables, and where many people have little choice but to drive to work alone.

Carpooling starts with something very simple: using the empty seats that are already on the road. By connecting commuters travelling in the same direction, additional mobility options can be created without building new infrastructure – while making a tangible difference to people’s everyday journeys.

A project rooted in everyday commuting

For the award, we submitted our project in Thuringia, which we run together with Ilm-Kreis and Initiative Erfurter Kreuz e.V. Read more about the project here.

The Erfurter Kreuz is one of the region’s most important employment hubs. Many employees commute long distances to reach their workplace, in some cases up to 80 kilometres. Carpooling helps turn these individual journeys into shared ones. The average distance travelled together in a carpool is around 30 kilometres.

For us, this project represents exactly what we want to achieve with Karos: creating mobility where it is needed, using existing resources more efficiently and building networks that work in people’s daily lives.

More than an environmental award

That is why the award meant so much to us. It recognises not only the environmental potential of carpooling, but also its social value.

Shared rides can reduce CO₂ emissions and traffic, but they can also lower commuting costs, create connections between people and make jobs accessible where other mobility options are limited.

For us, sustainable mobility only works when ecological impact and everyday usefulness go hand in hand.

Passing something on

There was another reason why this award felt particularly meaningful to us: the €10,000 prize money is being donated to down-syndrom köln e.V.

The Cologne-based association supports people with Down syndrome and their families through counselling, community activities and opportunities for exchange and participation.

As a company with a team based in Cologne, we are very happy that the award allows us to support an organisation doing such valuable work locally.

For us, that makes this recognition doubly special: it strengthens our work towards more sustainable commuting while also supporting an organisation that creates access, connection and participation in everyday life.

We are grateful to Automobilclub KS e.V. for this recognition – and to all our partners who help turn carpooling from an idea into a real part of everyday mobility.

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Photo credits: Automobilclub KS e.V.