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DKG is the first Dutch manufacturer in the kitchen industry to receive international Red Dot recognition for two brands and two biobased kitchen lines
Bruynzeel Kitchens and Keller Kitchens, both part of DKG, have been honored with the Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2026 for their biobased kitchen lines—Circo Atlas by Bruynzeel and enduura® elba by Keller. This makes DKG the first Dutch manufacturer in the kitchen industry to receive this international recognition with two brands and two kitchen lines.
The award is an important endorsement of the course that DKG, Bruynzeel, and Keller have been charting for years: developing sustainable innovations that do not remain confined to a niche but become accessible to a broad market. While sustainability is often still presented in the market primarily as an ambition or a marketing claim, Bruynzeel and Keller have provided independent, international proof with this award. A professional jury recognizes that sustainability, innovation, design quality, and affordability are not mutually exclusive, but can in fact reinforce one another.
“This Red Dot Award is much more than just an award for two products. It is international recognition of the direction we at DKG have chosen and of the craftsmanship of the people behind our brands,” says Mark Slappendel, CEO of DKG. “Bruynzeel and Keller are demonstrating that sustainable innovation only truly gains value when you make it scalable, affordable, and appealing. I’m proud of that. This is exactly what DKG stands for: we’re creating the home of tomorrow.”
The Red Dot Award is recognized worldwide as one of the most prestigious awards for design and innovation. Every year, thousands of entries from dozens of countries are evaluated by an independent international jury. The jury evaluates factors such as design quality, innovative strength, functionality, sustainability, and practicality. Bruynzeel and Keller are also part of a select group that is permitted to use the “Best of the Best” label—a distinction awarded only to the best projects within a category.
For DKG, this double honor is a wonderful acknowledgment that it is on the right track. Circo Atlas and enduura® elba demonstrate how both Bruynzeel and Keller, each from their own perspective, contribute to the same goal: making the kitchen industry more sustainable without compromising on ease of use, design freedom, or quality.
Circo Atlas and enduura® elba are both made with biobased particleboard, a natural binder derived from tannin in tree bark, and a biogenic melamine finish. The latest generation of biobased kitchens achieves a proven reduction of 30% in CO₂ emissions, which translates to approximately 45 kg of CO₂ per kitchen.
This material innovation is an important step toward making DKG’s kitchen portfolio more sustainable. In 2025, DKG introduced the latest generation of biobased kitchens and strengthened its circular approach. In the same year, DKG achieved an absolute CO₂ reduction of 27.6% compared to the reference year 2023. Looking toward 2030, DKG has also established clear sustainability KPIs, including a 35% reduction in CO₂, 50% in circular raw materials, and more than 90% in CSR agreements with suppliers.
Behind these award-winning kitchen lines lies an intensive development process that brought together product development, innovation, suppliers, brands, and market knowledge. Connie Vis, Product Manager for Portfolio & Innovation at DKG, played a key role in the development of the biobased kitchen lines.
“The strength of these kitchens lies in the combination of substance and imagination,” says Connie Vis, Product Manager for Portfolio & Innovation at DKG. “We wanted to show not only that biobased materials are technically feasible, but above all that they can be developed into a fully-fledged kitchen that people want to choose. Innovation really takes off when it’s so compelling that you no longer need to explain it. This Red Dot award confirms that we’ve succeeded in doing just that.”
The two Red Dot Awards are in line with DKG’s long-term strategy, in which sustainability and innovation are structurally embedded. Under the motto ‘More than a kitchen,’ DKG is evolving from a manufacturer into a life-cycle partner: an organization that not only makes kitchens but also adds value throughout the kitchen’s entire life cycle.
The awards won by Circo Atlas and enduura® elba demonstrate that this strategy is being translated into tangible products. It is a recognition not only for Bruynzeel and Keller, but also for all the teams within DKG who are working on sustainable materials, circular processes, innovative production methods, and scalable solutions. “For us, this is the next step, not the end goal,” says Mark Slappendel. “The kitchen of tomorrow must be more beautiful, smarter, and more sustainable, but it must also remain accessible. With Bruynzeel and Keller, we have two independent brands that each demonstrate in their own way what that future could look like. The fact that an independent international jury has now confirmed this gives us extra energy to keep moving forward.”
