Bang & Olufsen is celebrating 100 years of making noise – but its biggest achievement is about more than hi-fi

This week Bang & Olufsen celebrated its 100th birthday. And as I read our news story covering its celebratory special edition Beoplay H100 headphones and Beosound A5 and Beosound A9 wireless speakers, I found myself taking a trip down memory lane.

After 18 years of covering B&O as an AV journalist, I found myself thinking about what actually defines the iconic Danish brand.

There are certainly a lot of possibilities. For starters, its origins as a metal-working specialist explains a lot about its legendary focus on making sure its products have striking designs.

Then there’s the wave of iconic products it has produced over the past century, many of which hold a special place in people's hearts. Older members of the team fondly remember the wall-mounted BeoSound 9000 CD player, for example.

Even for me, a distinctly haggard professional shiny things chaser who’s never been able to afford to own one of its flashier speakers or players, there are a number of highlights to choose from.

Within the past decade alone I’ve jetted to Berlin to look at the giant Beosound Theatre soundbar, covered the launch of its 360 Beosound Balance speaker and its first foray into wireless earbuds, the Beoplay E8.

Interesting products all – and launches I remember to this day due to their distinctive designs and atypical focus on looking like works of art as much as sounding good.

Editor’s Note: There were also some funny moments covering the events, including the time a very senior colleague I won’t name accidentally spilled a full glass of red wine over the company's only fully functioning sample at the event. I shouldn’t laugh at others’ misfortune, but I’d already had my demo session and the way they did it had a particularly comical, Mr Bean-like, quality – any other tech hack reading this knows whom I am talking about.

But, even in this Rocky-level montage of awesome memories, as I thought about it, one key thing crystallised in my brain as to what I actually associate most with the brand. And it had nothing to do with Bang & Olufsen products' audio quality or visuals.

Instead it was the brand's recent eco efforts.

Bang & Olufsen will claim sustainability has always been a part of its DNA. But there was a watershed moment for me, where I started actively associating the idea with the brand.

It occurred at the launch of Bang & Olufsen’s Beosound Balance speaker in 2020. During the event I shuffled into a swanky looking lifestyle demo room, as I had many times before, and was met by Bang & Olufsen’s then vice president of design, Gavin Ivester, who was eager to show off the brand's new speaker.

I remember the moment because, as I ran through my standard suite of questions, he actually answered a tricky one that most of the executives I talked to at the time skipped over. Specifically, about how sustainable the speaker was.

Rather than just giving a generic “I'll get back to you on that”, he talked about how they got the wood used in its chassis, the type of metal they source and more – all the things that actually make a difference.

He even ended it telling me, “wait a bit and we’ll have something even better to share about this,” as I was leaving.

At the time I wrote this off as a hint that I would be doing the time warp and doing the exact same thing in a few months for another new speaker, or pair of headphones from the brand. But, come 2021, Bang & Olufsen delivered on his promise when it unveiled the Beosound Level (pictured above).

This was a big moment – for the Level was the first speaker to achieve a key sustainability milestone: Cradle-to-Cradle Bronze certification.

Covering the event, I was given the time to have a proper chinwag about the accreditation with two key players in the initiative and speaker's design: the independent Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute's then vice president of strategy & development, Christina Raab; and Bang & Olufsen’s then senior global product manager for classics and product circularity, Mads Kogsgaard Hansen.

All this may sound normal now, when sustainability is such a hot topic. But at the time it was rare to get access like this – and rarer still to find an audio company comfortable enough with its efforts to have an external auditor who could, and at times did, correct them at an interview.

That’s what stood out to me: the transparency and focus on proving their claims as much as just mouthing off a bunch of half-hearted stats or forward-looking promises. Unlike rivals I spoke to, B&O was there already doing it – and with one of the most stringent certification standards I had encountered at the time.

The Cradle-to-Cradle initiative is a tiered standard that gauges a product’s holistic impact on the environment.

This covers everything from the materials used, to the supply chain and then how recyclable and repairable it is. The accreditation is granted only after the independent Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has checked that all the criteria have been met.

Even after that, each accreditation has a shelf life, and the company has to resubmit to go through the process again, to prove it is still meeting the criteria after a certain amount of time has passed.

Fast forward to 2025 and very few tech products have met the standard due to its stringent criteria. There are 12 to be exact – and, of those, eight are from Bang & Olufsen. Even then, these only meet its lowest Bronze Full Scope standard.

Since then, B&O has continued its efforts, and has launched its latest Beosound A1 3rd Gen Bluetooth speaker and Beoplay H100, which both have a similar focus on sustainability, over the past 12 months.

For me, it is this openness, transparency and awareness among all the executives I have spoken to over the years that really stands out as the main thing I associate with Bang & Olufsen.

As we found during our 2025 Sustainability Week event, this level of “show your working” transparency is still a rare thing among audio companies.

Here’s hoping it continues its efforts and more companies follow Bang & Olufsen's lead with their sustainability efforts.

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