REWE Group Strengthens Its Commitment to Sustainability

Cologne, 08.07.09

More ecological products and green electricity / Pesticides load of fruits and vegetables sharply reduced / First sustainability report given best rating in German food trading

REWE Group significantly expands its sustainability activities by offering more ecological products from the direct cooperation with international producers and by doubling the amount of solar energy generated in own facilities. This underlines the claim of the Cologne-based trading company to be the industry's pioneer in this area. This is shown in the comprehensive sustainability report presented by the Group for the first time. So far, it has received the best external rating of a company in German food trading.

In its successful cooperation with selected producers - being part of the "Best Alliance" projects - REWE Group extends both the range of products and the geographic scope of origin. In addition to grapes, strawberries and peppers from Spain and Italy, it now also procures tomatoes from a project in Spain. Moreover, citrus fruits will be offered even this year whose cultivation REWE Group and its partners will organise in a more sustainable way. Next year, the procurement of grapes from Brazil and Argentina will added.

Product quality and safety are given utmost priority

In addition, REWE Group plans to extend its sustainability projects to other product groups such as fish from aqua cultures and to dairy products. All producers cooperating with the food trading company must comply with defined sustainability standards. Product quality and safety are given here utmost priority. Moreover, the partners take into consideration a number of additional criteria such as the protection of climate and resources, the preservation of the diversity of species and social responsibility aspects.

For fruits and vegetables, REWE Group now in addition offers transparency for the load of harmful substances contained in its fruits and vegetables. The test conducted in cooperation with the independent Austrian environmental organisation Global 2000 has proved that the pesticide load over the entire product group fell from 2007 to 2008 by one quarter. REWE Group has the intention to further reduce these values year by year.

Climate protection to be expanded

In the area of climate protection, the Group makes another step ahead. By 2015, it wants to cut its annual carbon dioxide emissions by 30 per cent. This is the most ambitious objective in European food trading.

By next year, REWE Group intends to more than double the solar power generated in own facilities. For that purpose, additional warehouses will be equipped with photovoltaic facilities on their roofs. The sites will most likely include the new warehouses in Cologne and Lahr, in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. Among the warehouses already existing and eligible is also a location in the Czech Republic. In total, the maximal power output of 3,500 kilowatts available so far will be increased by 4,500 kWp. This corresponds to the power consumption of about 1,250 normal households and means a reduction of about 2,500 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

"B+" rating for first sustainability report

Detailed information on the new projects and the numerous ongoing activities is contained in the sustainability report REWE Group has presented now for the first together with its annual report 2008. The document was audited by the auditing company PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). On the basis of the criteria of GRI, the sustainability report was rated "B+" as the only one published so far in German food trading.

In the past year, REWE Group has increasingly embedded the topic of sustainability in its corporate mission statement. "We dedicatedly want to contribute to an improvement of the quality of life of the people", said REWE Group CEO Alain Caparros, and added "even now, in economically difficult times, we must not and will not stop to act in a sustainable way. Yet for both our customers and our 320,000 employees one thing remains very important: they expect us to offer healthy, ecologically sustainable and save products whose origin can be traced and that are produced under fair conditions."

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REWE GROUP-Corporate Communications
Tel.: 0221 - 149-1050
E-Mail: presse(at)rewe-group.com

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