Employee Involvement

Energy costs can be reduced by changes in the behaviour of employees - and without any loss of comfort. REWE Group has taken this to heart and, in cooperation with EnergieAgentur.NRW and the Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft (EHA), launched activities to heighten awareness of the employees in the three Cologne headquarters offices for possible ways to save energy on the job and in their own homes during the "aktionswoche.Efit".

Before the week of activities began, vocational trainees of REWE Group participated in a training session given by the EnergieAgentur.NRW so that they could make rounds of the offices and give employees simple tips for saving energy at the workplace quickly, easily and without any loss of comfort. Examples such as the desk lamp burning when no one is working, a printer which is constantly in operation or the coffee maker with the switch left in the "on" position all the time demonstrate the energy potential in these hidden power-hungry devices. An energy quiz, centrally located information stands on the topic of "Energy" and interesting information talks raised employees' awareness even further.

Before the campaign started, reference weeks were defined during which consumption was recorded so that the savings at the three Cologne locations could be measured precisely. All in all, savings of as much as six per cent were realised during the weeks of the campaign, corresponding to the annual consumption of about 45 three-person households or about 750 energy-efficient A++ combination refrigerator/freezers.

An "aktionswoche.Efit" was conducted in the administration buildings of REWE Region West back in 2003. The key building block for the employees here was also the promotion of awareness in using energy.

The "aktionswoche.Efit" at the three Cologne headquarters offices and at REWE Region West did more than simply help the company to save electricity. Also the employees were able to obtain information for their own use in searching out the power-hungry devices at home. The consultants from the EnergieAgentur.NRW and the EHA were available to answer questions and to give tips; they had also brought along meters for measuring power consumption which employees could borrow to use at home.

The positive response to the activities has prompted REWE Group to plan additional campaigns aimed at saving energy.