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Commitments and projects

Doing our bit: from the Pro Planet Apple Project to packaging.

Improving climate protection

Glazed chiller cabinets, climate-friendly coolants, LED lighting – these are just a few of the many things we have implemented in order to save energy at our stores and warehouses. For us, climate protection also means cutting greenhouse gas emissions in logistics and along the supply chain. It is our aim to make a measurable contribution to the protection of resources and to keep the impact on the climate and the environment as low as possible. This is why we set our first climate goals back in 2009, and modified these again in 2013. Our current goal: climate neutrality at the company level by 2040.

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For high standards of animal welfare

At the REWE Group, we want to be actively involved in promoting and developing improvements to livestock farming, from no-kill eggs to humanely reared meat. Through close cooperation with scientists, NGOs and business partners, we have already improved industry-wide animal welfare standards.

Upholding human rights

Human rights are non-negotiable for the REWE Group. In a policy statement, we set down clear rules for upholding human rights both in our own business activities and our global supply chains. We are committed to bolstering human rights, improving working conditions, and promoting fair trade within the supply chains of all our private-label products because we can only achieve success over the long term if our business activities are in harmony with people and the environment.

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Making packaging more environmentally friendly

From protection and transport through to storage, packaging has many important functions. From an ecological perspective however, its production and disposal can be problematic, which is why we have resolved to eliminate or reduce packaging wherever possible or improve its ecological design. With our packaging initiative, we are working intensively on more sustainable and practical options, from innovative materials through to detailed work on specific packaging. Our goal is to achieve 100% environmentally friendly private-label packaging by 2030.

Protecting biodiversity

From Panama to Austria, we have introduced a wide range of initiatives for the protection and encouragement of biodiversity along supply chains. In this, we rely on cooperations with strategic partners, such as Naturschutzbund Deutschland (the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, or NABU). Together, we agree on specific areas of focus, such as marine conservation, plastic, forest conservation and paper, resource conservation, and promoting biodiversity.

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Fair and cooperative agriculture

As a cooperatively organized company, a collaborative relationship with our contractual partners is important to us. We have built trusting working relationships with our farmers and suppliers on regional and local levels with the aim of jointly contributing to strengthening communities and protecting the environment. Our retailers, in particular, have deep roots in their respective regions. They believe in agriculture that is made up of small and medium-sized businesses and operates according to environmentally and socially conscious principles.

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Our strategy for greater sustainability

Sustainability has been an important part of our corporate identity and business strategy for over ten years.
Our strategy for greater sustainability

Sustainability Report 2020 to GRI standards

Since 2009, our annual online sustainability report, which is compiled in accordance with GRI sustainability reporting standards, has documented our sustainable commitments in the four pillars of our sustainability strategy: Green Products, Energy, Climate & Environment, Employees, and Social Commitment.