{"id":20439,"date":"2023-09-12T11:10:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T09:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/de\/?post_type=opinion&p=32261"},"modified":"2023-09-15T09:29:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T07:29:17","slug":"it-is-vital-that-the-added-value-of-sustainability-remains-visible","status":"publish","type":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/press-and-media\/newsroom\/opinions\/it-is-vital-that-the-added-value-of-sustainability-remains-visible\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt is vital that the added value of sustainability remains visible.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dear Reader,<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Back in 2008, the REWE Group started on its journey to \u201ctake sustainability mainstream\u201d. Our goal was to alert the public to the concept of more conscious consumption. And we succeeded. Today, sustainability is a part of everybody\u2019s lives. What\u2019s more, our customers are now actively demanding more sustainable products and services or expecting them as a matter of course. But what we also know from research and consumer polls is that customers still need guidance in their sustainable consumption decisions, since they are now dealing with such complex issues as animal welfare, the environment and fair supply chains.<\/p>\n

Enabling consumers to make informed, more sustainable purchase decisions is the avowed aim of the EU Commission\u2019s Green Claims Directive, which is currently being drafted in Brussels and the final version of which we eagerly anticipate. The Directive intends to provide a more stringent framework and bring in minimum requirements for the verification of claims and labels in the interests of greater transparency. This will fundamentally change sustainability communication. It will also apply to the standards of potentially high-profile independent partners and labels.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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From our perspective, the overarching aim of the Directive is sound. It should be possible for all consumers to make conscious (purchase) decisions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/div>\n

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Kerstin May, Head of Sustainability Communications REWE Group <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \"kerstin-may\"\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

Kerstin May, Head of Sustainability Communications REWE Group <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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From our perspective, the overarching aim of the Directive is sound. It should be possible for all consumers to make conscious (purchase) decisions. And this requires harmonised standards. We fully support this. REWE, PENNY and toom Baumarkt stores already offer corresponding product ranges. However, the Directive needs to go further than simply defining what should no longer be included in sustainability communications. There needs to be a way in which such communications can provide the necessary guidance in the future.<\/p>\n

The Directive, at its current draft stage, is still ambiguous in many places and leaves too much margin for interpretation. This is also the case with numerous definitions and terms. A decisive factor for us will be the data on which environmental statements may be based in the future. It is certainly a complex challenge! If secondary data may be used, this significantly reduces the complexity; however, it makes it more difficult to present differences within categories. The problem with primary data is that it is not currently available for all products. If every company, NGO and standard now has to collect separate data, the effort required will be tremendous, especially for complex products involving multiple supply chains, such as frozen pizza or multivitamin juice.<\/p>\n

A number of additional sustainability-related regulations are currently also being negotiated at EU level alongside the Green Claims Directive, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, Sustainable Food Systems and Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition. These will also require the collection of vast amounts of data. We believe that standardised data should ultimately form a basis for all these regulations. The same applies to definitions and terms. They should not contradict each other.<\/p>\n

What is absolutely vital is that the added value of sustainability projects in respect of animal welfare, biodiversity or social practice, for example, remains visible. Report on the good being done: both for customers looking for guidance and to keep people updated on the progress of projects worldwide. It would be a significant step backwards if it were no longer possible to communicate the sustainability credentials of individual products or services, or if communicating such information were no longer possible for capacity, process and budget reasons. This would indirectly lead to a significant reduction in the number of urgently needed supply chain transformation projects across many different sectors and countries and may even cause them to be abandoned altogether. I am certain that this is not the intention behind the regulation. We therefore appeal to the policymakers to ensure within the detail of the Directive that effective and well-founded sustainability communication is still possible for both larger and smaller companies. Ultimately, this is the only way to achieve an incentive effect.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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We therefore appeal to the policymakers to ensure within the detail of the Directive that effective and well-founded sustainability communication is still possible for both larger and smaller companies. Ultimately, this is the only way to achieve an incentive effect.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/div>\n

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Kerstin May, Head of Sustainability Communications REWE Group <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Kerstin May, Head of Sustainability Communications REWE Group <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In Germany alone, we serve more than 50 million customers every week. Over the past few years, we have gained a lot of experience in fact-based sustainability communication and know that shopping is a greatly habitualised activity and that communication at the point of sale must be clear and simple. We will continue on this path because it is very important to us that, in the future, we are able to keep giving our customers guidance on more sustainable purchasing options. We accept the challenge of ensuring that all future communications remain compliant with the regulations and will be happy to contribute our practical experience to the dialogue with full transparency.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Yours Kerstin May<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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About:<\/h2>

\n Kerstin May <\/p>\n\n

Head of Sustainability Communications REWE Group <\/p>\n \n

\n joined the REWE Group in 2013. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Join the discussion on<\/h2>\n

    Our LinkedIn feed has all the latest information from the REWE Group and the sector, with the most important developments from the worlds of retail, e-commerce, food, CSR and policy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    In our latest Opinion of the Month, Kerstin May, Head of Sustainability Communications at the REWE Group, discusses the continued need for sustainability communications as well as the EU\u2019s Green Claims Directive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20431,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","nl_adhoc_sent":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"focus_theme":[142],"class_list":["post-20439","opinion","type-opinion","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","focus_theme-undefined"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/20439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/opinion"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/20439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20459,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/20439\/revisions\/20459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20439"},{"taxonomy":"focus_theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rewe-group.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/focus_theme?post=20439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}