Energy

The energy-saving activities come under the Energy Efficiency area of action, which is one of the three areas of action in the Energy, Climate and Environment pillar of the company-wide Sustainability Strategy, along with Resource Conservation and Climate-Relevant Emissions.

Effect

The REWE Group is aware that it consumes energy as part of its business activities – whether in stores or travel agencies, transportation or administration. Energy consumption includes electricity, essentially for refrigeration and lighting, energy sources for heating, and fuels for transporting products – from warehouses to points of sale and, in the case of online orders, to customers. On the one hand, energy consumption produces emissions. On the other hand, dependency on fossil energy sources, such as gas, for example, can pose a risk to the REWE Group in relation to security of supply and costs. In times of acute energy crisis, such as during the reporting period, this aspect plays an even greater role, so the REWE Group believes that it has a special responsibility to save energy beyond each strategy. Furthermore, the company is foresightedly trying to safeguard itself with regard to energy supply. EHA Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft, the central energy service provider of the REWE Group and a wholly owned subsidiary since 2014, offers reliable and attractive prices through long-term, structured, and widely diversified purchasing. At the same time, the issue of energy offers the company the opportunity to position itself as a model and a catalyst and to secure supply through use of renewable energies. Responsible consumption and use of alternative energy sources can help to reduce environmental impacts. Furthermore, the energy-efficiency measures also contribute to achieving the overarching objective of climate neutrality by 2040.

Principles

In its Guideline on Sustainable Business Practices, the REWE Group makes a commitment to reducing its specific energy consumption by taking appropriate energy-efficiency measures and by educating its employees about energy-saving behaviour. It also aims to promote the use of renewable energy sources.

The REWE Group has over 20 years of experience in continuous energy reduction. The company therefore focuses on KPIs that represent essential consumption and where it can achieve a direct effect through its own measures, such as energy efficiency (refrigeration, lighting and heating) and refrigerant-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Responsibility and Resources

The topic of Energy is the responsibility of the working group Energy, Climate and Environment. The working group is headed by Telerik Schischmanow (Member of the Executive Board – Finance). Dedicated units and energy managers work on and expedite operational implementation in the regions and strategic business units. The latter are responsible for conducting consumption- and operation-dependent vulnerability analyses, energy checks in stores and partner stores, reduction of specific energy consumption in stores, and control and monitoring of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning suppliers. They are also tasked with internal awareness raising among employees about the topic of Energy and Climate Protection.

Implementation

The targeted efficiency activities within the REWE Group are based on energy management systems that are certified in accordance with the ISO 50001:2018 Standard and regularly recertified. They record the energy consumption of the respective units – in Germany, for instance, all sales lines, including Lekkerland, from 2023 with just under 7,000 locations – from food retail stores, through DIY stores, travel agencies, logistics centres, administration, to online shops.

The production operations Wilhelm Brandenburg and Glocken Bäckerei have been operating certified energy management systems in accordance with ISO 50001 since 2014. In April 2016, the REWE International AG also received ISO 50001 certification for Austria for around 2,100 stores (BILLA, BILLA PLUS, PENNY Austria and BIPA) and the entire logistics area. BILLA Czech Republic, BILLA Slovakia, BILLA Bulgaria, IKI Lithuania and PENNY Romania have also been certified according to ISO 50001 since spring 2017. PENNY Czech Republic, PENNY Hungary and PENNY Italy have been ISO 50001 certified since mid-2018. The REWE Group thus bundles numerous activities in the energy sector and, at the same time, satisfies requirements of the European Energy Efficiency Directive and/or statutory implementations in individual countries (in Germany, the Energy Services Act (EDL-G)). The Lekkerland convenience segment, which was added in 2020, was integrated into the REWE Group’s central energy management system in Germany in the reporting year. It is also supposed to be certified in 2023.

The energy management system has been implemented in cooperation with the Hamburg Energy Trading Company (EHA) since 2008. The energy service provider has equipped the REWE Group locations in Germany with measuring stations to enable centralised and up-to-date recording of energy consumption. Temperature and energy data are also monitored with the FRIGODATA monitoring platform.

With regard to logistics, consumption of own vehicles, as well as consumption of external service providers’ vehicles in Germany and Austria is measured (see also Logistics and Mobility).

The REWE Group energy managers check actual and target consumption on the basis of the data collected and recommend measures for improvement. The measures are essentially aimed at optimising lighting, as well as refrigeration and/or heating and ventilation systems. The REWE Group is also working on improvements with regard to heat consumption.

The established management structure is an essential prerequisite for continuous optimisation of energy consumption, because detailed recording enables better definition and traceability of central energy objectives and sub-objectives. Furthermore, it also makes connections between energy consumption measured and activities implemented easier to trace and monitor. Effective approaches can therefore be identified and developed further.

Overall, the implemented energy management systems are effective (see section Absolute Energy Consumption). The REWE Group is continuing to work on increasing its energy efficiency. This also contributes to achieving the REWE Group’s overarching climate objectives (see Climate Protection at Corporate Level and Targets and KPIs).

Involvement of Stakeholders

In the Materiality Analysis a, stakeholders assessed the topic of Energy as being relevant for the company in relation to operational conservation of resources and climate protection. They are informed annually about the effectiveness of measures taken via the Sustainability Report and in various dialogue formats (see Stakeholder Dialogue). This exchange allows stakeholders to provide important input on the issue. Customers, suppliers, and partners as well as other stakeholders can submit their complaints or comments on this topic. For this purpose, the REWE Group has established reporting and grievance mechanisms. For more information, please refer to the Compliance section.

With regard to climate protection activities in the sphere of Climate Protection at Corporate Level and Energy, the REWE Group attaches great importance to suggestions and proposals for improvement from employees. For this purpose, the REWE Group has set up a central email address as part of its energy management systems: EnMS@rewe-group.com. External stakeholders can also contact this email address. However, they can also use all REWE Group’s other communication channels.

The REWE Group’s absolute energy consumption in 2022 decreased by around 1.16 per cent compared to the previous year. This development is mainly based on a reduction in the amount of heat required, while electricity needs remained almost the same. The reduction in heat can be attributed to the efficiency activities introduced in winter 2022/23 as a consequence of the energy crisis.

Electricity consumption has been recorded for all countries and the REWE Group companies since 2019. At around 56 per cent, it makes up the largest share of overall energy consumption and remained almost constant between 2021 and 2022 (-0.1 per cent).

After energy consumption through electricity, consumption of fuels for lorries and cars (incl. third-party logistics) and for heating makes up the largest share.

Energy consumption within the organisation (in GWh)^*

TJ | 0.2778 GWh, 1 MJ/m² | 0.2778 kWh/m² (Source: International System of Units (SI))

Scope: All countries and companies of the REWE Group, including retailers. Units that left the group before the reporting year were not taken into consideration.

^* The conversion factors for the different energy sources are derived using the GEMIS material flow analysis model and the TREMOD transport emissions model.

¹ GRI 2-4: Due to the absence of consolidation units, the values were retrospectively adjusted to enable comparability of the data with the reporting year. In isolated cases, consumption values had been given incorrectly. These were corrected. The sale of the business NovaAirlines AB in 2021 reduced consumption values for kerosene to zero. The line was therefore deleted.

² Renewable energies from auto-production include: Solar thermal energy, photovoltaic systems, geothermal technology, wind power, wood pellets, bio heat.

³ The information is partly calculated based on consumption data from previous years.

⁴ If consumption data for lorries is not available, it is projected per business using calculated average consumption and kilometres driven.

Energy consumption within the organisation – share of consumption 2022

Scope: All countries and the REWE Group companies including retailers.

¹ Renewable energies from auto-production include: Solar thermal energy, photovoltaic systems, geothermal technology, wind power, wood pellets, bio heat.

Energy intensity comprises location-specific energy consumption from the energy types electricity and heat (fuel oil, gas and district heating). The exact location-specific energy consumption (energy consumption per square metre of sales area) of the REWE Group decreased during the reporting period and was 4.76 per cent less in 2022 compared with 2021. However, electricity needs remained approximately the same as the previous year; heat required fell by just under 12 per cent because of the austerity measures taken in autumn and winter 2022/23 in the context of gas shortages (see also table Measures to reduce electricity consumption).

Energy intensity

The measures implemented by the REWE Group sales lines in Germany and Austria led to a reduction in electricity consumption of around 30 GWh in 2022. In the case of food retailers, refrigeration is responsible for around half of electricity consumption, which is why many refrigeration technology and cooling loss reduction measures were implemented during this reporting period. Energy-saving measures as a consequence of gas shortages also contributed to the reduction in electricity and heat consumption.

For energy-saving measures in the sphere of goods transportation and mobility see section Logistics and Mobility.

Measures to reduce electricity consumption

The following presents the concrete measures and projects for reducing electricity consumption and increasing energy efficiency for the reporting year, sorted thematically by:

Consumption Optimisation

Use of Alternative Energies