GRI 303

Operational Water Consumption

Brief Overview:

The REWE Group aims to guarantee efficient and sustainable use of the resource of water. The company

uses water-saving devices to reduce its already low fresh water consumption in stores, travel agencies, warehouses and production sites and at administrative locations.

The activities relating to operational water consumption come under the ‘Resource Conservation’ area of action, which is one of the three areas of action in the Energy, Climate and Environment Environment pillar of the company-wide Sustainability Strategy along with Energy Efficiency and Climate-Relevant Emissions.

GRI 303: Water and Effluents

Management Approach

Effect

The REWE Group is aware that its business activities as an international trade and tourism company have an effect on the topic of water. The impacts of its business activities are clearest in the sphere of production and along the supply chain (see also section Water). The REWE Group’s fresh water consumption in stores, at its warehouses and production sites and at administrative locations is low in comparison with consumption in the supply chain. Nevertheless, the REWE Group is also committed to sustainable and ecologically sound use of water at operational level. For example, rainwater is used for floor cleaning and for sanitary purposes in Green Building stores (see Green Building).

The REWE Group’s fresh water consumption in stores, at its warehouses and production sites and at administrative locations is low in comparison with consumption in the supply chain.

Principles

In its Guideline on Sustainable Business Practices, the REWE Group makes a commitment to protecting natural resources, e.g., soil, air and water, as well as raw materials and fuels. For this purpose, the company aims to use appropriate measures, taking into consideration the best-available practices and technologies, as well as the current state of the art.

Objective

The REWE Group aims to guarantee efficient and sustainable operational use of the resource of water.

Responsibility and Resources

The topic of Operational Water Consumption is the responsibility of the Energy, Climate and Environment working group. The working group is headed by Telerik Schischmanow (Member of the Executive Board – Finance). Dedicated units work on and expedite operational implementation in the regions and strategic business units.

Implementation

The REWE Group uses water-saving devices to reduce its already low fresh water consumption in stores, travel agencies, warehouses and production sites and at administrative locations. Water is essentially used for cleaning processes and for sanitary purposes. To further optimise this use, the REWE Group uses rainwater for these areas, for example in the case of Green Building stores (see Green Building). The fresh water used in its rooftop farms is used twice – for fish farming and for basil cultivation – in a closed-loop system.

Water withdrawal and drainage play a far greater role in production. The REWE Group’s commitment here involves product-related projects in its supply chain (for more information see Water).

Involvement of Stakeholders

In the Materiality Analysis, stakeholders assessed activities concerning operational water consumption, as part of the topic of Resource Conservation, as being relevant for the company. 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.

GRI 303-3: Water withdrawal

Water Consumption

The REWE Group’s operational water consumption is almost entirely through the public infrastructure, apart from rainwater use in its own Green Buildings (see section Green Building). The absolute water consumption increased by around 6.9 per cent from approximately 6.7 million cubic metres in 2021 to 7.1 million cubic metres in 2022. The specific water consumption, i.e., water consumption per square metre of sales area, increased by 5.1 per cent during the same period.

Water consumption of the REWE Group

	Unit	2020¹	2021¹	2022	Change 2021–2022
	absolute	absolute	absolute	absolute	absolute	per cent
Absolute water consumption	1,000 m³	6,939	6,686	7,146	460	6.88 %
Water consumption per square metre of sales area	(m³/m²)	0.56	0.54	0.56	0.03	5.11 %
Scope: All countries and the REWE Group companies including retailers. Units that left the group before the reporting year were not taken into consideration.
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 where consumption values had been specified incorrectly. These were corrected.