Food Waste

A conscious approach to food has been identified as a relevant topic to the REWE Group. It is established in the Social Involvement pillar of the REWE Group’s Sustainability Strategy. In the year under review the focus was on food waste, as this is where the company can have the greatest influence. As it is a cross-cutting issue with the Green Products pillar in terms of content and measures and projects also take place in relation to goods and upstream supply chains, it is outlined in this pillar.

Effect

Annually, around 11 million tonnes of food are discarded in Germany, with the majority coming from private households, restaurants and catering sector. While wholesale and retail contribute a smaller fraction, the REWE Group is dedicated to making a meaningful impact in this area. As a food retailer, the company recognizes its significant influence on consumer behaviour and is committed to educating and promoting a more sustainable approach to food among its customers. On the one hand, it The REWE Group faces a dual challenge in this regard: on one hand, it seeks to provide a broad range of products and ensure consistent availability; on the other hand, it is tasked with ensuring food safety, where the use of packaging to extend shelf life can conflict with the company's goal to reduce packaging for sustainability reasons. Despite these challenges, the REWE Group remains committed to combating food waste through various initiatives, aligning with its longstanding effort to minimize food disposal.

Principles

In its Guideline on Sustainable Business Practices, the REWE Group acknowledges its social and environmental corporate responsibility.

Especially as a food retailer, the REWE Group values food and aims to make the best possible use of it. The company therefore focuses particularly on preventing food waste. Since the foundation at the end of 2019, the REWE Group, with its REWE and PENNY sales lines, has been a member of the National Dialogue Forum for Reduction of Food Waste of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and supports the national strategy for the reduction of food waste (see also Objectives and Measures and projects).

In its definition of food waste, the company follows the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and uses food waste as an umbrella term for the following issues:

• Food losses: The loss of edible food wherever food is produced or processed. Food losses occur in particular at the beginning of the value chain.
• Food waste: Food waste tends to occur at the end of the supply chain – in stores, in restaurants and at consumer level.

The REWE Group does not consider the following to be food waste:

• food that has been donated for human consumption to non-profit organisations such as the food banks.
• food that remains in the value cycle for further processing and is processed into high-quality animal feed. For example, unfilled pastries from the Bake-Off counters and self-service pastries.

Since packaging ensures that food has the longest possible shelf life and therefore makes an important contribution to reducing food waste, the company aims to achieve this and at the same time design the packaging to be as environmentally friendly as possible. In its Guideline on More Eco-Friendly Packaging, the company outlines its strategic approach.

Together with its suppliers and as part of its Guideline on Circular Economy, the REWE Group aims to avoid the generation of waste in the value chain of food, both in cultivation and in production.

In July 2021, the REWE Group signed the EU Code of Conduct on Responsible Food Business and Marketing Practices. The Code was drawn up jointly by European associations and companies, the departments of the European Commission and with the active participation of international organisations, non-governmental organisations, trade unions and professional associations. By signing this code of conduct, the REWE Group underlines its efforts to reduce food waste along the value chain in cooperation with suppliers and with a view to its customers.

On the way to achieving its objectives, the REWE Group considers the food banks to be strategic partners and gives priority to the cooperation at store level by REWE and PENNY in Germany to save food, because the food banks pass this food directly onto those in need. Nevertheless, assessing new opportunities for cooperation has proven to be positive, because the demand of the food banks cannot be covered at some stores due to capacity limits. Since the reporting year, REWE and PENNY in Germany have therefore also cooperated with the Foodsharing organisation and thus saved even more food from being disposed of.

Responsibility and Resources

Due to the cooperation with the food banks, the management of food waste falls under Social Involvement (see Management Approach Social Involvement).

Implementation

To achieve its objectives, the REWE Group is committed on at least three levels of the upstream and downstream value chain of food products. As a priority, the company wants to supply food for human consumption according to its intended purpose – through sales, discounted sales, or free distribution to non-profit organizations. If this is not possible, the opportunities for further use, recycling and finally conversion into thermal energy are exploited. However, the REWE Group focuses in particular on prevention.

1. Prevention:
   In the upstream value chain, the REWE Group works together with suppliers and producers to prevent food losses. For example, at PENNY in Germany the private label “Naturgut Bio-Helden” was created in 2016 for organic fruit and vegetables that have external imperfections or defects. Since 2013, the Austrian sales lines BILLA, BILLA PLUS, PENNY, ADEG and Sutterlüty carry the private label Wunderlinge in its range. When crops fail due to weather events or there are changes in products, the company strives to find constructive solutions with suppliers for the private labels at REWE and PENNY in Germany. The same applies to the REWE Group in Austria. At store level, modern forecasting systems and automatic ordering processes are used, supported by the commercial experience of the employees. This enables an excellent supply of fresh goods as needed to the stores of the relevant sales lines REWE and PENNY in Germany and BILLA and BILLA PLUS in Austria. Furthermore, short transport routes between warehouse locations and stores, end-to-end refrigeration from production to shelf and regular employee training on topics such as quality assurance and storage help to keep losses to a minimum.
   Since most food waste occurs at consumer level, the REWE Group relies on information and raising awareness here. The sales line PENNY in Germany has been involved in these efforts for years and informs on the optimal storage of food and how to creatively use leftovers. Since 2019, as part of the “Saving Precious Goods” campaign, selected private label products such as yoghurt, cream and butter have been labelled with the information “Smell. Taste. Enjoy.” right next to the best-before date. In 2020 the labelling was extended to the organic private label “Naturgut”.
   In their online communication, the sales lines REWE and PENNY in Germany also provide their customers with information on how to store products correctly, the best-before date and cooking ideas.
   The sales line Lekkerland implemented a new procurement tool in its materials scheduling department in the year under review. By optimising order quantities, it is intended to further reduce markdowns, i.e. impairments.
   At DER Touristik, specific purchase quantities are agreed with suppliers in advance, depending on the booking situation (which is quite clear about two to three months in advance). Thus, overproduction or unnecessary storage is prevented. In addition, focus is placed on regional and seasonal products. The target is 80 per cent regional and seasonal products for EU destinations and 50 per cent for non-EU destinations.
2. Human consumption:
   REWE and PENNY in Germany sell on average over 98 per cent of their food over the year. REWE (since 1996) and PENNY (since 2007) provide over 960 local food banks throughout Germany with free food which can no longer be sold but which is still very much edible. In addition, both sales lines cooperate with the Food sharing organisation. Some retailers in the REWE Group also cooperate with the app Too Good To Go.
   Lekkerland is also committed to combating food waste by providing products from individual logistics centres to local food banks in the area. The sales line also sells food which will soon reach its best-before date to resellers of surplus stock. Since 2020, Lekkerland also cooperates with the app Too Good To Go.
   The REWE Group in Austria has also been working closely with charitable organisations for years and almost across the country. Wherever possible, all relevant sales lines such as BILLA, BILLA PLUS, PENNY, BIPA and ADEG are in a cooperation for donation of food as well as basic goods. In 2022, BILLA donated food in the amount of 37.5 million euros (2021: 27 million  euros) to social institutions. In the reporting period, donations of BIPA’s cosmetic and hygiene products totalled 1.1 million euros (2021: 1.5 million euros).
   Since 2014, the REWE Group in Austria has also been a co-founder of the Action Plan for the Food Retail Industry (Aktionsplattform Lebensmittelhandel) of the Association of Austrian food banks (Verband der österreichischen Tafeln) – which was established by the merger of various charitable organisations. This umbrella organisation not only provides support in terms of food donations, it also promotes synergies in logistics and collection quality, which benefit all parties. The distribution of food can be a major challenge for social organisations, especially if there are not enough employees or volunteers available to pick up the goods and deliver them to the food banks. For example, by consolidating goods in the central warehouse, the food banks in Vienna only need to drive to one location instead of to individual stores with small quantities.
   DER Touristik achieves better portion control with so-called action stations at buffets – small areas where chefs prepare food in front of the guests. They account for around 30 per cent of food at the buffets. The “tiny & tasty” concept (smaller tasting portions) is also used for better portion control and accounts for around 30 per cent. Generally, plated dishes take precedence over buffet concepts. Food waste programmes also accompany the measures implemented by the tourism company (see section Reduction of food waste at hotel buffets).
3. Reuse, recycling, recovery:
   If food is no longer safe for human consumption, suitable products (e.g. unfilled bread and pastries) are returned to the cycle and processed into for example high-quality animal feed. Category 3 food waste (animal by-products not intended for human consumption), fruit and vegetables are recycled after hygienisation in biogas plants into electricity and heat.
   DER Touristik works with the biogas programme in Austria, where biogas is produced from organic waste, making it 100 per cent renewable energy. Thus, material cycles are closed and a regional value chain is achieved. The Biogas Programme is part of the klimaaktiv climate-protection initiative launched by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. Further measures are currently not possible due to strict regional and country-specific guidelines and requirements in the tourism industry.

Involvement of Stakeholders

Food wastage is a social relevant topic. The stakeholders are informed annually about the measures taken by the company and the effectiveness of food waste via the Sustainability Report and in various dialogue formats (see Stakeholder Dialogue).

Customers, suppliers as well as other stakeholders can submit their grievances 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.

The REWE Group is working in a wide range of projects to reduce food waste. These are presented below for the year under review, sorted by level of implementation: