Promoting Sustainable Consumption

Live more consciously and do something for the climate and the environment: How customers can contribute to climate protection by conscious purchasing has been the subject of the campaign #umdenkbar (rethinkable) by REWE in Germany since August 2022. The aim is to create a change in awareness among consumers: “Unthinkable” becomes “rethinkable”. Simple questions such as “is there a biscuit that’s good for the environment” are answered with “Yes” and explained on the website rewe.de/umdenkbar which presents a range that contributes to sustainability.

The campaign, which began in August 2022, represents all sustainability activities of REWE in Germany and aims to clarify the transformation to a climate-neutral, more sustainable company, which the sales line began vigorously pursuing many years ago. The campaign ran on all communication channels for a seven-week campaign period. In Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig and Munich, there were also 250-square metre posters with a special coating that clears the air of pollutants. Furthermore, customers are also asked to contribute to the NABU Climate Fund by purchasing REWE organic products. REWE in Germany has joined the Fund as a founding partner and aims to finance the rewetting of German peatlands. The label “Dein Kauf unterstützt den NABU-Klimafonds” (“Your purchase supports the NABU Climate Fund”) raised awareness among customers in-store of the sales line’s commitment to rewetting the peatlands (for more information see Climate Protection in the Supply Chain).

Stopping printed flyers also forms part of the #umdenkbar campaign (for more information see Materials). Instead of printing and distributing leaflets, the company intends to expand product advertising through digital channels, such as the REWE App or WhatsApp and to use advertisements in online media, from summer 2023.

PENNY in Germany has been demonstrating its sustainability commitment under the umbrella campaign “Klimaleicht mit PENNY“ (“Climate-Light with PENNY”) since early 2022. As part of the campaign, customers were shown how much CO₂ they can save by buying plant-based alternatives. The different CO₂ footprints were also visualised in the stores.

In summer 2022, BILLA began the campaign “Good Food” for conscious, sustainable consumption. The campaign focuses on the diversity of the BILLA private labels – from “Da komm’ ich her!” (“Where I come from”), “Wunderlinge”, “Vegavita” and “Fair zum Tier” (“Fair to animals”) to “BILLA Bio” (“BILLA Organic”) and “Ja! Natürlich” (“Yes! Naturally”). The campaign intends to show the wide range of options available for conscious eating and that conscious purchase and diet decisions have a positive effect on several areas. As part of this, the “BILLA Good Food Board” was brought into being – an advisory board with experts from gastronomy, nutrition, professional sport and lifestyle. They make conscious, healthy and sustainable nutrition accessible to anybody interested on their social media channels. In 2022, the focus was on plant-based nutrition.

toom Baumarkt DIY store has been promoting the sustainable properties of its private label products since autumn 2021 – from floor coverings, through paints and varnishes to energy-saving LED bulbs or radiator thermostats – with the campaign “Über Geschmack lässt sich streiten – über Nachhaltigkeit nicht” (“Sustainability isn’t a matter of taste”). In the reporting period, brand ambassadors were again former tennis player Ana Ivanović and her husband and football star Bastian Schweinsteiger. In 2022, the focus was on insect-friendly plants and water- and energy-saving products, in the context of two campaigns.

In cooperation with the magazine GEO, toom Baumarkt DIY store published the sustainability magazine “Respekt” for its customers, in April 2022. It aims to inform, raise awareness and show how even small things can contribute to a more sustainable way of life, in relation to topics such as protection of species, resource conservation and social involvement.

With “Conscious Travel”, DER Touristik has been transparently bundling sustainable and responsible travel offers since 2021 – for example, all hotels are certified as sustainable in accordance with a standard recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). The current format, a catalogue in magazine format (magalogue), was transferred to an online world at dertour.de/nachhaltiger-urlaub in 2022 and now shows an annual catalogue rather than seasonal catalogues. Along with information about sustainability initiatives of the hotels offered, the topics presented also include tips on responsible excursions, more climate-friendly transport or sustainable catering on location. The offers and information on projects and initiatives of DER Touristik and its partners are gradually being expanded.

To make customers more aware of the climate impact of their travel and possible climate-friendly alternatives, DER Touristik, together with Futouris e. V., the industry initiative for sustainability, conducted a feasibility study for drawing up a CO₂ land register in autumn 2021. In 2022, this was transferred to the industry project “Klimabewusst reisen“ ("Climate-conscious travel”) and handed over to the newly formed association KlimaLink e. V. The aim is to create a uniform basis for calculating a climate footprint for travel and to implement it as an industry project. Information on the CO₂ footprint shall be incorporated into product design at DER Touristik and serves to make products comparable with regard to their climate impacts and to steer more sustainable, climate-friendly products in sales. To provide product-related information, a form of representation for the climate footprint, as well as instruments for awareness-raising and increasing consciousness for travel agency staff and customers are currently being developed. The intention is to reduce the climate footprint of travel for the industry as a whole, as well as for DER Touristik as a company (see also Climate Protection in the Supply Chain).

The “Greenfare” was offered for “Bewusst reisen” (“Conscious Travel”) (see Climate-conscious travel project) offers for the first time in the reporting period with the partner Lufthansa: At selected hotels, customers can book airfares whose CO₂ emissions are compensated not only by climate protection projects, but also by the use of sustainable aviation fuels at a fixed share of 20 per cent.

Guests of DER Touristik can calculate the CO₂ footprint of their trip at dertouristik.myclimate.org and make a corresponding voluntary contribution to climate protection. This applies both to trips from the magalogue (information under the project “Conscious Travel”) and for all trips with DER Touristik tour operators. In the magalogue, the CO₂ emissions of every travel offer are calculated and presented for better guidance.

In the first sustainability experience store “PENNY Grüner Weg” ("PENNY green path"), the sales line PENNY in Germany has been intensifying efforts to raise awareness of sustainability among its customers since 2020: 20 stations in the store located in Berlin make the most important sustainability topics tangible and visible for customers – from the benefits of Naturgut Bio-Helden and initiatives to avoid packaging and tips for creating a bee-friendly environment. One station shows the ”Real costs“: It clearly illustrates what selected products would really cost if you took into consideration certain ecological factors.

Scientists from Augsburg University examined four indicators – greenhouse gas emissions, reactive nitrogen emissions, energy consumption and land use change through production – of eight selected foods and included them in the true sales price of conventionally and ecologically produced private label products (apples, bananas, potatoes, tomatoes, mozzarella, gouda, milk and mixed mince). The example evaluation of conventionally produced food shows that the sales price per kilogramme increases by around 62 per cent on average. The difference between true costs and the sales price is smaller for organic food because they tend to show the subsequent costs. The sales price therefore increases by around 35 per cent in the case of organic products.

In September 2022, BILLA opened the concept store Billa Pflanzilla in Vienna offering a purely plant-based selection. Austria’s first purely vegan store offers BILLA private labels, as well as Vegavita and Ja! Natürlich, stations with unpackaged and loose foods, a buffet, a snack bar with vegan food to-go and, in the non-food area, vegan cookery books, for example. The shop also holds events on the topic of “plant-based nutrition”. The store gets its name from the gorilla – the strongest purely herbivorous animal in the jungle. The shopping experience is therefore complemented on a visual level by gorilla designs. With the new store concept, the sales line plays a pioneering role in accommodating consumers of plant-based products, promotes innovative start-ups and producers of purely plant-based products and, at the same time, makes a contribution to a more conscious, more sustainable consumption.

REWE and PENNY as well as nahkauf in Germany gave away around 14 million reusable net bags in all stores across Germany in August 2022 to support consumers as part of the packaging strategy “Avoid. Reduce. Improve.” when purchasing unpackaged fruit and vegetables by helping them to do without plastic bags. In 2018, REWE became the first major food retailer in Germany to introduce reusable net bags across the country (for more information see Packaging).

In the reporting year, as in previous years, discounter PENNY held sustainability weeks during which more sustainable branded products are advertised.

The sales line toom Baumarkt DIY store provides information about products with added sustainable value with up to four sustainability weeks per year. In 2022 for example, it raised awareness among customers about more sustainable packaging and energy-saving products. In cooperation with Blue Angel, there were also various campaign days in autumn on the topic of healthy home products, as part of the sustainability weeks. Information was provided about low-emission and low-pollutant products in eight German stores.

Biodiversity and insect die-off are repeatedly the focus of the REWE Group’s sustainability communication. For example, at REWE, the collection campaign “Wilde Helden” (“Wild heroes”) began in September 2022: The explorer album showed old and young readers jungle, ocean, savannah, arctic, river, forest and field habitats and the world of bees – and how threatened they are. Some of the content was drawn up with the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU e. V.) and also conveys how even small things in everyday life can have a major impact on nature.

On 20 May 2022, nahkauf in Germany celebrated World Bee Day. Retailers from nahkauf set up 530 flower beds at associations, kindergartens and schools across Germany. For more information on the topic of protection of species and biodiversity in the individual sales lines, see section Biodiversity.

Since October 2021, the "Zukunftsbauer" ("Future farmers") support programme – a joint project between PENNY in Germany and the Berchtesgadener Land dairy – has been helping farmers to make their family-run farms in the Alpine region more climate-friendly. For this purpose, the farmers of the cooperative dairy receive a support of up to 10,000 euros to help them optimise the energy efficiency of their farms – for example, using self-produced electricity in a time-optimised manner for the electric machines and the electric vehicle fleet. Since the start of the programme, 80 projects have been supported and over 600,000 euros in funding has been made available for this purpose.

The funds come from two sources: PENNY in Germany waives part of the retail margin on the sale of PENNY Zukunftsbauer private label products and all dairy products of the "Berchtesgadener Land" brand; in addition, the Berchtesgadener Land dairy doubles this amount. In this way, consumers can support the farmers in the region on their way to sustainable agriculture by buying Berchtesgadener Land products. The joint project thus shows what is possible when retailers, companies, farmers and consumers cooperate.

The PRO PLANET is a systematic approach for the REWE Group to presenting sustainability information on its products transparently and comprehensibly. REWE and PENNY in Germany as well as toom Baumarkt DIY store apply the PRO PLANET label to private label products that take into consideration social and ecological factors, as well as animal welfare aspects. It therefore provides a reliable and comprehensible purchasing guide to promote sustainable consumption among a wide group of consumers. On the PRO PLANET website, further information on the individual products is available (for an overview of the proportion of these products in the range and an explanation of the PRO PLANET process, see PRO PLANET).

By mid-2023, the REWE Group intends to label all private label products from REWE and PENNY in Germany with the Nutri-Score. Nutritional labelling aims to support consumers to make conscious choices when buying food. All information on this can be found under Nutrition.

In addition to its own labels, the REWE Group also uses recognised third-party seals to label its private labels and carries branded products with the following seals, among others, in its range:

• Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and GGN – Certified Aquaculture (GLOBALG.A.P.)
• Blauer Engel (Blue Angel)
• Fairtrade
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®)
• Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
• Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC™)
• Rainforest Alliance
• Verband Lebensmittel ohne Gentechnik e. V. (VLOG) (German Association Food without Genetic Engineering)

Organic and regional products are also designated separately. Almost all fresh fish counters of REWE stores have been certified pursuant to MSC since 2009 and in accordance with ASC since 2012.

In order to provide travellers with a transparent decision-making aid, DER Touristik has implemented a strategy for comprehensible labelling of sustainable travel offers. As part of the “Green Travel Transformation” project of the sustainability initiative Futouris, labelling of offers with various seals was transferred into industry-wide, recognised and uniform labelling for sustainable travel offers. It collects and processes data from recognised sustainability certificates. It collects and processes data from recognised sustainability certificates. Since winter 2019, hotels certified as sustainable in the catalogues of DERTOUR, Meier’s Weltreisen, ITS and Jahn Reisen have been labelled as “sustainably certified” with a green leaf. This refers to international certificates that are recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and therefore meet the highest standards for compliance with environmental and social standards in tourism.

In addition to presentation in the catalogue, DER Touristik has also implemented the option of a targeted online search for sustainable hotels: Since the beginning of 2020, these hotels have also been labelled with the green leaf on the Bistro travel agency booking platform and can be included in consultations by DER Touristik travel agency staff. From 2023, the hotels are to be correspondingly labelled on the tour operators’ portals.

In addition, the number of sustainably managed hotels in the DER Touristik tour operator portfolio is gradually being expanded through various measures and the development of sustainable travel products is being steadily advanced. More than 330 hotels are currently labelled (8 per cent of the core portfolio). By 2025, the core portfolio of DER Touristik shall consist of 25 per cent sustainably certified hotels.

Many consumers want to know where the products they buy come from. The REWE Group meets this wish, for example, by labelling the origin of its regional products and by having the information on many products certified according to the criteria of the regional window (see section Regionalism).

For private label fish products, the REWE Group introduced a tracking code in 2012 for fish mono-products, i.e., fish products that contain only one type of fish. This allows customers to learn more about the supply chain of the fish product on the websites of the sales lines REWE and PENNY in Germany. The first products from aquacultures can therefore be traced back to the farm region online. A total of 95 per cent of fish mono-products are labelled with the tracking code (2021: 84 per cent). The areas of convenience, snacks and ready meals are not included here. For the supply chains of REWE private label bananas, REWE Beste Wahl pineapples, PENNY pineapples and PENNY Fairtrade Biohelden bananas, customers can also trace the products back to the producer using a QR code (for more information see Focus Raw Materials – Food).

The REWE Group in Austria also introduced a tracking code for selected private label fish products in 2018. This allows customers to learn more about the supply chain of fish products on the websites of the sales lines BILLA and BILLA Plus.

With the 5D commitment, the REWE Group makes a commitment to more regionalism in its conventional fresh pork private label range at REWE and PENNY in Germany. It is already communicated on individual products and, in the case of pork, stands for animals that have been born, raised, fattened, slaughtered and processed in Germany (for more information see Regionalism).

Since 2014, the producer has been named as distributor on private label products from REWE and PENNY in Germany. For customers, this means greater transparency in the supply chain. The REWE Group is only still named as distributor in a few exceptions, for example for products of the Feine Welt brand that come from small suppliers.

For non-food goods, the REWE Group uses the TÜV-Exklusiv seal, which stands for the quality and safety of the products. Every certified product has an individual ID number that provides further information.

toom Baumarkt DIY store has compiled a guideline on sustainability labels together with Verbraucher Initiative e. V. It aims to provide customers with guidance for more sustainable purchases and explains recommended labels that can be found on products in DIY stores. The choice of label is based on evaluations of the consumer portal label-online.de. The guideline is available for download online at toom.de/nachhaltigkeit.