Sustainable Corporate Governance
Our sustainability strategy
The principle “We are aware of our responsibility and act sustainably” has been part of our corporate mission statement since 2008. Our guideline on sustainable business practices specifies sustainability as a key element of our company’s strategy: we take responsibility for our employees, respect human rights in the supply chain and ensure fair treatment with partners and suppliers, promote more sustainable product ranges, act in an environmentally and climate-conscious manner and are committed to a sustainable society. With our sustainability management, we also contribute to the 17 sustainability goals (see Sustainable Development Goals) of the United Nations.
Our strategy is based on four pillars and their areas of action:
- Green Products:
People, animals, environment, and nutrition - Energy, Climate and Environment: Energy efficiency, climate-relevant emissions, and conservation of resources
- Employees: Values and culture, training and development, health and safety, career and life stages, diversity, and equal opportunities
- Social Involvement: Conscious nutrition and exercise, opportunities for children and young people, conscious handling of food, biodiversity, and environmental protection
In this report, we present our commitment1 in cross-pillar focus topics.
We integrate sustainability into all business processes
Overall responsibility for sustainability lies at the highest level with CEO Lionel Souque. Since 2023, the topic has been driven forward by our Chief People and Sustainability Officer Dr Daniela Büchel. We have defined four pillars of sustainability, for each of which cross-divisional working groups exist to continuously integrate the topic into all business processes. REWE and PENNY in Germany, the REWE Group in Austria2, Lekkerland, toom Baumarkt DIY store and DERTOUR Group set strategic priorities depending on the business model.
We exchange ideas with our stakeholders
When implementing our sustainability strategy, we engage in intensive dialogue with our stakeholders such as suppliers, consumers, business partners, politicians, authorities, scientists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), employees, the works council, executives, and independent retailers. Improvements can only be achieved by working together.
To advocate for our perspective, we actively initiate necessary debates at the local, national, and European level through our Public Affairs department.
Our Sustainability Advisory Board
An important organ of our stakeholder dialogue is the Sustainability Advisory Board. It consists of five independent experts and representatives of non-governmental organisations and is involved in the development, evaluation, and implementation of the sustainability strategy at REWE and PENNY in Germany. The Advisory Board continuously scrutinises the sustainability measures of the REWE Group, and is a source of ideas, a co-developer, and communication partner.
Highlights of our stakeholder communication 2023:
- Dialogue forum – A dialogue between our Board of Management members and around 70 stakeholders was held at the REWE Group’s annual political reception in April. In November, around 400 stakeholders took part in a digital format, where transformation researcher Prof Dr Maja Göpel held a speech.
- Establishment of the Competence Centre for Agriculture – In January 2023, we were the first food retailer in Germany to establish our own Competence Centre for Agriculture. We seek to support the transformation of German agriculture through specific projects together with the agricultural sector (see focus topic Animal Welfare).
- German Sustainability Award – We have been a partner of the Stiftung Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis e. V. (German Sustainability Award Foundation) since 2011. At the event in November 2023, we presented and discussed our study on sustainable consumer behaviour in the food retail sector. We published these with the Stiftung Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis e. V. and the market research institute GfK (see focus topic Sustainable Consumption).
We keep an eye out for risks and opportunities
As an international trade and tourism company, we are exposed to various risks. We counter these with our risk management, which also secures opportunities for us. For more information, see the Group Management Report for the business year 2023. We also address climate-related risks and opportunities. These are, for example:
- physical risks such as storms, droughts, or floods, which can have a negative impact on raw material production and thus on costs in the food and beverage sector. They can also threaten our locations and tourism destinations such as islands, coastal regions, or ski resorts.
- transitory risks such as the requirements of the new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the German Climate Protection Act.
We aim to mitigate all of these risks. Additionally, there are also opportunities: by investing in transformation and innovation, we can contribute to greater sustainability, and at the same time offset the expected costs of the negative effects of climate change, for example.
With our Sustainability-Linked Bond Framework, we combine our financial strategy with our sustainability strategy. The focus is on reducing environmentally harmful greenhouse gas emissions at REWE and PENNY in Germany. In 2023, we became the first German food retailer to issue a Sustainability-Linked Bond of 900 million euros on the capital market, the terms of which are directly linked to the achievement of our climate targets.
We take responsibility
As an international trade and tourism company, acting sustainably also means always acting in compliance with the law. Price fixing, the exploitation of market power against suppliers, bribing employees and taking personal advantage can also lead to claims for damages, criminal prosecution, or loss of reputation. Compliance is therefore a basic prerequisite for our sustainable economic success.
We have anchored integrity and fairness in our business transactions and in our treatment with one another as fundamental values in the REWE Group Mission Statement. In our Supplier Code of Conduct , we have defined standards of behaviour that are accountable for all employees working on behalf of the REWE Group.
More information on the risks in the supply chain and legal compliance with the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (LkSG) can be found in the chapter Supply Chain.
Our Compliance Management System (CMS) prevents violations of legal and internal company regulations. We have also created a compliance programme that includes preventative measures such as risk assessments, whistleblower management systems, business partner audits and training on topics such as compliance, antitrust law, and ethics. In 2023, 23,597 (2022: 25,1383) employees were trained.
We listen to your compliance alerts
We have various processes and communication channels for critical requests, concerns, grievances, reports, or hints. We have special grievance mechanisms for the relevant supply chains, in particular for focus raw materials and production sites in analysed risk countries. Also see the Supply Chain and Human Rights focus topic chapters.
- Violations of legal requirements or internal regulations, for example in relation to corruption, can be reported via our group-wide whistleblower system Hintbox (also anonymously), as well as to an external ombudsperson.
- Internally, decentralised Compliance Officers (DCO) and Compliance Delegates are available to employees for compliance issues.
- For information on topics such as respectful behaviour, equal treatment or diversity and equal opportunities, our employees can contact their managers or ombudspersons and the HR department, the Compliance department, the works council, the representatives for people with disabilities and the company’s internal LGBTIQ network “di.to”. There are also special contact persons for cases of discrimination in all sales lines.
In the event of a suspected compliance case, the issue is investigated by Auditing, Market Auditing, external lawyers or the internal compliance organisation, the results and measures are communicated to the Governance & Compliance department and implemented by the operating units. Whistleblowers receive confirmation of the conclusion.
Further links
All topics from “Sustainable corporate governance” are presented in detail in our Sustainability Report 2022.
Further information can be found here: