In order to conserve natural resources and protect and promote biodiversity along our supply chains, we are working on projects to create spaces for biodiversity and restore damaged ecosystems.
To protect biodiversity, we focus on purchasing raw materials according to certified standards such as organic, Rainforest Alliance or Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
We rely on cooperation. With our partner NABU, we support farmers in converting to organic farming with the project “Gemeinsam Boden gut machen” (Making up ground together) (see focus topic Organic and Regionalism) since 2021. Additionally, REWE has been supporting the rewetting of peatlands in Germany with the NABU Climate Fund (see focus topic Climate Protection) – as a habitat for many animal and plant species and as a carbon sink – since 2022.
90000
In our biodiversity project, we work with farmers to increase biodiversity on conventional fruit and vegetable farms – e.g. with flowering strips (see successes). By 2024, over 90,000 (2023: 31,900)2 trees, hedges and shrubs had been planted and more than 27,700 (2023: 22,700) nesting boxes and aids for birds, bats and insects had been installed.
We sell insect-friendly plants at REWE and toom Baumarkt DIY stores that serve as pollen supplier for honey bees, bumblebees and wild bees and nectar plants for butterflies. At the end of 2024, the product range comprised 145 items (2023: 125).
We are reducing the pesticide level in fruit and vegetables, as well as plants at toom Baumarkt DIY store and avoid products containing glyphosate. toom Baumarkt DIY store regularly replaces products based on an external pesticide risk assessment; since 2024, new products have also been assessed using this process. At REWE and PENNY, we are adding 24 additional active ingredients – based on the proposal of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to regulate PFAS as a plant protection product – which we are banning or limiting to a maximum of 25 per cent of the legal maximum values.
We drive the sector forward
We are a founding member of the “Food for Biodiversity” association. This first industry-wide alliance aims to anchor the protection of biodiversity in the food industry right upstream in the value chain.
We have the greatest influence on the protection of biodiversity with our private label products.
18 million
Since 2010, we have created or enhanced 18 million (2023: 15.98 million) square metres of flower strips in Germany with our biodiversity project – the oldest and largest in the German food retail sector.2 The Biodiversity Prize Foundation “Blühendes Österreich” (Austria in Bloom) – which was awarded the prestigious European biodiversity prize Natura Award 2000 in 2022 – has been able to preserve or improve threatened ecosystems and biotopes on over 13 million square meters since it began its activities in 2015, with a further ten million square meters to be added by 2030.
We cooperate with over 540 fruit and vegetable farms to promote biodiversity.
Since 2020, we have been working together with the Polish bird protection society OTOP and farmers in Grojec to increase biodiversity. In Poland's largest apple growing area, flower strips are being planted and insect hotels and bird houses are being set up.
All conventional bananas and pineapples at REWE and PENNY Germany are certified by Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade.3
Since 2015, toom Baumarkt DIY stores have been the first German DIY stores to remove all products containing glyphosate and pesticides that are particularly harmful to bees from its product range. The REWE Group in Austria is constantly working to reduce the pesticide levels in conventional fruit and vegetables. The Pesticide Reduction Programme (PRP), developed jointly with the environmental organization GLOBAL 2000, has been running here since 2003.
Our potting soil is peat-free
Since 2024, we have only been selling peat-free potting soil at REWE and PENNY in Germany, and the same has been true for toom Baumarkt DIY stores since the beginning of 2025.
