Together for more climate protection

We want to make a measurable contribution to mitigate global warming.

Commitment

By joining the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in March 2024, we as REWE Group have committed to science-based climate targets based on the 1.5-degree path of the Paris Agreement.

Objectives

Our goal as a Group is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We focus on drastically reducing emissions in our own activities and in our supply chains (Scope 3), where 98 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions occur.
We are committed to reducing our GHG emissions by 2030 compared to the base year 2021 as follows:

– absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent,

– absolute Scope 3 non-FLAG greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent,¹,

– absolute Scope 3 FLAG greenhouse gas emissions by 30.3 per cent².

We will make our supply chains deforestation- and conversion-free by the end of 2025³.

You can find more information on our objectives and their achievement in our overview of Objectives and KPIs.

Our successes*

What we have already achieved

To achieve our reduction targets, we are pursuing numerous measures, both at corporate level and along our supply chains.

600

With the “Gemeinsam für mehr Klimaschutz” (Together for more climate protection) initiative, we support private label products suppliers in defining SBTi climate targets and implementing reduction measures. In 2024, we asked over 600 suppliers, who are responsible for about 90 per cent of our product-related emissions from private label products, to set climate targets in accordance with SBTi. Of these suppliers, more than 450 them, who are responsible for 87 per cent of our product-related emissions from our private label products, have signed a climate target agreement to set climate targets according to SBTi by the end of 2024.

In 2024, we presented the “Förderprogramm Klimaschutz” (Climate Protection Funding Programme) under the umbrella of the Competence Center for Agriculture. We offer our private label suppliers several million euros in co-financing for projects to reduce GHG emissions in the supply chain.

We are constantly expanding our vegan private label product ranges, which, compared to similar animal products, save emissions during production⁴. We will also make our sales and service packaging⁵ more environmentally friendly by the end of 2030 (see focus topic: Circular Economy).

At the corporate level⁶ we are reducing our consumption of fossil fuels, including district heating, by 20 per cent by 2030 compared to the base year 2019. In 2024, our logistics department tested the use of electric and hydrogen driven lorries, for example in store delivery.

80 %

At the DERTOUR Group, we are working to make emissions from travel transparent. In 2024, we also acquired Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from the Lufthansa Group again as part of a strategic partnership. In 2023, we were the first major organizer to take this step. With SAF made from biogenic residues, carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by about 80 per cent compared to conventional kerosene.

Full wind power ahead

We have been using certified green electricity in our stores, DIY stores, warehouses, and travel offices in Germany and Austria since 2008. We were the first retailer in Germany to conclude a long-term Power Purchase Agreement for an offshore wind farm. From 2026, 1,500 stores in Germany and Austria will be supplied with electricity from the Borkum Riffgrund 3 wind farm.

We are successfully promoting climate protection and decarbonisation through our own initiatives or projects with partners such as NABU. We also combine our financial strategy with our sustainability strategy.

€ 900 million

In 2023, we became the first German food retailer to issue a so-called Sustainability-Linked Bond worth 900 million euros on the capital market, the terms of which are directly linked to the achievement of our climate targets for REWE and PENNY Germany. The first Progress Report on this topic was published in July 2024.

Since 2022, REWE in Germany has been supporting the NABU Climate Fund with at least five million euros annually. By the end of 2024, almost 4,000 hectares of peatland in six European countries had been secured for rewetting. Europe's largest moorland renaturalisation project for former agricultural land is currently underway in the Ahlen-Falkenberger Moor in the Cuxhaven district. More on this subject can be found in the focus topic Sustainable Consumption.

By joining the SBTi in July 2023, REWE and PENNY Germany had already committed to scientifically based reduction targets along the entire value chain. These targets were validated by the SBTi in December 2024.

We more than halved our GHG emissions related to sales areas at the corporate level in Germany and Austria between 2006 and 2021.

At the beginning of 2025, we switched our entire range of soils⁷ to peat-free alternatives. REWE and PENNY already achieved this goal ahead of schedule in 2024.

448

Since 2008, 448 stores (2023: 398) have been created in Germany in accordance with the green building criteria of the German Sustainable Building Council; 183 (2023: 175) are under construction or in planning. In addition, there are now eleven warehouses of this type, with ten more in planning or under construction. toom Baumarkt DIY store has 18 green buildings. In Austria, in 2024 we replaced a more than 30-year-old BILLA store in Vienna-Donaustadt with a modern, climate-resilient new building, which is now the REWE Group's most sustainable store building in Austria. In addition, 42 BILLA stores had Greenpass certification for their climate-resilient construction at the end of 2024. By the end of 2026, we want to add 30 more.

Together with the Berchtesgadener Land dairy, we support PENNY and the “Zukunftsbauer” (future farmer) project with every sale of a Zukunftsbauer product to help farmers make their farms more climate-friendly. From 2021 to 2024, with almost two million euros, we were able to initiate or implement about 700 measures for energy storage, generation, and efficiency improvement on family-run farms in the Alpine region.

Vegan diversity

In Germany, REWE offers over 1,800 purely plant-based private label and branded products.⁸ In Austria, the BILLA and BILLA PLUS product range includes 1,792 purely plant-based private label products.⁹ With its Food for Future private label products, PENNY has created a purely plant-based product range with almost 180 items¹⁰ in its product range.

^* Scope: REWE and PENNY in Germany; deviations are explicitly stated.

¹ Non-FLAG emissions are emissions resulting from purchased goods and services, capital goods, upstream transport and sales, as well as the use of products sold. The target framework also includes land-related emissions and withdrawals from bioenergy feedstocks.

² FLAG emissions are greenhouse gas emissions caused by land use, land use change, forestry and agricultural activities. The target includes FLAG emissions and samplings.

³ For our primary high-risk raw materials such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil and soy in animal feed with cut-off date 01/01/2020. Conversion relates to all valuable ecosystems.

⁴ Scope: REWE and PENNY in Germany and the REWE Group in Austria.

⁵ Scope: Private label products at REWE and PENNY in Germany, toom Baumarkt DIY stores, BILLA, BILLA PLUS, PENNY and ADEG in Austria.

⁶ Scope: REWE Group in Germany. With one change to previous year’s reports: All consolidated companies of the REWE Group that were part of the group in 2024, excluding units that left the group before the financial year.

⁷ Scope: REWE and PENNY in Germany, as well as toom Baumarkt DIY stores.

⁸ Without fruit and vegetables. Change for 2023 reporting from 1,400 to over 1,800 products due to a definition adjustment in our protein strategy.

⁹ A system update allows us to access an improved database, leading to an adjustment and increase of the figures communicated in the previous year.

¹⁰ 78 items listed and about 100 items on offer.

Read our Progress Report 2024 as PDF

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