Aliging Profit with Purpose - Global Goals Yearbook 2019

We leverage the power of communities
and partnerships
We encourage others to act sustainably
by assuming responsibility ourselves
and by inspiring customers and partners
with our new ways of thinking. This
makes us an attractive employer for
(future) employees. It also makes us a
trustworthy partner for our customers,
business partners, and representatives
from the fields of politics, science, and
associations. International networks
and platforms such as the Consumer
Goods Forum show how the power of
communities can have a great impact on
a global scale. However, the very same
is true on a local level: In Bulgaria, for
example, METRO partners up with local
farmers and promotes their products
under the label of “nurtured with care in
Bulgaria.” This triple-win cooperation –
supplier, customer, and METRO – above
all strengthens the local economy and
shows how METRO plays a role in local
communities while promoting Goal 17
– partnerships for the goals.
Cross-company commitment…
… or how to make everyone – from board
member to store employee – work toward
our sustainability ambitions. Along
our sustainability journey, we are convinced
that good ideas are implemented
well when put into practice with passion,
but passion cannot be ordered. That is
why knowing our strategy is only part of
the success, whereas celebrating its implementation
is the game changer. To this
end, on June 18 every year, we celebrate
METRO Sustainable Day, which is also
the UN Sustainable Gastronomy Day. In
our eyes it is a perfect match because
there are millions of independent entrepreneurs
among our customers, many
of whom work in the gastronomy sector.
Furthermore, with our internal METRO
Sustainable Leadership Program, we offer
a 1.5 year training program that empowers
(future) METRO leaders worldwide
to develop their leadership skills. At
the same time, these leaders are driving
individual sustainability projects
that reach from extending the standard
choice of work phones with “fair” phones
at Düsseldorf headquarters to offering
free-range eggs in Pakistan to mental
health programs for employees in Turkey,
among other examples. Bringing together
our METRO AG board members, operating
partners, and top-level decisionmakers
into a high-level workshop was
another milestone in early 2019. The
purpose was to fill METRO’s sustainability
strategy with life and work toward
the accountability of each employee.
However, ideas in sustainability do not
always require workshops. In 2018, an
internal task force – the #METROPlasticFighters
– grew from within the company
to promote plastic waste avoidance.
Since 2014 a multinational team has
been working on a packaging optimization
process based on the Reduce, Reuse,
Recycle approach. By the end of 2018,
more than 12,000 articles had undergone
a review process, and more than 400 tons
of packaging material had been saved.
Plastic pollution in the oceans is becoming
an overwhelming challenge for the
global community. The #METROPlasticFighters
focused on information and
action while acknowledging the multiplication
effect of METRO’s 150,000
employees. To this end, tangible actions
such as cleanup days were conducted in
various countries where METRO operates.
In addition, for takeaway food, we
have banned all conventional disposable
plastics from METRO’s two company
restaurants. We promote reusable boxes
instead, or at least more sustainable disposable
alternatives, for example from
sugar cane bagasse. Half of the €0.50
sustainability fee charged for the remaining
disposable items is then donated to
Germany’s Ocean Cleanup Project, the
“Pacific Garbage Screening.” The idea,
developed by the Aachen-based architect
Marcella Hansch, is to rid the seas
and rivers of plastics as well as to fight
against further pollution of the oceans
through environmental education and
public relations work.
The #METROPlasticFighters community
has grown rapidly over the past year. A
newly established sustainability network
for METRO subsidiaries shows that
change begins from within. It also proves
that, in the end, it is all about people.
People are at the heart of our business
and at the heart of every change that
needs to happen to meet the Sustainable
Development Goals by 2030. Only people
can secure the health of this planet.
Only people can ensure that prosperity
becomes an inclusive, universal right
in a world that is currently developing
so unequally. Only when people work
together in intense, challenging, trusting,
and focused partnerships we can create
a world where the SDGs are no longer
an objective but a reality.
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