MAKRO Portugal secures 10-year contract of power supply from renewable energies

MAKRO Portugal has agreed a 10-year contract for electricity supply from renewable energies with the Spanish energy provider ACCIONA ENERGÍA, which secures the company the purchase of 62.5% of its own electricity demands from completely CO₂-free sources at competitive and stable prices. The basis of the electricity purchase is exclusively renewable energies with a focus on photovoltaics. In addition, MAKRO Portugal will install the first refrigeration systems using natural refrigerants, as all wholesale stores are already equipped with charging stations for electric vehicles and the installation of the first photovoltaic system on the roof of the wholesale store in Coimbra will be commissioned shortly.

These measures support METRO's goal to consistently reduce its carbon footprint worldwide and to be completely climate neutral in its own business operations by 2040, what has been recently also extended to its own transport and delivery logistics. At the same time, the company wants to contribute to achieving the global climate protection goals. To this end, METRO will invest a total of more than €1 billion in comprehensive measures to increase energy efficiency, phase out fossil fuels, expand renewable energies and switch to natural refrigerants in cooling. In the financial year 2021/22, METRO has already introduced new refrigeration systems based on natural refrigerants in 15 countries besides Portugal, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Hungary and Romania. In addition, more than 800 charging stations for electric vehicles of customers and employees have already been installed worldwide as well as new photovoltaic roof systems in France, the Netherlands, Hungary and currently in Romania. In addition, more than 10 % of the global fleet of company cars are electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Beyond its global climate protection target, METRO is the first German wholesale company to set itself a recognised science-based target as early as 2019. METRO is committed to reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO₂ emissions by 60% per square metre of sales and delivery space by 2030 compared to 2011 In the financial year 2020/21, METRO was already able to save 34,1% CO₂ worldwide compared to the baseline year 2011 (376 kg CO₂ equivalents per m² net operating area), which is decisive for its climate balance (2020/21: 236 kg CO₂ equivalents per m² net operating area). This target is in line with the savings needed to keep global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels. METRO is also committed to reducing absolute Scope 3 CO₂ emissions from its upstream supply chain by 15% by 2030 compared to 2018.