METRO signs climate partnership with city of Düsseldorf

METRO has signed a climate partnership with the city of Düsseldorf, according to which the company wants to make an active contribution to Düsseldorf achieving climate neutrality in 2035. METRO is part of the cooperation network "Düsseldorf Climate Pact with Business", which, under the leadership of the state capital and the initial partners IHK (Chamber of Industry and Commerce), Handwerkskammer (Chamber of Crafts) and Kreishandwerkerschaft (District Chamber of Crafts), aims to develop measures for a more climate-friendly future as well as for reducing energy consumption and decarbonising the unavoidable energy consumption of the participating companies. The focus here is particularly on the exchange of technical experience between the participating players. At the same time, METRO has set itself the goal with the "Green Campus" project of making the METRO Campus climate-neutral by 2025 by consistently reducing energy consumption, switching to renewable energies and offsetting the remaining CO₂ footprint, as well as launching further initiatives for local environmental and climate protection.

"Through the climate partnership with the city of Düsseldorf, we want to publicly emphasise the importance of climate and environmental protection for METRO. We want to actively engage in more climate and environmental protection at our corporate headquarters and invite our employees to join in. And we are happy if we can motivate other companies in the city to participate in the Climate Pact", says Ivonne Julitta Bollow, SVP Corporate Responsibility & Public Policy METRO AG. "Moreover, I am proud of the fact that we want to make our corporate headquarters climate-neutral already by 2025 and that we are initiating a variety of other local sustainability projects within the framework of 'Green Campus'."

Core measures of the "Green Campus" project include energy consumption reduction, especially through the comprehensive conversion to LED lighting, the expansion of the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, the improvement of employee commuting through public transport and jobbike services, the strengthening of local environmental protection and biodiversity measures such as waste separation and largely paperless offices, as well as the offer of more sustainable meals in the canteen. Furthermore, the purchase of emission-free renewable energies is to be consistently expanded. In addition, an "Employee Awareness Campaign" was launched at the Düsseldorf campus to raise employee awareness and generate further ideas for energy and emissions reduction.

Group target: Climate neutrality by 2040

Climate and environmental protection is a high priority throughout METRO. In 2021, the company has set itself the goals of consistently reducing its CO2 footprint worldwide and of being completely climate-neutral in its own business operations by 2040, which has recently also been extended to its own transport and delivery logistics. At the same time, the company is committed to making a contribution to achieving the global climate protec-tion goals. To this end, METRO will invest a total of more than 1 billion eu-ros in comprehensive measures to increase energy efficiency, phase out fossil fuels, expand renewable energies and switch to natural refrigerants for cooling in store operations.

Background information on the Düsseldorf Climate Pact
In July 2019, the council of the state capital Düsseldorf decided to achieve climate neutrality for Düsseldorf in 2035. The city-wide CO₂ emissions are to be an average of two tonnes per capita and year from 2035. Against this background, the state capital Düsseldorf and its initial partners, the Düsseldorf Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK), the Düsseldorf Chamber of Skilled Crafts (HWK) and the Düsseldorf District Guild of Craftsmen (Kreishandwerkerschaft), have concluded the "Düsseldorf Climate Pact with Business" to jointly support companies on their way to climate neutrality. Currently, 30 companies are already involved as climate partners and the state capital Düsseldorf and the initial partners invite other Düsseldorf companies to join the climate pact. Further information on the climate pact and the climate protection agreement for joining as a climate partner can be found here: klimapakt-duesseldorf.de

METRO is a leading international food wholesaler, which specialises in serving the needs of hotels, restaurants, and caterers (HoReCa) as well as independent merchants (Traders). Around the world, METRO has some 17 million customers who benefit from the wholesale company’s unique multichannel mix: customers can purchase their goods in one of the large stores in their area as well as by delivery (Food Service Distribution, FSD) – all digitally supported and connected. In parallel, METRO MARKETS is being developed as an international online marketplace for the needs of professional customers, which has been growing and expanding continuously since 2019. Acting sustainably is one of the company principles of METRO, which has been listed in various sustainability indices and rankings for many years, including FTSE4Good, MSCI, CDP and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. METRO operates in more than 30 countries and employs over 95,000 people worldwide. In financial year 2020/21, METRO generated sales of €24.8 billion. More information can be found at MPULSE.de, our online magazine.