As the first retailer in Germany METRO Group presented its carbon footprint and commits itself to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent until 2015.
In its carbon footprint announced, Düsseldorf-based METRO Group published the main CO2 emissions of its business activities.
During the period under review (2006), the company's carbon footprint amounted to 406 kilogrammes of CO2 equivalents per square metre of selling space.
This corresponds to total emissions of 4.15 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. By the year 2015, METRO Group plans to reduce its specific greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent. The carbon footprint was prepared in co-operation with the Öko-Institut Freiburg.
The data survey covered the company's energy consumption, logistics, refrigerant emissions, paper consumption for advertising means as well as business trips of its employees.
Accounting for about two thirds (60 percent) of the company's total CO2 emissions, energy consumption represents METRO Group's largest impact on climate followed by logistics (21 percent) and refrigerant emissions (9 percent).
METRO Group has been successfully implementing measures for climate protection for many years already. These include training staff on energy-saving measures or the deployment of power-saving in-store technologies.
With the installation of sliding covers on its freezer units, an improved capacity utilisation of the company's truckfleet and the use of recycled paper, both the operating costs and also the CO2 emissions have been reduced in recent years.
This commitment is to be intensified. To achieve the planned 15 percent reduction, METRO Group is focusing particularly on measures to save energy, decrease refrigerant evaporation, optimise the bundling of goods flows as well as reduce its paper consumption for advertising.