Aldi Nord has announced new climate goals and shared a detailed overview of its sustainability initiatives in its recently published 2021 Sustainability Report.
The retailer added that it will focus mainly on the topic of climate protection.
Sustainability Report 2021
Aldi Nord is pressing ahead with its sustainability efforts despite the ongoing challenges of inflation, war and the after-effects of COVID-19.
In doing so, the discounter is pursuing the goal of enabling sustainable consumption for all customers at the lowest possible price.
The group has made progress in the area of climate protection by exceeding its planned greenhouse emission reduction target, achieving reductions of 50%, above its original target of 40%.
The modernisation of stores and logistics centres using state-of-the-art cooling and heating technology, as well as the expansion of photovoltaic systems, have made a decisive contribution to this.
In Germany, Aldi Nord now also obtains 100% of its electricity from renewable energies.
The new climate targets build on these efforts, with the group aiming to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by a further 55% by 2030 from the base year of 2020.
"With our new climate target, we are clearly committed to the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Nord Agreement," said Timo Dietz, managing director of corporate responsibility and quality assurance international at Aldi Nord.
"In addition, we have committed our strategically most important suppliers to also adopt science-based climate targets by 2024. Upstream emissions in the supply chain typically account for a large share of total retail emissions."
Aldi Nord Animal Welfare Initiatives
Aldi Nord is also focusing on sustainability in its product range to enable its customers to shop easily with a clear conscience.
The discounter plans to upgrade to animal-friendly husbandry levels 3 and 4 by 2030 for fresh meat and drinking milk.
The group has already made important progress in animal welfare by offering German customers eggs only from farms where male chicks are not culled.
Human Rights
In the new report, Aldi Nord also focused on the protection of human rights.
In order to continuously develop its own approach, an international position paper on living wages and incomes was published in May 2021, among others.
The discounter has pledged to implement measures across its own supply chains to ensure a decent standard of living.
Part of this commitment is cooperation with the GIZ working group of the German retail sector, in which the calculation of income and wage gaps in the banana sector as well as the implementation of sustainable procurement practices to close wage gaps are being driven forward across all sectors.
By collaborating with Tony's Open Chain, an industry-led initiative that helps chocolate brands transform their cocoa supply chains, fair and long-term partnerships with cocoa farmers in the growing countries can be guaranteed, the retailer added.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Conor Farrelly. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
