The global challenges which our society is facing also have an impact on METRO and its segments. After all, providing high-quality products and services to customers all over the world is our core business. The basis for this is an intact environment and the availability of resources as well as disruption-free and socially compliant supply chains.
To anticipate impacts of such challenges at an early stage and to remain capable of sustaining our business, we identify and monitor emerging risks in the field of environmental and social risks and the influence of extreme weather conditions due to climate change as well as macroeconomic, societal and political risks with regards to disruption of supply chains and food supplies but also linked opportunities through our materiality analysis.
Cascading global challenges and emerging risks into efficient handling, METRO’s sustainability management is closely linked to our opportunity and risk management through formalised reporting and assessment of sustainability-related opportunities and risks. This enables the Management Board to systematically identify, evaluate and control deviations from the sustainability goals and the associated opportunities and risks.
Growing global population
Global population growth is one of the biggest challenges as it impacts resource consumption, the climate as well as the food availability and nutrition situation. According to forecasts by the United Nations, approximately 9.7 billion people will live on earth by 2050. In order to meet their needs, agriculture will have to produce nearly 50% more food, animal feed and biofuels in 2050 than in 2012.
Also, with increasing prosperity, eating habits change as well. There will be an increase in the need for meat, for example, a production particularly resource-intensive.