Commitments, positions and targets

METRO wants to reduce food waste in our own operations by 50% per cent by 2025.

We have committed to achieving this in a resolution of the Consumer Goods Forum. We are currently working on an update of the target.

METRO’s approach to Conscious Proteins has three streams:

1. Sustainable sourcing: Conscious proteins must be sourced responsibly which includes following established practices determined by our existing policies and commitments on sustainable sourcing
2. Marketing and creating customer awareness: we will promote conscious proteins in a responsible way
3. Eating (our customers’ plate and menu): we will help our customers understand what they can do to create plates with conscious proteins in the context of their locality and culture.

Less of sugar and salt:

• METRO-wide reduction of min. 5% sugar/salt content in at least 60 common sourced products and 1000 locally products by December 2021

Free from:

• Trans fat: Not above 2g of trans fat per 100g of fat, other than transfat naturally occurring by April 2021
• Flavour enhancer: Avoid monosodium glutamate (MSG, E621) on selected OB products by December 2021
• Azo food colours: Replace Tartrazine E102, Quinoline yellow E104, Sunset yellow E110, Carmoisine E122, Ponceau 4R E124 and Allura red E129 in OB common sourced products and preferably in all OB products and especially OB mainstream products by December 2021
• Preservatives: Find opportunities to lower the content or avoid Potassium Nitrite E249, Sodium Nitrite E250, Sodium Nitrate E251 and Potassium nitrate E252 in OB mainstream products by December 2021
• Other additives (Preservatives, Nanoparticles, Caramel, Modified starch, others): Reducing number of additives following the Benchmark testing results and making efforts toward the “Clean Label” products whenever and as much as possible by December 2021

Soy as an ingredient (Tier 1 soy) in product with over 95% soy ingredient.
e.g.: edamame beans, miso soup, miso paste, soybean oil, soy nuts, soy sauce, tofu, and Soy in animal feed (Tier 2 soy) must be certified by end 2025 with certification scheme by:

1. Round Table for Responsible Soy (RTRS Credits or RTRS Certified) or
2. ProTerra certification scheme or
3. Any of the FEFAC approved certification schemes

Environmental:

• 100% of own-brand products made from wood or wood fibre in accordance with the scope originate from legal and responsibly managed forests by 2020
• For those countries, where the market is still challenging to meet the above mentioned target year a prolongation to 2023 applies

For assessing compliance the following shall apply:

• Products made from recycled wood or fibre are considered to be sustainable for the purpose of this policy; on top they can be certified according to ISO 14024:2018 type I label
• Products made from virgin fibre must be certified in accordance to one of the third-party forest certification schemes
  • FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or
  • PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes)

Social:

By 2020 METRO aims within our Own Brand (Private Label) supply chain for 100% of paper and wood products:

• All processing factories have to be audited or certified against one of the accepted social audits or certification following the requirements of the METRO Policy for Social Compliance.

METRO aims to improve its assortment towards higher animal health and welfare standards by achieving the following targets:

• 100% Transparency of livestock origin (country of farm & slaughtering)
• 100% Exclusion of preventive usage of antibiotics and growth promotors
• 100% Exclusion of cloned animals or genetically modified animals
• 100% Exclusion of routine mutilation practice such as, castration, tail docking, teeth clipping, tooth clipping beak trimming, fin clipping
• 100% Exclusion of cage eggs from supply chain in accordance to Cage Free Egg Procurement Policy
• 100% humanely stunning of animals prior to slaughtering
• Avoidance of long distance traveling wherever possible and ensure animal live transportation to a minimum

METRO has set itself three fish and seafood targets:

Environmental:

90% of our top twelve species will by 2025 either:

• Be certified according to one of the accepted certification standards or
• Be engaged in a credible comprehensive Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) or in an Aquaculture Improvement Project (AIP) that is in progress towards certification and with the clear target to achieve certification within a reasonable timeframe or
• Be engaged with a third-party audit or a local certification scheme with reliable criteria.

Social:

By 2025 METRO aims for 100 % of species to be audited or certified against one of the accepted social audits/certifications following the requirements of the METRO Policy for Social Compliance.

Currently this is valid only for land-based processing factories as well as land-based and at-sea aquaculture. Regarding at-sea operations METRO will accept any certification standard that has been recognized by a fish- and seafood-specific social benchmark tool, which will be developed.

Traceability:

By 2030 all products have to be digitally traceable and have to meet key data elements of the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) standard.

Additionally, the scientific and common names of species as well as the FAO catching area (wild catch) or name of the body of water (inland fishing) or the country of aquaculture have to be visible on products.

METRO is committed to sourcing 100% cage free shell eggs and to implement a 100% cage free liquid egg product assortment:

• by the end of 2022 in West and South Europe (DE|AT|IT|PT|ES|BE|NL|FR)
• by the end of 2025 in East Europe (HU|HR|RS|PL|CZ/SK|RO|TR|BG) plus UA and RU
• by the end of 2027 in remaining markets, such as IN|CN|PK|JP, in which the sourcing of cage-free eggs is currently challenging, so we are working together with the industry to solve the issue.

Target: Socially compliant supply chains for all risky own brand producers by 2030.

This includes non-food, near-food and food producers of all tiers that bear a risk in their production facilities with regards to potential Human Rights violations.

The social compliance can be proven by a valid audit against one of METROs accepted social audit schemes.

Target: 100% Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)/Polyvinylidene chloride (PVdC) phase out in own brand products packaging on all packaging levels (primary, secondary and tertiary) by 2023, baseline 2014

Target: 100% Expanded polystyrene (EPS) phase out in own brand products packaging on all packaging levels (primary, secondary and tertiary) by 2023, baseline 2018

Target: 100% Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®)/Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC) certification for all paper, paperboard, cardboard and wood own brand products packaging on primary and secondary packaging level by 2023, baseline 2018

Target: 300 t plastic reduction in own brand products conventional plastic packaging by 2023, compared to baseline 1 October 2018

By 2025, we will empower our customers’ businesses to move into a future without conventional single use plastic and increase resource efficiency by:

• Providing reusable, recyclable and compostable alternatives
• Supporting our customers in this phase out and
• Advocating for the movement towards a circular economy regarding plastic

Reduction of scope 1 and scope 2 CO2 emissions by 60% per square metre selling and delivery space by 2030 compared to 2011.

And reduction of absolute scope 3 CO2 emissions (supply chain) by 15% by 2030 compared to 2018.

Expansion of charging infrastructure, including the parking lots of local METRO stores to 1,000 charging points till 2030.

Promotion of electric mobility in METRO’s own fleet of vehicles to reach nearly 100% availability of electrical or high-quality hybrid vehicles by 2030.

25% of employees on the 1st management level below the Management Board and 40% of employees on the 2nd management level below the Management Board of METRO AG to be women by September 2025.

By September 2025, 30% of managerial positions on levels 1–3 (including store managers) of METRO Wholesale locations worldwide to be filled by women.