METRO aims to be climate-neutral by 2040

METRO is among the first signatories of the Code of Conduct, which unites European stakeholders along the supply chain on a common path to a sustainable food economy. The international wholesale specialist tight its climate target and aims to make its global business operations climate-neutral by 2040. To achieve this, METRO plans to invest around €1.5 billion, mainly in the renewal of energy, refrigeration, and heating infrastructure.

According to METRO’s tightened target, its global business operations will become climate-neutral by 2040, largely thanks to its efforts. The core measures comprise:

• Energy saving
• CO2 emissions 
• Food waste
• Phasing-out fossil heat

In the financial year 2018/19, METRO also extended its climate target to the supply chain and became the first German retail company to set a recognized science-based target.

METRO’s climate target covers the areas of energy, heating, cooling, paper consumption, company car fleet, and business trips. METRO has committed to working with its suppliers to reduce emissions in these upstream processes by 15 % between 2018 and 2030.  In light of this, in 2020 alone, 120 suppliers provided climate disclosures as part of the ‘CDP Supply Chain Programme Climate,’ which records suppliers’ greenhouse gas emissions.

An impact assessment conducted by METRO compared the economic, ecological, and social effects of its growing food service distribution (FSD) business with those of its stationery business. This assessment found that direct delivery saves customers time, avoids cold chain interruption, and enables transport routes to be efficiently combined – this reduces CO2 emissions and avoids food waste.