To remain successful in the long term, we have to and also want to reconcile our activities along the value chain with the ecological, social and legal parameters. Together with MediaMarktSaturn as the core of our business activities we decided to shape and influence responsible and sustainable business. CECONOMY is also a role model for the entire industry.
Our business activities have a bearing on five SDGs in particular, these form the framework for and the basis of our strategic sustainability approach. The relevant SDGs for us were clarified in our own guiding principles. We are working permanently on these principles because we know: There is still a lot to be done!
As an employer with about 65,000 employees group wide, we see it as our duty to offer them a safe and attractive workplace. We additionally see to it that environmental and social standards are observed and promoted by our suppliers too. We make sure our growth is sustainable and also contributes to the local economy.
Promoting innovations and new business models is one of our core competencies. Crucial transformation processes are initiated in particular through digitisation. This also offers us entirely new potential for solving the challenges of today and tomorrow – for example, using innovations to play our part in reducing resource and energy consumption and to create a sustainable value chain.
As the leading European platform in the field of consumer electronics, it is our duty to create added value for the consumers while also developing solutions to ecological and societal challenges. With around 6.2 million customer contacts per day, we are able and willing to shape the market for sustainable solutions in our business sector. We take our stakeholders’ expectations, wishes and needs seriously and support our customers in making their consumer behaviour responsible and sustainable.
Our business activities as a retail company cause harmful carbon emissions, for example in the areas of logistics and shipping. We have a responsibility to reduce the negative impact we have on the climate as far as possible and also to exert our influence outside of the company.
Many of the challenges relating to sustainability are complex and affect all sorts of industry players throughout the value chain. We therefore concentrate on close partnerships with our stakeholders so that we can jointly develop practicable and high-impact solutions. We bring the various industry players together in order to jointly work on sustainable solutions for our industry and our stakeholders.
We developed our sustainability approach together with our largest subsidiary, the MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group (MMSRG), and linked it to our core business. In this approach, we focus on seven key strategic areas which are closely tied to the MMSRG value chain and which contribute to the five SDGs mentioned and our sustainability guiding principles:
Promoting innovations, digital solutions and business models for sustainable development
Integration of sustainability criteria in innovation management and the "RetailTechHub"
Integration of sustainability as an additional criterion for the selection of start-ups to be supported | Retailtech Hub selection process with an explicit focus on sustainable innovations
Evaluating and improving environmental and social standards in the supply chain
Establishment and implementation of a comprehensive management system for socially and environmentally responsible procurement
Avoidance of unnecessary transportation packaging for own-brand products | Adoption of the MMSRG Human Rights Policy
Promoting sustainable products in the product range
Establishment of a list of criteria and corresponding product labelling
Eleven own-brand models from the TV range meet the EcoTopTen criteria of Öko-Institut e.V. | Introduction of the "Alles im grünen Bereich" product label in the German MediaMarkt online shop
Recording and reducing the environmental and climate impact
Reorganisation and increase in efficiency of logistics and transportation chains, as well as carbon accounting
Recording of the greenhouse gas emissions expanded to include upstream and downstream activities | Implementation of a pilot project to record CO2-emissions in logistics at Media-Saturn Deutschland
Reducing consumption of energy and resources in stores
Development and implementation of the "MMS Sustainable Property Guideline" for sustainable construction projects
Opening the first LEED-certified store in Italy (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) | Preparation of a new energy saving goal
Optimising product life cycles and supporting environmentally friendly use
Development and implementation of sustainable service plans and services
Completed rollout of Smartbars in every store (total of 700,000 repairs in the year 2018/19) | Pilot projects with recycling machines for mobile phones at MediaMarkt and Saturn
Informing customers and society about sustainable products and services and encouraging responsible consumer behavior
Incorporation of sustainability in brand management and inclusion of sustainability information in internal and external communication
Incorporation of sustainability aspects in the revision of MediaMarkt's brand image | Expansion of the guidance system for sustainability in the online shops of both sales lines
Follow this link to see the separate non-financial Group Report including our strategic sustainability approach.
Please address requests concerning sustainability at MediaMarktSaturn to sustainability_at_mediamarktsaturn.com.