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:
Promote innovations, digital solutions and business models for sustainable development.
Integration of sustainability criteria into innovation management and the "RetailTechHub".
Evaluate and improve environmental and social standards within the supply chain.
Establishment and implementation of a comprehensive management system for socially and environmentally friendly procurement.
Increase the proportion of sustainable products in the assortment.
Establishment of a criteria catalogue for "sustainable products".
Record and reduce environmental and climate impacts.
Reorganization and increasing efficiency of logistics and transport chains as well as calculation of a "carbon footprint".
Reduce the consumption of resources and energy in the stores.
Development and implementation of the "MMS Sustainable Property Guideline" for sustainable building projects.
Optimize product lifecycles and promote environmentally friendly usage.
Development and implementation of sustainability into existing and new services.
Inform customers and society about sustainable products and services and encourage to a responsible consumer behavior.
Consideration of sustainability in brand management and integration of sustainability information into internal and external communication.