Dusseldorf Many bakers complain that they are threatened with bankruptcy due to rising energy costs. This is not an issue for Roland Schüren: His bakery in Haan in the Rhineland supplies itself with energy.
As early as 2010, the entrepreneur switched the energy supply for his bakery from gas to using stale bread and pellets. In this way, he was able to halve energy consumption and reduce CO2 emissions in the bakery by 90 percent to just 24 tons a year. A year later, Schüren built the first photovoltaic system on the roof and began to purchase delivery vehicles with electric drives.
“We wanted to show that it is possible to protect the environment despite economic growth,” he says. Meanwhile, his company does not emit any CO2 – apart from a minimal residual value, which Schüren compensates with certificates.
Even if only a few other retailers are climate-neutral, awareness of the importance of climate protection is growing in the industry. It is becoming increasingly clear to many that climate protection is also becoming a matter of survival.
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According to a study by the trade association HDE, 93 percent of companies have implemented at least one energy saving measure in the past five years. “For many retail companies, the high energy costs are a threat to their existence,” says Stefan Genth, Managing Director of the HDE. Many retailers have set themselves the “ambitious goal of climate neutrality”.
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This is also confirmed by Sven Wiechert from the consulting firm Climate Partner, who has insight into numerous industries: “The trade is already very active in terms of climate protection.”
In the meantime, Bäcker Schüren does not emit any CO2 – apart from a minimal residual value, which he offsets with certificates.
(Photo: IMAGO/Cord)
Although very few retailers have their own production, the retail trade in Germany with its more than 500,000 sales outlets is definitely a relevant CO2 emitter. According to calculations by the Fraunhofer Institute, trade consumes 33.3 terawatt hours of energy per year and emits 10.5 million tons of CO2.
Focus on energy management for retailers
In most trading companies, costs have been the driving factor so far, so the focus is primarily on energy management, and with great success.
The food trade has been able to reduce its average electricity consumption per square meter of sales area from 330 to 308 kilowatt hours since 2016, as determined by the retail research institute EHI. The focus was on converting to LED lamps and modernizing the refrigeration technology.
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Many dealers also pay attention to the environment when it comes to heating: 29 percent of the heat energy comes from waste heat from the systems. More and more retailers are relying on solar systems on a large scale. The Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland), for example, wants to have around 5,000 photovoltaic systems installed on its buildings by 2025.
Ikea cuts emissions as sales grow
But even if a number of companies implement energy-saving measures, only a few already have a real climate protection concept. “The pressure to act has increased massively,” warns Claudia Horbert, climate expert at the EHI. “Energy management in retail must change to CO2 management,” she says. “The industry must now make its way to becoming a climate-neutral retail location.”
Thanks to strict climate management, Ikea is now able to significantly reduce its CO2 emissions despite growing sales. The furniture group’s sales grew by 17.9 percent from 2016 to 2021. Greenhouse gas emissions, on the other hand, fell by 6.5 percent over the same period.
The furniture giant is reducing its CO2 emissions with strict climate protection management.
(Photo: mauritius images / L_martinez / )
However, Ikea has the advantage over many other retailers that it manufactures its own products and can therefore ensure that the production processes are more sustainable. Ikea has calculated that around 45 percent of the CO2 emissions come from the materials used and another eleven percent from production.
“Retail is faced with the great challenge of having to take its suppliers with you on the climate protection journey,” warns climate consultant Wiechert. After all, up to 90 percent of the emissions occurred along the upstream and downstream value chain.
Cloud platform helps Henkel with climate protection
Many consumer goods manufacturers have committed themselves to stricter climate protection goals. Persil manufacturer Henkel, for example, wants to reduce CO2 consumption by 65 percent by 2025 compared to 2010. In 2030, the production processes should even be climate-positive and 100 percent of the electricity should be generated from renewable energies.
The Dax group wants to achieve this with a cloud-based data platform that connects the 30 detergent and cleaning agent production locations worldwide in real time. This enables Henkel to see which factories and warehouses use particularly little electricity or water.
Because many processes are similar, this allows conclusions to be drawn about how other locations can make their production more efficient – for example by optimizing their processes or using other machines. Since the start of the project in 2013, Henkel has been able to save more than a quarter of the energy used per tonne of detergent.
For me, sustainability is not a nice extra, it is the foundation of our trade. Marc Oppelt, Chairman of the Otto Divisional Board
Many branded companies are also trying to go green by using more sustainable packaging. The companies design tubes and bottles with less plastic, rely on refill stations – or use recycled plastic.
The family company Werner & Mertz, which is known for its cleaning agent brand “Frosch”, is considered a pioneer in this area. Their packaging already consists of 60 percent recycled plastic.
By 2025, Werner & Mertz wants to use recyclate, i.e. pure, recycled plastic, in all its packaging. From the point of view of the owner Reinhard Schneider, the green revolution can only succeed with a consistent circular economy in which hardly any waste is produced because many materials are recycled.
CO2 emissions at Amazon are increasing again
Beiersdorf is also trying to reduce its emissions through recycling. The manufacturer sees the raw materials and ingredients as a further lever. According to the Dax group, new formulas can save up to 40 percent CO2 for individual products. In spring, for example, Beiersdorf launched a revised Nivea Soft Creme.
Beiersdorf sees further opportunities in the area of logistics. The group is working there on switching freight from trucks to rail. By 2025, Beiersdorf wants to reduce its CO2 emissions by 30 percent compared to 2018. At this point, all raw materials should also come from sustainable sources.
Some large retail companies have also set themselves ambitious climate targets. The Otto Group, for example, wants to be climate-neutral in its business processes by 2030. “For me, sustainability is not a nice extra, it is the foundation of our business,” explains Marc Oppelt, Chairman of the Otto Divisional Board.
A bundle of measures is intended to bring about progress in climate protection. For example, the number of sustainable articles on the otto.de platform is to be doubled to one million within the next three years.
Also by 2025, all shipping packaging should be recycled, biodegradable or reusable. In the future, the partners on the Otto marketplace will also be obliged to disclose key figures on CO2 emissions.
The example of Amazon shows how difficult it is to meet the climate targets in the rapidly growing online trade. The US company, which wants to be climate-neutral by 2040, recently had to admit that its CO2 emissions increased by 18 percent last year.
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