As part of our Sustainability 2023 report, ESM caught up with industry leaders across a host of leading retail and consumer goods firms to discuss their ESG achievements to date, efforts made to tackle Scope 3 emissions, and what the current cost-of-living crisis means for sustainability – both for themselves and their consumer base.
Salome Hofer, Head of Sustainability, Coop Switzerland
Sustainability is firmly anchored in Coop’s core business. Our approach is based on three pillars and ensures that the dimension of sustainability is incorporated into all relevant parts of the company.
Coop recently launched its new comprehensive sustainability strategy, in order to continue to fulfil its responsibility consistently and throughout the group within the framework of the three pillars: sustainable product ranges, environmental and climate protection, and employees and social commitment.
Based on these three pillars, Coop has, for the first time, defined six driving fields for its sustainability commitment and adopted new quantitative multi-year targets until 2026 for the entire Coop Group.
Climate Strategy
One of the greatest challenges in the area of climate protection is the implementation of our ambitious climate strategy, which affects the entire value chain. We are committed to science-based climate targets and have reaffirmed our commitment to effective climate protection by signing [up to] the Science Based Targets initiative. Accordingly, we regularly calculate our CO2e emissions and set ambitious and effective targets in all business areas.
By 2026, we will reduce CO2e emissions by a further 21% in our direct sphere of influence and tackle the reduction of emissions in our supply chains and upstream stages of the value chain. We also attach importance to the careful use of resources – we are striving to become a zero-waste company and close our energy and material cycles whenever possible. We are also consistently reducing our own water consumption.
Coop welcomes cooperation between government and business in the area of sustainability, based on joint voluntary target agreements. Various examples have shown that problems can be tackled effectively and efficiently in this way – for example, the recent industry agreement on plastic bags.
This article first appeared in ESM’s November/December 2022 edition.
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