For the environment, climate and energy savings: REWE abandons paper handouts

Decision saves more than 73,000 tonnes of paper, 70,000 tonnes of CO2 and 380 million kWh of energy annually - scope and price attractiveness of offers remain the same

For the environment, climate and energy savings: REWE abandons paper handouts
© Rewe Group
03.08.2022
Source:  Company news

End of a trading tradition: REWE is the first food retailer in Germany to decide to phase out printed leaflets. The weekly leaflet about the offers in the more than 3,700 REWE stores nationwide is one of the oldest advertising media in the industry and is distributed to many millions of households in Germany. In line with the sustainability and digitalisation strategy of Germany's second-largest food retailer, this will soon come to an end: on 1 July 2023, the printing and distribution of the brochures will be discontinued, and in their place, the advertising of articles via new and familiar media will be significantly expanded. The effect on the environment, climate and the conservation of resources is immense: the changeover will save more than 73,000 tonnes of paper, 70,000 tonnes of CO2, 1.1 million tonnes of water and 380 million kWh of energy per year. The latter has become more important especially before the current discussion about the future security of energy supply in Germany - therefore the implementation of this decision, which has already been made, has now been accelerated.

Contribution to the productive management of the climate and energy crisis
"In the past, REWE has repeatedly demonstrated courage on the basis of its sustainability strategy, questioned the old and consistently introduced more sustainable alternatives. In this respect, REWE was also the first food retailer in Germany to switch all its stores to green electricity back in 2008 or to ban plastic carrier bags from its stores in 2016. Now, with REWE, we are once again industry pioneers who no longer print and distribute handouts. This step not only massively reduces our carbon footprint, it is also another milestone in the context of our climate goals - and at the same time, in times of crisis, a solidarity-based contribution to supporting the challenging security of energy supply in our country for the future," says Lionel Souque, CEO of REWE Group.

NABU has been advising and supporting REWE's sustainability commitment as a neutral and independent body since 2009. Together, the environmental association with the largest membership in Germany and REWE pursue the goal of reducing resource consumption and avoiding waste. NABU was also already involved in the abandonment of the plastic carrier bag in 2016. "Paper production is accompanied by considerable environmental impacts: industrial forestry and massive logging destroy natural ecosystems and CO2 sinks, and environmentally harmful chemicals and large quantities of water and gas are also needed. It is therefore absolutely clear that we have to change something if we want to protect our livelihoods," explains NABU Federal Director Leif Miller. "NABU is glad that REWE is seriously facing up to its responsibility and is leading the way by phasing out the handout. This is an important decision for the good of nature, which we hope many competitors in the food retail sector will follow", says Leif Miller, NABU's Federal Director.

Consistent step for more sustainability and digitalisation
REWE has been consistently committed to sustainability in its corporate strategy for years and is successively and successfully transforming its processes and offers in this sense. Above all, by means of digitalisation - wherever added value is created for customers. This is why REWE has been putting the traditional leaflet to the test for some time. In the course of a successful test, it was decided to replace this energy- and CO2-intensive medium with increased price communication via digital channels and advertisements in classic media. Of course, the more than 200 REWE special offers will continue to be available weekly in the future, only no longer printed, but in an environmentally friendly way on digital channels such as the REWE App, as well as numerous coupons and benefits. Cost savings from the discontinuation of the paper handout will be invested in other media for communicating offers, among other things. In this way, REWE is also making a significant contribution to climate protection by reducing the consumption of resources within the value chain (carbon footprint).

"We are rethinking and repositioning offer communication for the future. Because we want to reach customers of all ages in a more modern and targeted way via those media they actually use," Lionel Souque explains further. "We will, of course, continue to have over 200 attractive special offers for our customers each week as usual. The cost savings achieved by discontinuing the paper handout will be reinvested in other marketing channels as well as in selected sustainability projects such as the NABU Climate Fund. We are pleased that this will massively reduce our CO2 footprint. In doing so, we are making a very important contribution to society."

Decision with great savings potential - for the good of the environment
To date, REWE has around 25 million leaflets distributed every week. More than 73,000 tonnes of paper were produced and printed for this purpose in 2021. Paper production and printing are particularly energy-intensive and are responsible for 90% of the CO2 footprint of leaflets. In this respect, the best advertisement for the acceptance of the decision is the benefit for the environment.

In a first step, REWE will already reduce the circulation of paper handouts by 4 million pieces from the beginning of August 2022.

New communication channels, reliable (price) offers
With increasing digitalisation, the media channels and thus the possibilities to place advertising efficiently and more resource-efficiently have increased. At the same time, media consumption has changed and with it the ways in which purchasing decisions are made. Against this backdrop, there are also opportunities for REWE in marketing to reduce resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in line with its own sustainability and climate goals, and even to increase the visibility of its offers through more frequent and more comprehensive communication. In essence, the handout content is being digitised. The principle, scope, item selection and price attractiveness of the weekly offers remain unchanged. Likewise, the digital version of the handout - at rewe.de/angebote and in the REWE App - will remain. In addition, REWE will increasingly advertise the more than 200 promotional items each week in classic media and support the changeover with an intensive and long-term marketing and sustainability campaign under the motto #umdenkbar. In the REWE supermarkets, promotion price labels on the shelves will continue to provide clearly visible information about which items are reduced in price during the respective week.

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