2010: Comparing targets
What Tchibo has achieved in the past year.
Any company has to continuously assess its progress if it wants to ensure that sustainability becomes a cornerstone upon which all its activities are built. For this reason, Tchibo sets itself new goals every year, goals which we define as clearly as we possibly can. There were quite a few things we wanted to achieve in 2010 – and we managed to do many of them.
At Tchibo, 2010 was all about increasing our commitment to sustainability – upping the share of sustainably grown coffee used for our products, expanding our WE supplier qualification project, augmenting our code of conduct by incorporating important environmental and data protection guidelines. This section contains information about the advances we made in each of the different areas covered by our business activities.
Objective | When | Status | Comments |
Increasing the share of sustainably grown coffee beans in our products
In 2010, we want 10 percent of the unprocessed coffee we buy to come from sustainable sources, and we want to increase the share of unprocessed coffee varieties to 25 percent in 2015. To ensure that we can reach this target, one of our main undertakings in 2010 will be to consolidate sustainability management for our coffee products. | 2010
| partially met | In 2010, we were able to increase the overall proportion of beans grown in line with certification and validation programmes as a source of the unprocessed coffee we use in our products. These programmes are Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, the EU’s environmental directive (Bio) and 4C, and the share of certified coffee rose from 8 percent in 2009 to 9.6 percent. We are working towards a complete changeover from conventionally to sustainably produced coffee. In aiming for this ambitious target, we want to achieve the first milestone in 2015. We are also defining annual partial goals to be reached in the meantime.
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Objective | When
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Analysing WE’s effectiveness
After completing all activities, we will conduct a review of the overall process as part of a final, independent analysis to gauge how effective it is. | By mid-2010 | fully met | The effectiveness of dialogue was assessed as part of an external analysis. Our intentions were confirmed: attempts to foster dialogue and communication structures at plants have a direct link with improved working conditions. The external analysis also identified positive effects on economic data used as assessment factors, such as staff fluctuation levels and productivity.
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Validating the WE analysis
We will task Social Accountability International (SAI) with checking the methodology and the techniques used for analysing the effectiveness of the WE project. This will form a starting point for us to make any changes that might be necessary if we expand the project by including other suppliers. | Q4 2010 | not yet met | The priorities were altered so we could plan to expand the WE project in our supplier portfolio instead.
SAI will carry out validation in 2012 at the latest. |
Turning the WE project into a company cornerstone
Even when the three-year pilot phase is finished, the WE project should still contribute to making our supply chain more sustainable around the world. We will therefore add modules that focus on the environment and on productivity, and we will expand the programme to incorporate other production sites in our supply chain. We have also set ourselves the goal of creating an international platform for the WE project. This “social business” will be available to other international retail companies. | End of 2010 | fully met | We successfully completed the pilot phase of the WE project for qualifying suppliers which operate production sites in China, Bangladesh and Thailand. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the measures was ascertained at the 40 production sites included in the programme. Once the pilot phase ended, the “proper” WE project started and included 40 production sites in China and Bangladesh. We developed and integrated modules with environmental and productivity-related objectives. Tchibo and GIZ are in negotiations with interested retail companies about creating a collective project platform. |
Extending membership
We are involved in scores of business and sustainability initiatives, such as the MFA Forum Bangladesh Buyers Group, Runder Tisch Verhaltenskodizes, Social Accountability International (SAI), Global Compact and ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative). We will remain members of these programmes, take part in regular consultations and play an active role in the working groups. | 2010, continuous | fully met | The MFA Forum Bangladesh Buyers Group has completed its mission and been formally wound up.
We have extended our membership in the following organisations: Runder Tisch Verhaltenskodizes, Social Accountability International (SAI), Global Compact and ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative).
As ETI members, we have been taking part in lots of working groups, e.g. in the China Forum, Good Workplaces Programme and Living Wage Programme.
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Formalising the stakeholder dialogue
We want to develop a database that will assist our dialogue with our stakeholders. We also plan to hold a range of events for different stakeholder groups in Germany. | 2010, continuous | partially met | We have continued our dialogue with our social stakeholders. A key stakeholder event about the WE project took place in Thailand. Another event was held in Germany for employees and managers from the countries where the project is running. Some of Tchibo’s purchasers were among the participants, as were representatives from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), NGOs, trade unions, other retail companies, and associations.
We are currently working on developing the database.
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Environmental guidelines
We will augment the existing environmental guidelines that our purchasing department uses when acquiring goods and services. | End of 2010 | partially met | Due to staff-related changes in this unit, only the processes saw some further development. We plan to augment the guidelines for the end of 2011 and start of 2012. |
Objective | When
| Status | Comment |
Make handling complaints management more systematic
imug Beratungsgesellschaft für sozial-ökologische Innovationen mbH will review our complaints management system every year, looking at how close it is to customers and at its performance.
| End of 2010 | fully met | imug has performed its review: 2010 saw a further improvement in the quality of our work in handling customers’ issues. In particular, we improved our content-related advice regarding complaints to the company’s management. There was also a demonstrable improvement in the handling of questions regarding Cafissimo: these questions are fielded by our service team (created in 2010).
We plan to have imug conduct this review every year.
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Developing and marketing sustainable products
We will continue to drive the development and marketing of sustainable products. Our target for “Cotton made in Africa”: sale of 2.9 units. | End of 2010 | fully met | The seals of the standards organisations that Tchibo cooperates with play a particularly significant role in marketing sustainable coffee. The menu boards at our outlets’ serving areas provide customers with clear information about our dedication to sustainability: the menus display the range and prices of the drinks that are on sale.
We put together our first weekly range of sustainable (energy- and resource-friendly) consumer goods. In 2010, a total of 3.39 million units made from sustainably produced cloth (“Cotton made in Africa” and organic cotton) were on sale.
In 2010, validated and certified coffee accounted for 9.6 percent of the overall raw coffee we used.
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Communicating our sustainability-related activities
We will create a customer brochure about the issue of sustainability.
| 2010 | fully met | The customer brochure about our corporate responsibility provided our customers with in-depth information. We also saw to it that customers received further information about sustainability-related issues as part of our “We help you save money” campaign.
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Fulfilling data protection guidelines
We will conduct maintenance work and further development for our data protection management system. | 2010 | fully met | We developed and implemented a holistic data protection management system. We also revised our code of conduct and added information about the issue of data protection.
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Objective | When | Status | Comments |
Adding environmental guidelines to the code of conduct
We will add environmental guidelines to the Tchibo Code of Conduct, which is binding for all of our staff. These guidelines will provide further information on instructions laid out for our employees in our code of conduct regarding environmental awareness. We plan to communicate the revised code of conduct internally during the second half of 2010. | End of 2010 | fully met | We informed our staff about the revised code of conduct at the end of September 2010.
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Environmental guidelines for purchasing consumer goods
We will develop a criteria catalogue for our product designers and quality management: the catalogue will display the potential new products have regarding their environmental qualities. We will also press ahead with the continued integration of ecological criteria with Tchibo’s quality standards. | End of 2010, continuou | fully met | We produced guidelines for other product groups, e.g. mixtures such as aromatic oils and detergents, in 2010. We revised guidelines for existing product groups, e.g. wood, cotton, down and feathers. |
Climate protection and business trips
We will step up the replacement of our sales reps’ car fleet with fuel-efficient vehicles (including VW BlueMotion). By the end of 2011, we want to reduce the fleet’s total average emissions values below the EU’s 2012 targets of 130 g/km.
| End of 2011 | partially met | We continued our work, begun in 2008, on replacing our sales reps’ car fleet with low-consumption vehicles from VW’s BlueMotion series and Audi. We have also acquired our first hybrid vehicles, and we agreed to take part in a regional electromobility project in Hamburg in 2011 using two electric smarts.
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View of product lifecycles
We will expand our holistic approach to product lifecycles, in particular regarding products’ carbon footprints (PCF), by incorporating our product range and communications activities. | End of 2010 | fully met | We have conducted environmental assessments and analyses of lifecycles in selected product groups.
Example: Cafissimo’s deactivation time was shortened from 120 to 7 minutes, and the associated energy savings were communicated on the packaging.
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Energy monitoring systems
We will start establishing company-wide energy monitoring systems.
| End of 2010 | fully met | We got off to a good start in 2010: our first move was to draw up monitoring concepts for our head office in Hamburg’s City Nord district, our Hamburg roasting house and our warehouse in Gallin.
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Sustainable paper and wood
We will increase the share of sustainably produced wood and paper we use, e.g. in our products, packaging and communication.
| End of 2010 | fully met | All of the tropical and boreal wood we use is certified by FSC®, and all other types of wood meet our FTS standard. In 2010, approximately 44 percent of the paper used at our German offices, branches and depots used recycled or FSC®-certified paper. |
Cotton
We will expand our range of products that use “Cotton made in Africa” (GLOSSARY) and organic cotton. | End of 2010 | fully met | In 2010, a total of 3.39 million units made from sustainably produced cloth (“Cotton made in Africa” and organic cotton) were on sale. This represents just a minor increase over 2009’s figure (3.3 million units), but was achieved in a difficult market environment. |
Climate protection and transportation
By 2015, we will cut transport-related CO2 emissions by a total of 30 percent of the baseline figure from 2006. | End of 2015, continuing | partially met | We reduced CO2 emissions by increasing the amount of freight transported by ship, and the figure fell by 26 percent in 2010. We confirmed our objective of reaching a 30 percent reduction by 2015.
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Objective | When | Status | Comments |
Social programmes for our staff
Our prime objective in a difficult market is and will remain retaining as much as we can of our range of voluntary social programmes. If it becomes necessary to implement any cutbacks, we will ensure that we have trust and backing of our staff. Honest and transparent communication will play a particularly important role in achieving this. | 2010, continuous | fully met | We were able to maintain our voluntary social programmes in 2010.
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Staff satisfaction
In 2010, we are planning to take part in the employee survey “Germany’s best employer” again. It is run by the Great Place to Work institute. | End of 2010 | fully met | We took part in 2010’s employee survey by Great Place to Work. Tchibo came in 97th place, which meant we were once more able to call ourselves “Germany’s best employer” in 2011. |
Strengthening our corporate culture
We want to create a range of seminars that will strengthen our corporate culture by explaining our business model and bringing it to life for people. We will also hold courses covering the following issues for managers:
| 2010 | fully met | We created the concepts for the seminars and made the seminars available to staff. |
Career and family
We support working parents. We want to send a clear signal to all current and future employees at Tchibo, so we will obtain a certificate as a family-friendly company in 2010. The auditor berufundfamilie gGmbH will support us. | 2010/ 2011 | fully met | berufundfamilie gGmbH undertook the certification process in 2010. An action plan was drawn up and we implemented the measures laid out for the first year at the start of 2011.
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Employee participation and social responsibility
We will revise the agreement regarding our company’s retirement programme to bring it into line with a retirement age of 67. | 2010, postponed until 2011 | not yet met | The corporate retirement programme will be extensively revised in 2011 and factor in more than just the increase of the retirement age to 67 in Germany. |
Workplace safety
We had already planned to draw up an extensive workplace safety management concept for 2009, incorporating risk evaluation and helping us to take safety aspects into account for planning, development and procurement. We will continue to work on achieving this goal in 2010. | End of 2010 | not yet met | Our occupational safety management concept has not been completed. The occupational safety handbook and training for the executives will be key components of this concept at our City Nord location. Communicating our City Nord location’s occupational safety policy and occupational safety handbook in 2011 will help to emphasise how important and useful occupational safety, that is workplace safety and health management, really is, supporting executives in further integrating the concept into their work. |
Objective | When | Status | Comments |
Completing the ICP sourcing projects
We will continue with all of the projects started/running as part of ICP in 2009.
| End of 2010, continuous | fully met | In 2010, a total of six projects for implementing the changeover from conventional to sustainable coffee growing were implemented in the following countries.
Brazil (runs until 2012), Guatemala (until 2014), El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras (until 2014), Tanzania (until 2014).
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Education projects
(1) We will start an education project for the children of “Cotton made in Africa” farmers in Benin, central Africa. The project will probably start in the second quarter of 2010. | (1) 2010-2013, continuous | partially met
| (1) A project to fund the school infrastructure in six areas in Benin (central Africa) cotton is grown as part of the “Cotton made in Africa” project. The cornerstone was laid for the first of the planned seven schools. Tchibo’s partners in the project are DEG, the Aid by Trade Foundation, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and local organisations. |
(2) We will finish the second phase of our “San Juan” school project in Colombia (construction of a school canteen) as part of the “Fairer Genuss” Eduscho cooperation programme. | (2) 2010 | fully met | (2) The school canteen was built. The project was wound up in 2010.
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Social issues day
We will participate in the “social issues day” organised by the aid foundation Schüler Helfen Leben. | June 2010 | fully met | 19 school-goers took part in the social issues day at Tchibo.
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