Looking back at our progress
The work Tchibo has done itself to develop its corporate responsibility activities.
From the introduction of a binding social code of conduct for our suppliers to the inclusion of green energy products in our product range, we have made good progress over the past few years with our plans to establish a environmentally and socially responsible business model. This document outlines a summary of the most important developments and milestones in this story.
Looking back at our progress
2004
In April 2004, we launched Tchibo’s SCoC, which forms the foundation for the conduct we expect from our consumer goods suppliers with regard to social issues. This code of socially responsible conduct is based on the internationally acknowledged core labour standards issued by the International Labour Organization and on the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and SA8000 is the most important standard. The code is part of our contracts with suppliers and is therefore binding for the companies everywhere if we want to source consumer goods from them.
2005
Inspired in part by a highly effective publicity drive carried out by the Clean Clothes Campaign, we took another look at our process for guaranteeing social responsibility in our consumer goods’ supply chain and decided to overhaul the entire procedure at the end of 2005. Our activities focused in particularly on revising our Social Code of Conduct (SCoC) so it was in line with all of the requirements outlined in the relevant conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
2006
In April 2006, we created our Corporate Responsibility Department: its consultants provide Tchibo’s staff with support for their work to systematically restructure the company’s business activities along ecologically friendly and socially responsible lines. The unit reports directly to the CEO and works together with our Corporate Communications Department as a source of information and point of contact for stakeholders.
More about integrating corporate responsibility within our organisation
We overhauled our SCoC once more in April 2006. The main changes affected the requirement of written contracts for employees and the limitation of the working week to 48 hours. In addition, the new SCoC makes a direct reference to the different source ILO conventions (GLOSSARY) so that everybody concerned understands the underlying requirements in full.
Membership of SAI enables us to continuously share and exchange knowledge and experiences relating to supply chain social issues with our most important international socially engaged stakeholders. We also see to it that SAI now conducts an annual review of our management systems to check their fitness for purpose and flexibility. These checks represent an important inspection by an external supervisory body.
Tchibo Coffee Service was founded in 1972 and supplies up to 4 million cups of coffee every day to international commercial customers and large customers in the restaurant and hotel business as well as in offices and catering. In June 2006, we launched the Vista brand for the first sustainable coffee varieties in our range of out-of-home products for customers. Our Vista Brazilian, Vista Dark Roast and Vista drinking chocolate are products that have been given fair trade seals, and our Vista Espresso has received both Fairtrade and organic product certification. Now, at least 30 percent of the coffee beans that go into our Piacetto brand products are produced on farms certified by the Rainforest Alliance.
From November 2006 until May 2009, Tchibo was a partner in the Logistics Towards Sustainability (LOTOS) project. LOTOS was established by TU Hamburg-Harburg and backed by Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment. During the project, the processes in Tchibo’s procurement and transport chain were evaluated for resource use, climate impact and possible optimisation opportunities, and options for implementing changes were worked out along with definite measures to cut transportation-related CO2 emissions. Since concluding this joint project, Tchibo has continued LOTOS, aiming to reduce our CO2 emissions by 30 percent by 2015, compared to our figure in 2006.
2007
In July 2007, we introduced a code of conduct for our staff so that Tchibo employees around the world could adhere to ethical business practices, develop fair workplace habits and avoid infringing any laws. The codex contains a list of different basic regulations for working together with our business partners and has since its creation served as a guideline and source of inspiration and advice for our employees. Tchibo staff can report any infringements to an independent ombudsman.
In September 2007, Tchibo and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) (today GIZ: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) set up the World Enhancement of Social Quality (WE) project. Plant owners and managers, employees and their labour representatives, purchase staff at Tchibo – all of the project participants are involved in a dialogue with each other so they can together make impressive progress regarding people’s working conditions at the participating production sites in China, Bangladesh and Thailand. After the successful completion of the pilot phase, the project was then expanded to cover other production sites. It is funded by Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
2008
Since 1 January 2008, our German headquarters, roasting facilities and warehouses only use green electricity. At the start of 2009, we switched almost all of our German shops to green electricity. This means that 100 per cent of the electricity bought for these locations is now produced by renewable power resources.
In 2008 and 2009, Tchibo took part in the German pilot project Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). The project is overseen by the WFF, Germany’s Öko-Institut, the Potsdam Centre for Climate Impact Research and the THEMA 1 initiative, and one of its goals is calculating the product-related CO2 footprint of different consumer goods. Tchibo has kept up this good work by joining in the follow-up project, Plattform Klimaverträglicher Konsum (Platform Climate Compatible Consumption).
Since autumn 2008, Tchibo’s weekly product campaigns have included items made with cotton from two programmes: Cotton made in Africa and Textile Exchange. The former is a project managed by the Aid by Trade Foundation, and its target is to improve the revenues and sales opportunities of cotton growers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Malawi and Zambia. Organic cotton articles use cloth produced in line with the internationally acknowledged standards of the NGO Textile Exchange.
Since May 2008, Tchibo has stocked an extensive range of coffees that bear the seals of organisations such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Bio – all of which prove that these products meet sustainability standards. These coffees are produced and traded in accordance with the standards’ requirements, and since 2008, all Privat Kaffee blends and our Fresh Harvest products have carried the Rainforest Alliance seal. In June 2008, our BioGenuss product was our first coffee to win the organic seal, and in October 2008, we included our first Fairtrade-approved espresso blend in our shops’ range of products.
In December 2008, we produced our first sustainability report at Tchibo and made it available online. The report contained our first in-depth, transparent account of our activities regarding all of the most important sustainability issues. The Global Reporting Initiative audited our report about sustainable development in December 2008 and awarded it an A, the highest grade possible. Since then, we have issued a sustainability report every year.
2009
In 2009, Tchibo became the first major German retail company to obtain certification for its wood and paper products in accordance with the very demanding Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. As part of our cooperation with FSC, we initiated a project to expand our sustainability-related activities to cover the products and packaging we purchase as well as any materials we use made out of FSC-certified paper and wood.
On 18 November 2009, Tchibo signed the UN’s Global Compact as a demonstration of its commitment to the Global Compact’s ten core principles regarding human rights, labour standards, environmental protection and anti-corruption measures and to their inclusion in our business processes. We publish our CoPs in line with our cycle of sustainability reports.
Starting June 2009, the issue of data protection has been an integral feature of Tchibo’s processes through an extensive management system. Since then, our data security officer has overseen the activities of cross-unit taskforces dedicated to handling different data security matters. Each department at the company has coordinators who help identify data security issues early and make sure that protecting data is anchored as a core feature of all of our processes.
Expansion of sustainability system to cover sales companies in Eastern Europe (July 2009) open/close
In 2009, we started expanding our existing sustainability management system step by step to include our Eastern European subsidiaries. The first step saw us draw up a mission statement for our Eastern European subsidiaries based on our Tchibo DNA, and it also incorporates objectives outlined in our corporate strategies Stärken stärken 2010 and Zukunft braucht Herkunft. We devised a sustainability management system to implement our targets in our day-to-day business in these countries, and we started putting it into place in 2010.
Since the end of 2009, our Tchibo Coffee Bars throughout Germany and Switzerland only use certified coffee blends for our caffeinated coffee beverages and specialties. The beans that go into our espresso-based specialties bear the Fairtrade seal of approval, while our filter coffee uses beans grown on farms certified in line with the Rainforest Alliance’s standards.
2010
Our project-oriented participation in ETI has seen us cooperate with relevant social stakeholders to lay the groundwork for solutions to particular challenges relating to social responsibility issues that arise within the supply chain of consumer goods. Topics we have looked at in this context include living wages, freedom to join trade unions and the right to negotiate wage levels
In August 2010, we dedicated an entire week’s campaign to the topic of efficient resource use within the home. Under the motto Helping you save money by setting a green example, we assembled an extensive range of consumer goods that enabled our customers to cut domestic water and energy consumption while at the same time reducing CO2 emissions. These products included timer switches, digital radiator regulators and accessories for cutting water consumption. We also provided customers with additional help and gave advice, without obligation, about how to cut energy use.
Since October 2010, Tchibo has been able to offer its customers green electricity generated 100 percent from hydroelectricity, and in January 2011, we also started selling electricity generated by climate-friendly natural gas. These two products in our range have enabled our customers to go green and changeover to climate-friendly and future-proof sources of electricity.
Tchibo’s involvement in the Cotton made in Africa programme included a school project we started in Benin in 2010. Working together with the Aid by Trade Foundation, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the German Investment and Development Organisation (DEG) and our local partners in Benin, our aim is to upgrade the schools infrastructure and quality of education in regions where the Cotton made in Africa project is active. In 2010 alone, we were able to provide 10,000 children with uniforms. We hope to build seven schools in six different localities, and the project will run until 2013.
More about educational projects at the source of our products
We provide support for coffee farmers so they can make the changeover from conventional to responsible coffee-growing methods. We set up two projects in 2010 which have attracted ten coffee farmers from Guatemala and 13,000 small-scale growers from Kenya who form a cooperative: the members of our project are now preparing their businesses for certification in line with the Rainforest Alliance’s standards.