The goal of aligning our business activities with climate protection has been a focus for the Otto Group for decades. As an important step towards this, we have developed an ambitious near-term Science-Based Target (SBT) that addresses our entire value chain. In the long term, we aim to achieve net-zero emissions across our entire value chain by 2045, going beyond our near-term SBT.
We want to ensure that our goals and activities are aligned with the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement. Therefore, in 2022, we committed to developing an ambitious and comprehensive Science-Based Target (SBT) that addresses our entire value chain. The SBT is a scientifically-based reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions that is in line with the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement. We submitted our SBT for validation to the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) in spring 2023 and successfully completed the validation process at the end of February 2024. Our goal is to reduce our absolute greenhouse gas emissions across the entire corporate group by 42 percent compared to the fiscal year 2021/22 by the end of the fiscal year 2031/32.
More about this can be found in the "Sustainability Strategy" section.
Our commitment to climate protection is not only aimed at achieving our already established near-term SBT sub-targets but also extends beyond the defined timeframe. Therefore, we are already intensively working on defining a net-zero target by the year 2045 and the necessary steps to achieve it. With this, we aim to meet our own standards for credible and long-term climate protection and contribute to the federal government's climate goals.
The definition of net-zero emissions by the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) serves as a guiding framework for us. Here, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) takes precedence. All remaining emissions must be permanently neutralized. This means that companies must take measures to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and store them permanently to offset the impacts of non-reduced emissions. Currently, companies are allowed to neutralize only up to ten percent of their GHG emissions. Furthermore, the SBTi encourages companies to go beyond their value chain and take additional measures for emission reductions to support societal and international efforts to drastically minimize GHG emissions until they reach net zero. We regularly inform our stakeholders about our progress in formulating a net-zero target, for example, in our annual report.
We aim to achieve our climate goals by consistently avoiding and reducing emissions. It is possible to reduce emissions. For instance, we have more than halved our CO₂ emissions in our own operations from 2006 to 2020, and by the end of 2023, we have further reduced them by an additional 30 percent compared to the base year of 2018 – completely without compensation.
In addition, we continue to systematically transition to green power at our own locations. The share of green electricity at Otto Group's own sites worldwide is 72 percent. We are also leveraging the potential of our locations by installing solar systems (Frankonia), combined heat and power plants (Hermes Fulfilment), and geothermal energy (Hermes Einrichtungs Service). However, we see the largest levers for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions in our upstream and downstream supply chains.
In our own business processes, we have already achieved a lot; however, a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions in our supply chains occurs during the production of goods – known as Scope 3 emissions. Here, we pursue a holistic and collaborative approach to support factories in the upstream supply chains in improving their ecological performance, for example, through training and workshops. Even though these emissions are only indirectly caused by our business activities and are difficult to influence, we focus on reducing them. The Otto Group is a member of Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition), which provides the Higg Facility Environmental Module, a tool for the standardized collection of ecological metrics along supply chains. In 2024, this enabled the collection of information on the ecological performance of more than 550 factories.
To further positively influence emission development, we aim to continuously and increasingly utilize more sustainable alternatives in material selection. We focus particularly on the most commonly used materials, such as textile fibers and wood for furniture, catalog paper, and packaging. In the long term, we will also focus on plastics and metals.
A relevant portion of our emissions occurs during the usage phase by our customers, in the so-called downstream supply chain. We aim to address these emissions, for example, with concrete measures to increase energy efficiency in electrical appliances. Additionally, we want to support our customers in switching to green electricity when operating our electrical devices.
In the area of logistics, we see further potential for climate protection. By delivering goods to our customers with low or even zero emissions, we contribute to reducing particulate pollution in cities, thereby protecting the environment and public health.
Peatlands store more carbon than any other ecosystem in the world – when they are intact. Together with OTTO, Bonprix, Hermes Germany, the Witt Group, and Systain Consulting, the Otto Group is supporting the peatland conservation project "toMOORow" for the re-wetting of peatlands, aiming to demonstrate concrete solutions for climate and nature conservation.
toMOORow is being implemented by the Environmental Foundation Michael Otto in partnership with the Michael Succow Foundation, partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre. The goal is to create functional peatland landscapes through systematic re-wetting that can permanently store carbon. Additionally, the peat areas are to be sustainably managed (known as paludiculture) to generate biomass for value creation chains in the long term. The Otto Group and its subsidiaries OTTO, Bonprix, the Witt Group, Systain Consulting, and Hermes Germany support the restoration efforts over the long term to make concrete contributions to climate and nature conservation and to find more sustainable solutions. This way, we make a significant contribution to climate and species protection, as intact peatlands store more carbon than any other ecosystem in the world.
The symbolic groundbreaking at the Sernitz Moor near Angermünde in Brandenburg in early April 2025 marks the beginning of the concrete re-wetting of peatlands.
The following video is only available in German.