Guiding sustainability

We achieve climate neutrality in our whole value chain.

• By 2030, we aim to achieve climate neutrality at our own sites, in transportation, in employee mobility, and in externally operated data centers and cloud services.
• We are taking the entire value chain into focus and developing a Science Based Target (SBT) to fully align our climate strategy with the 1.5° target of the Paris Climate Agreement.
  
• Furthermore, the goal is to reduce our CO2e emissions by 40 percent by the end of 2025 compared to the 2018 baseline.

We apply sustainable raw materials in all our products.

• We use “preferred fibers” in our textiles, so fibers with a reduced negative impact on the environment compared to conventional alternatives. Our aim is to increase the share of “preferred fibers” in our own and licensed brands to 65 percent by 2025.
  
• We will continue to pursue our goal of using 100 percent sustainable cotton in our own and licensed brands in the future.
  
• By 2025, we aim to use only FSC-certified wood in our own and licensed brands of furniture and in the materials obtained from strategically relevant suppliers.
  
• We intend to use 100 percent FSC-certified or EU Ecolabel paper in our catalogs by 2025.
  
• By 2023 we want to switch completely to sustainable packaging for shipments with a recycled content of at least 80 percent.

We continuously improve the social and ecological performance together with our suppliers along our whole supply chain.

• As a first step, we identify all suppliers of our own and licensed brands - from raw material to finished product. Because only if we know them, we can jointly address improvements in the supply chain.
  
• The exchange of information with suppliers provides us with details and data on the social and environmental production conditions and the measures they are already implementing.
  
• With this knowledge, we can drive continuous improvements in production conditions in a data-based and collaborative manner.

We incorporate circular principles and ensure circular solutions.

• We are starting or driving the implementation of at least one project that integrates circular solutions into our business model.
  
• We are developing measurable indicators for circularity and define specific goals for 2023.

We empower our employees to experience and actively shape sustainability.

• We actively communicate our CR commitment and activities and activate at least 25% of our employees through various contact points and offers.
  
• We also offer various opportunities to experience and actively shape sustainability, involving at least 10% of our employees.

We enable and inspire our customers to make conscious and sustainable decisions.

• We actively communicate our CR activities and core messages to our customers and the market. We regularly collect customer insights in this regard.
  
• By the end of 2022, we want to be in a position throughout the Group to label all sustainable products defined according to our criteria.
  
• We want to make sustainability visible and understandable along the customer journey. This means that we want to get our customers excited about the topic of sustainability and raise their awareness for a responsible, more sustainable approach to products - throughout the entire life cycle.

We shape a value-oriented digitalization for people and society.

• We work on at least one focus topic (data and security, future of work, digital education, environment) and implement a pilot project or initiative by the end of 2022.

The Group Executive Board bears overall responsibility for the topic of sustainability. It is tasked with ensuring that sustainability aspects are given adequate consideration in the Group’s landmark decisions and become integral elements of the Otto Group’s management and processes. Relevant topics are regularly on the agenda at Executive Board meetings and other C-level gatherings.

The CR Board is another decision-making committee that has been tasked by the Executive Board with advancing sustainability management within the Group. It consists of representatives from relevant companies within the Otto Group. Led by the Chair of the Otto Group Executive Board, the CR Board is mandated with defining overarching transformational goals and new core priorities for the Otto Group within the framework of the CR strategy. Its remit also includes green lighting individual target contributions from Group companies and measures for the following year. The CR Board advises the Executive Board on far-reaching decisions that, for example, incur significant investment costs or have a significant influence on the business models of Group companies.

All Group companies that make a sizable contribution to external revenue in two consecutive financial years are subject to the CR strategy. One of the challenges inherent to the CR strategy is also a factor in its success: The different business models at the Group companies must be taken into account within an optimized framework. Each Group company has an interdisciplinary CR team comprising a Sustainability Officer and experts for the individual topic areas within the CR strategy. The CR teams are tasked with advancing the sustainability topics and establishing synergies within the Group. Each of the Group companies decides how to implement the CR strategy within the action framework handed down by the Otto Group Holding, developing specific priority areas, goals and measures that match their business models. They are then recorded in annual action plans, making sure that the Group companies jointly contribute to the Otto Group’s ambitious goals.

Furthermore, we believe that inter-group dissemination of best practices and the establishment of networks between experts and interested stakeholders in the Otto Group belong to the key success factors underpinning our strategy. Within our seven topic areas, the colleagues responsible for CR at the Group companies and the Otto Group Holding gather regularly in Expert Circles to discuss the achievement of targets within their remits, share thoughts on new ambitions and ideas and to develop and implement suitable measures.