Areas of responsibility

When it comes to defining our responsibilities and key focus areas, we do not just rely on our own internal perspective. We also participate in the economic and socio-political discourse, cooperate with external stakeholders and are consistently guided by the agenda designed to meet the SDGs. This enables us to identify our stakeholders’ expectations and requirements in relation to our actions at an early stage. We select the areas and issues relevant to our sustainability efforts based on both the internal and the external points of view. This allows us to create a foundation for the development of strategic objectives and specific measures. The former METRO GROUP conducted an initial stakeholder survey in 2016. The results of this survey continue to bear relevance for METRO today. The survey assists us in reviewing the relevance of the identified issues and also plays a role in the simplified materiality analysis for financial year 2016/17. The materiality analysis for the current financial year is in particular shaped by the intensive exchange with our stakeholders conducted in the context of METRO unboxed, an updated desktop and media analysis, as well as the dialogue with the respective stakeholders via the email inbox of the METRO AG sustainability unit. The assessment of the issues’ relevance ranges from “not material” to “very material”. The result of this year’s analysis does not significantly deviate from last year’s materiality analysis.

Our commitment to sustainability focuses on those segments of the value chain and interaction with society where our company has the biggest influence. This results in the identification of the following areas of responsibility:

• Commitment to our employees
• Sustainable business operations
• Sustainable procurement and assortment management
• Sustainable consumption
• Social commitment

Below is an overview of the focal issues addressed in the context of the identified areas of responsibility. Integration of the concept of sustainability into our sales lines’ strategy process has resulted in additional specific focal areas at the operating level. A current overview of examples from the METRO Cash & Carry national subsidiaries and Real can be found in the METRO Progress Report on Corporate Responsibility 2016/17.