Scope

The chapter ‘key performance indicators’ provides information about METRO’s sustainability performance in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs). It is divided into KPIs on the economic performance of the company and KPIs on our areas of responsibility (Empower) People, (Secure) Planet, (Unfold) Prosperity and (Enhance) Partnership.

Reporting period

The reporting year is the same as the METRO financial year, that is from 1 October to 30 September. Key performance indicators are reported for the previous 3 financial years.

Reporting of the climate protection target also includes the target’s reference year, 2011. The figure for the reference year relates to the period from 1 January to 31 December 2011. A different reporting period is used in this case because METRO changed its financial year from the calendar year to the 12 months from October to September in 2013.

Data collection approach and degree of coverage

The key performance indicators reported are based on data that is gathered using various internal reporting systems. As a rule, this data is systematically recorded for each sales line and each country every quarter, in some cases every month. The KPIs are based on data collected for the whole METRO, that is for all of the stores, back offices and warehouses and for the head office in Düsseldorf. It is necessary to extrapolate and estimate consumption data for some KPIs in cases where the primary data available is incomplete. This applies to the KPIs from the section Planet. The sustainability data management office merges the data from various reporting systems.

The greenhouse gas emissions relating to purchased goods and services, assets and leased assets which are reported in accordance with Scope 3 are modelled because recording primary data for these is highly complex. This modelling is based on KPIs for the economic value added by METRO. To perform these calculations, we use so-called economic input-output models, which are founded on the economic flows of goods and services.

The selling and delivery space figures used as a basis for the KPIs are averages for the year.

We report all KPIs separately for METRO as a whole and for the region Germany, as the country in which the company is based. As a general rule, the KPIs for METRO as a whole include the data for all locations or all employees. Unless expressly stated otherwise, all presentations in the combined management report refer to continuing operations (excluding the hypermarket business and excluding China). The KPIs we report for work-related accidents and continuing professional development in the section People do not currently cover all employees. We do not have the relevant data for all sales lines and organisational units in proper quality. We report work-related accidents for the German METRO companies. The KPIs for continuing professional development include all companies except for a few service companies. We show sales in the section Prosperity exclusively for our German sales lines Real and METRO Wholesale Germany.

Thus the coverage rate for environmental and social KPIs is, as mentioned above, at 100%.

All of the sustainability KPIs have been audited by KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft.

Deviations from previous reports

In some cases, the figures presented in previous sustainability reports differ from those cited in this report. There are various reasons for this.

In financial year 2018/19, we retroactively switched to a different emission factor set for energy.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, all presentations in the combined management report refer to continuing operations (excluding the hypermarket business and excluding China).

There are other differences in the KPIs in the section Planet, arising from estimated figures having been replaced by actual values. In a number of cases, the utilities provide us with consumption figures quite late, and we therefore initially work on the basis of estimates.

The only deviations are those in comparison with earlier reports. Within the present report, KPIs are represented according to a uniform methodology for 3 years, respectively. They thus allow a comprehensible overview of the development.

We complete our data collection and reporting on an ongoing basis to improve the level of transparency and the way we manage our sustainability performance.

As part of these efforts, we have included the additional KPIs and targets:

  • Employee representation
  • New employees number of nationalities
  • Gender breakdown in managerial positions top management
  • Gender breakdown in managerial positions junior management
  • Gender breakdown in managerial positions of revenue generating units
  • Employee engagement
  • Suppliers producing in risk countries
  • Food waste reduction
  • Packaging
  • Palm oil
  • Reformulated products