About the report
United Nations Global Compact
Since 2010, METRO GROUP has subscribed to the principles of the UN Global Compact, a United Nations-led global initiative that aims to encourage businesses to adopt universal sustainability principles. By subscribing to the United Nations Global Compact, we have committed ourselves to continuous improvements in the areas of human rights, labour standards, environmental protection and anti-corruption measures. With the Communication on Progress 2013/14 that is available online, METRO GROUP meets its obligation to demonstrate how improvements have been made within these areas: United Nations Global Compact.
Reporting period
The reporting period is the current financial year 2013/14 (1 October 2013 to 30 September 2014). To provide updates on developments, information has also been included that relates to periods prior to 2013/14. In the interests of topicality, we have also taken into account events which occurred up to the time of going to press (7 November 2014)1. The frame of reference for each of our targets and measures is indicated in the relevant section.
1 The KPI “Evaluation in relevant sustainability indices and rankings” has changed since the time of going to press as it was updated following a rating change on 10 December 2014.
Reporting scope
The scope of applicability of the information is given in the respective texts, key performance indicators or goals.
Assurance on Carbon Footprint 2013/14
KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft provided limited assurance on selected key performance indicators relating to sustainability in accordance with ISAE 3000. The independent assurance report PDF (70KB) can be found online.
Certifications
This Corporate Responsibility Report is printed on paper from sustainable forestry. By purchasing such products, we foster responsible forest management that is controlled according to the strict social, ecological and economic criteria. We only use fully recycled paper bearing the EU Ecolabel in this publication. In addition, this progress report carries the Saphira Eco label of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.
This certifies that the material used in the production of this publication, such as inks, lacquers, chemicals and printing plates, fulfills the requirements of the most important international environmental certificates. For additional information, see www.heidelberg.com.
Disclaimer
This Corporate Responsibility Report contains forward-looking statements that are based on certain assumptions and expectations at the time of its publication. These statements are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties, which means that actual results may differ substantially from the future-oriented statements made here. Many of these risks and uncertainties are determined by factors that are beyond the control of METRO GROUP and cannot be gauged with any certainty at this point in time.
This includes future market conditions and economic developments, the behaviour of other market participants, the achievement of expected synergy effects as well as legal and political decisions.
METRO GROUP does not feel obliged to publish corrections to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that have occur after the publication of this material.
METRO GROUP has been publishing Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Reports since 2002.