We care together
We are Europe's largest multi-brand fashion retailer, with a tradition spanning in excess of 120 years. Our commitment towards society is to make the right choices: economically, ecologically and socially. Sustainability is of great importance to us, which is why we incorporate this idea in all areas of the company. We want to work together to create a responsible textile economy. That is why we would like to take everyone – our employees, our partners and our customers – on our sustainability journey and inform them of our goals and measures.
Sustainable garments
Transparency is the key to ensuring greater sustainability. We have developed a strict certification standard to help our customers find their way around when choosing sustainable products. We use selected seals to determine which are our third-party and exclusive brands’ sustainable products. Every sustainable item of clothing has to meet the requirements set out for at least one seal. We distinguish between the three categories organic, recycled and responsible and the corresponding items are awarded our ‘we care together’ label.
Environmentally friendly packaging
The paper bags available in our stores are made of 100 per cent recyclable and FSC-certified material, as are our shipping bags and packages for online sales. We calculate the CO2 emissions generated during production and offset them by supporting selected climate protection projects.
Social responsibility
Building a sustainable supply chain is arguably one of the most demanding challenges facing the fashion industry. As an international fashion company, we take responsibility for our supply chains and work in partnership to ensure good working conditions in the countries where our products are produced. We already introduced our own monitoring system to ensure better working conditions as early as 1997 and we are a founding member of the amfori BSCI social standard. We pay our suppliers fair prices and reject dumping wages.
Protecting the environment
We are continuously working on the efficiency of our logistics processes, which contributes to an improved carbon footprint and less paper and plastic waste. We have already shifted from air to sea transport for a large part of our logistics from the production countries. For internal goods movements, we use closed-loop systems to conserve resources. For example, we use durable trolleys and boxes instead of pallets and cartons and our clothes hangers are also part of a closed-loop system. Shipping from our online stores also has a major impact on our carbon footprint, which is why all the parcels we send to our customers are delivered in a climate-neutral way through DHL GOGREEN or similar programmes. In doing so, we pay a surcharge for every parcel we ship to compensate for the CO2 impact.
Built for generations
Our stores have been making a mark on city centres throughout Europe for 120 years. Not only do we care deeply about aesthetics, we also employ sustainable construction methods and rely on durable and natural materials when we build our stores. They are, after all, built to last for generations. At the same time, we are continuously improving our energy efficiency. To this end, we are, e.g., currently converting to LED luminaires to light our stores. This alone is saving 50 per cent of the energy used to light our stores and saving 5,000 metric tonnes of CO2 every year. That is the equivalent of around 7,500 airline tickets from Düsseldorf to Majorca.