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Social commitment

The ALDI North Group is not just a retailer, employer, business partner or competitor,  respectively. We are also a citizen and neighbour. We take responsibility in all these roles. We leverage our expertise and experience to contribute to finding a solution for societal problems above and beyond our core business. As part of our social commitment, we support a wide range of projects focusing on a variety of issues, such as nutrition or improving working conditions throughout the supply chain.

Our approach

In all nine ALDI North Group countries, we work with national initiatives and organisations to support local and overarching projects. The focus is primarily on food and non-food donations. Beyond that, we sometimes provide support in the form of financial donations. Moreover, ALDI Nord Stiftungs GmbH pursues an international charitable mandate that is oriented towards a stipulated charter.

This commitment focuses on the following areas:

  • Doing business sustainably along the value chain
  • Climate protection, animal welfare and biological diversity
  • Health on and off the job, healthy nutrition and healthy working conditions
  • Disaster relief and rescuing those whose lives are in danger, especially in the event of natural and environmental disasters
  • Science and research

As a retailer operating on the international stage with a complex value chain, our commitment extends to our products’ countries of origin. Since March 2017, for example, we have supported two coffee and cocoa production projects in Colombia and in west and central Africa. The support benefits farmers and producers in those regions, as well as their families, and contributes to greater sustainability in cultivation.

Organisation

As a field of action, social commitment is centrally anchored in our Corporate Responsibility (CR) Policy, despite usually taking the form of local commitment. The projects are therefore selected and promoted independently in the ALDI North Group countries. The regional companies manage their social commitment independently in Germany as well – with the support of the ALDI Buying CR department. Since 2016, ALDI Nord Stiftungs GmbH has additionally looked after international partnerships and projects beyond the ALDI North Group.

Progress and measures in 2017

Social commitment in the ALDI North Group countries

In the period under review (2017), numerous regional companies in the ALDI countries demonstrated their commitment to society through partnerships, projects and donations. Here are a few selected examples:

  • AIn the period under review, ALDI Netherlands launched a variety of projects and partnerships, including a project dealing with healthy nutrition in cooperation with Jongeren Op Gezond Gewicht (JOGG), a foundation dedicated to combating childhood obesity, and a partnership with the Plastic Soup Foundation designed to address the use of plastic. Since 2017, ALDI Netherlands has also been involved in two research projects dealing with ways to avoid food losses. ALDI Netherlands also participates in charity runs. In 2017, more than 150 employees competed in the KiKa Run, the proceeds of which went to help children with cancer.
  • ALDI Denmark is part of a national campaign to fight breast cancer and is donating part of the proceeds from the sale of various products. This partnership has been in place since late 2016 and was continued in 2017.
  • Similarly, ALDI Portugal is supporting the World Food Programme of the United Nations by donating part of the proceeds from the sale of Earth Water to the fight against hunger and poverty. ALDI Portugal has also concluded a number of additional local partnerships to help organise food donations.
  • In Poland, we are supporting charitable causes by once again taking part in the Katowice Business Run. The entry fees are donated.
  • A clean neighbourhood is our aim at ALDI Belgium. All stores participated in Retail Clean Up Day 2017 and organised rubbish collection campaigns in their neighbourhoods.

ALDI Nord Stiftungs GmbH partnerships

As one of its first projects, ALDI Nord Stiftungs GmbH joined forces with Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk (DKHW) to launch Mobile Aktion Ernährung und Bewegung, a mobile project dedicated to teaching children and young people the basics of healthy and sustainable nutrition while helping them discover the joy of physical activity in a fun and enjoyable way. Trailers designed especially for the project make stops at public places and school playgrounds in the ALDI North sales region, where they offer free activities dealing with the topics of healthy nutrition and physical activity. Some 360 events to be supported by DHKW regional partners with a total of six trailers are scheduled to take place between October 2017 and October 2018. ALDI Nord Stiftungs GmbH partnered with Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy to support a further project that created a research alliance to develop solutions for sustainable food production and approaches to healthy nutrition. The findings will be made available to the public at large following completion of the project.

Food donations: current projects

As a retailer, we have a responsibility to avoid food waste. Efforts to address the issue combine waste management and social commitment. One aspect of our dedication to fighting food waste is to donate unsaleable food that is still edible. For more information, please see the stories "Saving food" and "Social commitment in Portugal".

Targets and status

The local and project-related approach means that we define few overarching targets for social commitment. Our existing targets relate to sustainable consumption and food donations. Individual projects are subject to evaluation.

Ou targets from the CR Programme:

Field of action: social commitment & dialogue promotion

Objective

Status

Target date

Target Value

Target relevance

Development of pilot projects for sustainable consumption

Ongoing process – Sustainability at ALDI North

2018

Project

Germany

Expansion of the dialogue with major stakeholder groups

Ongoing process – Sustainability at ALDI North

Ongoing

Participation in sector initiatives

ALDI North Group

Target achieved – Sustainability at ALDI North Target achieved Ongoing process – Sustainability at ALDI North Ongoing process

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