We just had our global Corporate Responsibility meeting in Stockholm. We tackled a lot of big issues there – and some small but important ones as well.
One issue that certainly deserves mention here is that we changed the name of what we are doing from “Corporate Social Responsibility” to “Corporate Responsibility”. That doesn’t mean that we are changing the direction of our work. Not at all. There were just too many people asking us if we were only working on social issues. “No,” is the short answer to that. What we are really trying to do is create responsible profit. This means taking care of our profit goals while working to meeting that goals and objective of our Corporate Responsibility strategy. That’s a big challenge.
During the meeting, we committed ourselves to getting very specific about the four pillars of our CR strategy – you know: Healthy Living, Sustainable Trade, Climate Action and Community Engagement – in our 2008 report next year. Wow, this is no joke.
For example, to get specific about our targets for greenhouse gas reduction means that we have to calculate our footprint in terms of those gasses. So, that is what we are doing right now. And how many discussions have we had already about just how to take these measurements and how to account for our franchisers, leased transport, outsourced distribution etc. There is whole world out there and everyone has some kind of impact!
Well, Dick Boer, the CEO at Albert Heijn has already signed a plan together with some other major retailers to reduce energy consumption by 20% in 2020 compared to 1990. And ICA has also committed to reducing CO2 emissions by 30% by 2020 versus to 2006.
Now we want to get to set global goals for the business. We had a great meeting with loads of good ideas and discussion. "No fight, no light!" is the motto we are living by now. If you’re not triggering really intense discussions then you’re not getting close enough to a really meaningful issue. So, that is what we are trying to make of these meetings, something challenging enough and important enough to make people stand up and defend their point of view!