In 2008, REWE, the biggest food retailer group in Austria, commissioned the Austrian environmental NGO Global 2000 (Friends of the Earth Austria) and Caritas Austria to develop for a forward-looking and practicable method to assess the social and ecological sustainability of fruit and vegetables. SERI served as scientific consultant for Global 2000 in the environmental part in the developing process of this method.
The importance of implementing the idea of sustainability in companies is rising (”Sustainable corporate performance”). REWE, the biggest food retailer group in Austria (Billa, Merkur, Penny), asked for a method to assess social and environmental sustainability of fruit und vegetables. The method and its indicators should enable REWE to better plan, control and communicate sustainability regarding fruit and vegetable products.
Until March 2009, SERI helped Global 2000 as a scientific consultant for the environmental part in the developing process of this method. The method is a combination of life-cycle wide indicators on resource use (material use, land use, water use plus the Carbon Footprint) and more detailed emission-related indicators for the production stage of the products (leaching of nitrogen to ground water, contamination through pesticides, impacts on biodiversity, etc.).
Contact
Project partners
- Global 2000
- Caritas Austria
- MartinLuther-Universität-HalleWittenberg
Project duration
- November 2008 – March 2009
