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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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".
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.
Field of action: social commitment & dialogue promotion
|
Objective |
Status |
Target date |
Target Value |
Target relevance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Development of pilot projects for sustainable consumption |
|
2018 |
Project |
Germany |
|
Expansion of the dialogue with major stakeholder groups |
|
Ongoing |
Participation in sector initiatives |
ALDI North Group |
Target achieved
Ongoing process
SDG
People from 117 nations work in the nine European countries in which we are represented. This diversity is a part of the ALDI North Group. It enriches our working relationships and reflects the diversity of our customers.
We align our actions with our core values: simplicity, responsibility and reliability. These values also express the way the ALDI North Group sees and approaches compliance.
We take responsibility for safe and fair working conditions and compliance with environmental standards wherever we can make a difference
Being an ALDI employee above all means embracing our shared values: simplicity, responsibility and reliability. That is what we stand for in all we do, wherever we are located.
The trust of our customers is our most valuable asset. That is why we listen carefully to what they want. For more than 100 years, we have consistently and systematically tailored our products and services towards the demands of our customers.
Taking responsibility for the health and safety of employees in the workplace is part of the ethos of the ALDI North Group companies
We know that there is still a lot to do when it comes to animal welfare, but we are on the right track, as confirmed by two recent publications on commitment to animal welfare in the food industry
The roughly 69,000 ALDI employees make a decisive contribution to the sustained success of the ALDI North Group. All of them can be proud to work for the ALDI North Group. In exchange, they receive secure working conditions, attractive framework conditions and long-term career development prospects
We take responsibility for the protection of our environment and its natural resources. As a retailer, reducing waste and dedicating ourselves to fighting food losses play a central role.
Social commitment in the ALDI North Group countries