New Habitats for Plants and Animals

Biodiversity is under pressure globally. The growing global population needs more space and an increasing amount of goods. Habitats for plants and animals are diminishing. As a retailer, Migros is part of this development: directly with its shop premises and indirectly with its products. To maintain biodiversity, the food manufacturer and retailer has taken a series of precautions: with green standards and sustainable labels in agriculture, with the sourcing of sustainably produced raw materials and with the near-nature design of company premises.

Company premises upgraded to near-nature standards

Eight Migros enterprises have been awarded certificates for exemplary company premises by the Nature & Business Foundation since 1998. The condition for receiving the label is that at least 30% of the company premises have a near-nature design. The latest example for a successful resettlement of nature is the head office of the Migros Cooperative Eastern Switzerland. On the flat roof spanning approx. 10 000 square metres, a natural landscape of the region has been modelled. To create a habitat that is ideal for ground-breeding birds, the persons in charge worked closely with the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach. Initial success is already tangible: a lapwing, a rare migrant bird which is on the red list of endangered species, has built its nest on the roof.

Voluntary assignments in the field

300 Migros employees made an active commitment to endangered landscapes with a particularly high number of species in the Lower Engadin and in Upper Valais in 2011. Together with WWF experts and local farmers, they maintained valuable dry pastures, freed fields from stones and repaired dry walls. The objective of the nature assignments in the field was to raise employees' awareness of the local flora and fauna. The Migros nature assignments are part of its partnership with the WWF. The nature assignments will be again offered next year.

Campaign for a diverse agriculture conducted

In 2008 Migros launched the TerraSuisse label with its partners IP-Suisse and the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach. This is the label for near-nature and animal-friendly Swiss agriculture.

A total of some 14 000 IP-Suisse farmers not only conduct an extensive production with little fertilisation and without pesticides for this label, they also take targeted measures for biodiversity, such as making flowered fallow or planting standard-size fruit trees and hedges. In 2011 the retailer conducted a Facebook campaign, which raised the public's awareness of biodiversity: Migros committed itself to provide wild flower seeds for one square metre of biodiversity habitat for every click on a button. Over the course of the year, TerraSuisse farmers will now sow a total of 21 872 square metres of wild flower meadows.