Starting with high-quality raw materials
A high-quality product starts with sustainable raw materials. Migros is committed to ensuring that cotton, wood, palm oil and soya, as well as other natural raw materials and textiles, are acquired with respect for people and the environment.
As Switzerland's largest retailer, Migros also uses its influence to ensure that suppliers also fulfil their responsibility towards people and the environment. It checks the sustainability of the product range and undertakes or supports initiatives to optimise sensitive resources such as palm oil, soya, wood and cotton. In addition, it is constantly updating its range with new products made from sustainably acquired raw materials and, where possible, replacing foreign products with Swiss ones.
Better cotton
Migros is a co-founder of the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), which promotes green and social standards for cotton cultivation. The BCI shows farmers ways to reduce their water requirements, use alternatives to pesticides and improve working conditions. The first products made from BCI cotton went on sale in the middle of last year. Together with a local supplier, Migros has dedicated itself to a training programme for 350 farmers in Gujarat, India since the start of 2012 and is also continuously expanding its range under the Bio Cotton label. Migros developed its own eco production standard as far back as the mid-1990s for the green processing of textiles that is gentle to the health of employees.
More FSC wood
Migros made a decisive contribution towards introducing the forest protection seal of approval FSC in Switzerland. The company continues to lead the way when it comes to marketing wood and paper products with the FSC label. With more than 2'000 products and a turnover of CHF 200 million, it has the largest range of FSC-certified products in Switzerland and drives the label forward. In the reporting year, the partnership with WWF in the Global Forest & Trade Network was renewed and it was agreed that three quarters of all wood and paper products should originate from sustainable sources by 2015 (recycled or FSC). Migros also developed specific objectives in the areas of product range, packaging and advertising consumption, as well as checking the implementation of the FSC label at important suppliers.
Sustainable palm oil
Migros is a founding member of the «Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil» (RSPO). Since the very beginning, it has supported the cultivation of palm oil that meets the RSPO's sustainability criteria, used it systematically and earned top marks in the WWF's palm oil rating. In 2012 a Migros delegation visited a plantation in Cambodia in order to gain local insight into RSPO-certified production. Today around 30% of the palm oil processed by M-Industrie already originates from this certified plantation. M-Industrie is still covering the remaining demand by buying certificates. Migros will convert fully to palm oil from sustainable plantations by 2015.
Environmentally-friendly soya
Soya is an important raw material in the production of feed for farm animals. The cultivation of soya, which has increased over the past years, has led to the destruction of rainforests and savannah areas. To halt these developments, Migros has been a member of the «Round Table on Responsible Soy Association» since 2010. This international association of distributors, producers and environment organisations promotes the sustainable production of soya. At present, more than 70% of the soya used in animal feed originates from sustainable cultivation. At national level, Migros has joined the Soy Network Switzerland. The members have committed themselves to increasing the proportion of sustainable and GM-free soya in farm animal feed in Switzerland to 90% by 2014.