Sustainable Products
How does Tchibo make its products more sustainable?
To make our products more sustainable, we look at the entire life cycle, from raw material cultivation to disposal, to identify where we have the greatest negative impacts on people and nature. We then develop targeted measures to reduce these impacts. This includes, among others:
- Cultivation of raw materials: Promoting sustainable coffee and cotton cultivation through our own training programs, e.g., our Tchibo coffee program or our commitment in cotton projects.
- Materials: Use of recycled and certified materials, such as organic cotton, recycled materials, FSC-certified wood, and sustainable coffee.
- Product design: Developing our products with a focus on quality, energy reduction, durability, and recyclability.
- Manufacturing: Reducing the environmental impact of cultivation and production through reduced use of chemicals and more careful use of pesticides, e.g., through our DETOX program. Respect for human rights through regular audits and our WE human rights program.
- Packaging: Material savings, use of recycled and recyclable materials, and reusable solutions - both for our non food packagings as well as coffee packagings.
- Transport: Innovative solutions for logistics.
- Disposal, recycling, and end-of-life: Providing a repair service, for example, for coffee machines, and maintaining a supply of spare parts. Increasing the recyclability of our products.
When do we define our non-food products as sustainable?
Regarding our non-food range, we define products as sustainable if they are made from certified sustainable or recycled materials. Textiles and hard goods make up the majority of this assortment. Specific criteria must be met to label a product from these categories as sustainable for our customers. To this end, we collaborate with certified partners as well as recognized initiatives and certification standards. We or our partners have also established thresholds for minimum material content. A product must contain at least this amount of a specific material to qualify for a label, for example. These are our current standards:
- Global Organic Textile Standard GOTS: 95%
- Global Organic Textile Standard GOTS in-conversion: 95%
- Global Organic Textile Standard GOTS made with: 70%
- Global Organic Textile Standard GOTS m/w in-conversion: 70%
- Forest Stewardship Council FSC®: 100%
- Responsible Down Standard RDS: 100%
- Organic Content Standard OCS 100: 95%
- Recycled Claim Standard RCS 100: 95%
- Organic Content Standard OCS Blended: 50%
- Regenagri: 50%
- Cotton made in Africa® CmiA HIP: 50%
- Global Recycled Standard GRS: 50%
- RCS Blended: 50%
- The Good Cashmere Standard® GCS: 30%
- Responsible Wool Standard RWS: 5%
- Tencel: 30%
When do we define our coffee products as sustainable?
Our "Coffee2Stay" program is based on the approach of offering responsibly sourced coffee (in accordance with the standards of the non-profit organization Enveritas).
Responsibly sourced coffee means that the coffee is grown and traded under conditions that promote social and environmental practices. That is precisely why we launched our own coffee program, through which we are active in many coffee-growing regions. Specifically, this means:
- We are committed to fair wages for farmers and alternative sources of income.
- We contribute to improved living and working conditions in the coffee-growing regions.
- We support environmentally friendly coffee cultivation and promote measures to combat the effects of climate change.
