Easier to make sustainable choices with climate-guided recipes

ICA Gruppen today presented its sustainability report for the first quarter of 2016. The report addresses important issues and initiatives regarding the environment, quality, ethical trade, health and community engagement.

ICA Gruppen’s greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 27% during the period July 2015 to June 2016 compared with 2006.

“Our ambition is to be a leader in corporate responsibility,” comments Per Strömberg, CEO of ICA Gruppen. “It is a position we want to achieve in part because of the responsibility we have by virtue of our size, and in part because we so clearly see that sustainability is a driver of growth. Spurred by our customers’ interests and our new, internal climate targets, during the past quarter we further accelerated the pace of our activities to include such measures as a continued review of refrigerants in stores, efficiency improvements in transports, and the launch of climate-guided recipes on ica.se.”

• ICA first to offer climate-guided recipes
  During the quarter ICA launched a climate guide for recipes on ica.se. The recipes are marked with one, two or three leaves to symbolise how beneficial they are from a climate perspective. At the end of the period approximately 2,000 climate-guided recipes were available, and going forward all new recipes will be climate-rated.
• Swedish milk in ICA’s private label dairy products
  During the quarter ICA Sweden signed a new agreement concerning production of ICA’s private label dairy products. Once the agreement has taken full effect, most of ICA’s private label dairy products and hard cheeses will be made using milk produced in Sweden.
• Launch of industry-wide country of origin label – “Från Sverige”
  In April the new, industry-wide Från Sverige (“From Sweden”) country of origin label was launched. The label may be used on food, ingredients and plants that are produced in Sweden and that meet the label’s criteria. ICA Sweden was one of the initiative-takers behind the new label, which was developed in collaboration with the Swedish Food Federation, Svensk Dagligvaruhandel and the Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF).
• Continued positive sales trend for organic products
  Store sales of organic products from ICA Sweden’s central assortment remained positive during the quarter. On a rolling 12-month basis, sales growth for organic products was 25%.
• Intensified environmental monitoring of suppliers
  During the quarter, ICA Gruppen’s tool for auditing and monitoring working conditions at suppliers – ICA Social Audit – was complemented with additional aspects focusing on suppliers’ environmental work. The aim is to expand the monitoring of suppliers to include their environmental performance. The new aspects focus on waste handling, chemicals and water treatment, among other things.

For more information
ICA Gruppen press service, Telephone number: +46 10 422 52 52

ICA Gruppen discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 08:00 CET on Thursday, August, 2016.

ICA Gruppen AB (publ) is a leading retail company with a focus on food and health. The Group includes ICA Sweden and Rimi Baltic which mainly conduct grocery retail, ICA Real Estate which owns and manages properties, ICA Bank which offers financial services and Apotek Hjärtat which conducts pharmacy operations. The Group also includes Hemtex. For more information see icagruppen.se

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