Our goals
Our progress in 2022
We have made significant progress with our Circularity Programme, including the agreement of a programme roadmap with strategic goals. We’ve completed the analysis of all packaging materials in our own brand products, and we’ve implemented a packaging strategy.
As result, we have transformed the packaging of our products to make them more eco-friendly, according to our eco-design policy. Examples include burger plates made from recycled and mono materials, ceasing the use of foil for our Szamamm brand and eliminating the use of black colouring in the packaging for sauces at the Żabka Café.
Moreover, we promote the multiple usage of bottles, whether plastic or glass. We encourage customers to bring empty beer bottles to nearby Żabka stores and rewarding them with additional discount. We started implementation of Water Refillomats by providing machines at stores where customers can fill their own bottles with water and plan to install a further nine machines in the near future.
We also collaborate closely with our franchisees to increase the impact of our Circularity Programme – in Naturally Together programme, we support them in the collection of plastics and paper, which are forwarded to recycling. Together we enabled the recycling of 15,000 tonnes of materials. We encourage everyone to donate empty bottles and cans.
We do it already through our 29 EKOmat machines located in Poznań, Warsaw and Łódź – we collected so far 560,000 PET bottles and 260,000 aluminium cans. Moreover, we started the pilot project of the deposit system ‘Green Renewal’ in every store in Bydgoszcz which allow selective collection of plastic and metal bottles.
Moreover, supporting our customers in making more environmentally aware decisions every day, during the summer, we launched a ‘Bring Your Own Cup’ selling coffee at a discount to customers who bring their own mugs. All those activities enabled us to achieve plastic neutrality in our own operations the third successive year.
Selected activities
4.1 Circularity
Small gesture, great impact
It’s a remarkable fact that a returnable glass bottle is used on average between 15 and 26 times, significantly reducing the carbon footprint during its lifecycle.
This is why during summer 2022 Żabka Poland ran an educational programme to encourage customers to bring empty returnable beer bottles back to our 9,500+ stores. Anyone doing so received a 50 gr price reduction on a full replacement bottle, up to a total of 20 bottles per transaction. We noticed year-on-year increase in returns by 10 p.p.
This is particularly heartening because the positive impact of any
increase in the re-use of glass bottles is significant. According to The Union of Brewing Industry Employers – Polish Breweries, producing one ton of glass consumes on average 800kg of sand, 280kg of calcium, 230kg of soda and 30kg of dyes. It also takes an average 1.1 MW of power per bottle. The fact that we at Żabka reach millions of customers across Poland every day enables us to have a significant impact on consumer habits across many areas. This promotion shows how important even small gestures can be to the environment when made en masse.
4.1 Circularity
The second life of packaging
As part of our ‘Green Renewal’ pilot project, implemented in partnership with the Bydgoszcz City Hall, our customers can return disposable beverage plastic and aluminium packaging in 120 Żabka stores across the city. The collected raw materials will be used to create new packaging, thanks to which less waste will be sent to landfill. The campaign also aims to build environmental awareness among customers and develop the habit of returning plastic and aluminium beverage packaging. Our advantage lies in the proximity of the stores: the multiple collection points, and the ease and speed involved in returning the packaging. We are also rewarding customers for their pro-ecological attitude: for every plastic bottle or aluminium can returned, they receive 50 żapps. There are two ways to return packaging: via special EKOmat machines for selective waste collection or it is possible to return the packaging directly to the salesperson, who will also award the bonus żapps.
Our Policies in this area
Plastic Circularity Policy
Żabka Polska strategic commitment is to create conditions for a green and sustainable living for everyone, every day. This is why one of the core pillars of our Responsibility Strategy is the Green Planet. Żabka focus on actions that allow us to minimize our environmental impact across the whole value chain to protect Green Planet. Our goal is to achieve plastic neutrality – after 2025 we want to recover and recycle 100% of plastics introduced to the market by Żabka. We are sure that the actions we take today and the close cooperation with our business partners bring us closer to achieving this goal. We have created the Plastic Circularity Policy, because we need to close the loop on plastics for the sake of ecological responsibility. Our efforts to obtain circularity are guided by a set of clear rules. We take responsibility for the entire process, from design to recycling and environment regeneration. This policy, as it currently reads, deals with plastics. However, in the future it will be expanded to include other materials, as well.
Ecodesign Policy
Żabka Polska strategic commitment is to create conditions for a green and sustainable living for everyone, every day. This is why one of the core pillars of our Responsibility Strategy is the Green Planet. Żabka focus on actions that allow us to minimize our environmental impact across the whole value chain to protect Green Planet. Our goal is to have 100% of own-brand packaging that is recyclable or recycled by 2025. To achieve this goal, we must learn how to design processes and packaging in a way that ensures sustainable and economically reasonable resource management. As a responsible business, we want to use ecodesign to make sure that today’s waste becomes a resource that shapes the future. This Ecodesign Policy is meant as a reference point for clear rules on designing and selecting appropriate resources for own-brand packaging and point-of-sale materials.
Raportul de Responsabilitate 2023
