As part of its commitment to “Saying Yes to continuing to take care of the Planet” Mercadona has completed the first milestone of its 6.25 Strategy, which it has been implementing throughout 2020, by eliminating all single-use plastic bags from all of the sections of its physical stores, and from its delivery and online services.

The chain is now offering the Bosses (customers) compostable bags made from potato starch, which go in the organic material bin, as indicated on the pictogram that is printed on the bags to help customers know how to separate and recycle their waste. This symbol has also been added to all of the other bags at the checkout line, where Mercadona has been providing three reusable and sustainable options for some time now.

The company has also provided different bins in all of the sections so that customers can separate their waste and contribute to the circular economy. Completing this first action of the 6.25 Strategy will reduce plastic use by 3,200 tonnes per year.

Mercadona’s 6.25 Strategy, which has the triple objective for 2025 of reducing plastic by 25%, making all packaging recyclable, and recycling all plastic waste generated on its premises, is being implemented through 6 actions that involve changes being made to various company processes, from redesigning the packaging of the future in coordination with suppliers, to adapting stores and logistics, to managing waste, and so on. In total, the company plans to invest more than 140 million euros over the next four years to achieve all of the milestones that make up this strategy.

Mercadona created a multidisciplinary work team to identify and define the changes that are to be implemented in the different assembly line processes

The chain began its work on this strategy in 2019, involving all of the company workers in the challenge of Continuing to Take Care of the Planet and making various processes in the assembly line more sustainable.

The company has a work team that is in charge of coordinating all the action areas of the 6.25 Strategy, which is made up of workers from the company’s different processes, such as Stores, Prescription, IT, Purchasing, Logistics, Finance, Human Resources, External Relations and Construction.

Over the last four months, Mercadona has adapted 72 of the chain’s stores in Spain and Portugal to the Store 6.25 model, which will be extended to the entire chain in 2021.

The aim for these stores, where the strategy's progress can already be observed, is to listen to the opinions of the customers and employees regarding all of the actions that are being carried out by the company. More than 5,000 opinions and suggestions have been received during this time, both from customers and from employees, who are helping to improve the implementation of the various actions defined to reduce plastic and drive the circular economy.

Mercadona employees with the new compostable bags.

Mercadona will be providing more information about the 6.25 Strategy in the ‘Let’s Take Care of the Planet’ section of its corporate website, where “The Boss” will also find content on recycling, sustainability and Mercadona’s commitment to the environment.

A sustainable social action policy integrated into Mercadona’s CSR strategy

As part of its commitment to give back to society, Mercadona has created a Social Responsibility Plan, which addresses social and ethical issues through various sustainable lines of action that reinforce its commitment to grow together with society. As part of this policy, Mercadona works with more than 290 soup kitchens, 60 food banks, as well as other welfare organisations throughout Spain and Portugal, to which it donates daily. It also participates in food collection initiatives organised by these bodies. In fact, in 2020 the company donated a total of 17,000 tonnes of food to these entities and organisations,15,800 tonnes in Spain and 1,200 tonnes in Portugal. These amounts have been increasing since the company made the decision to strengthen its processes for donating essential products to the Soup Kitchens and Food Banks it had already been partnering with regularly. Mercadona also works in close collaboration with 32 foundations and occupational centres to decorate its stores with mosaic murals made by more than 1,000 people with varying degrees of disability.

Environmental sustainability is another strategic pillar of Mercadona’s Social Responsibility Plan. To do this, Mercadona has its own Environmental Management System, which is based on the principles of the Circular Economy and is focused on the optimisation of logistics, energy efficiency, waste management, sustainable production and reducing plastic. In this context, Mercadona is working with its Totaler Suppliers on the 6.25 Strategy with a triple objective for 2025: reducing plastic by 25%, making all packaging recyclable, and recycling all plastic waste. Mercadona is also working on the Sustainable Urban Distribution Project and improving air quality in cities by using lorries and vans driven by cleaner and more efficient technologies.

With the sustainable mobility of “The Boss” (customer) in mind, the company already has 1,350 parking spaces with electric vehicle charging stations located in the car parks of 501 stores. Mercadona started installing electric vehicle charging stations in 2017 with the implementation of the New Efficient Store Model, and plans to continue increasing their numbers throughout 2020.

Since 2011, Mercadona has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact for defending fundamental values in areas of Human Rights, Employment Standards, Environment and the Fight Against Corruption.