
This year, toom is once again offering fairtrade Nordmann fir trees as well as more sustainable Christmas decorations and Advent wreaths. The Fairtrade-certified poinsettias are getting an upgrade thanks to a joint pilot project with Fairtrade. New at toom: customers can use their smartphone to check whether the Christmas tree really fits before buying.
Fair harvest, fair trees
Fair Nordmann firs have been available in the toom range for several years. Thanks to toom's partnership with the Danish Fair Trees Foundation, customers can be sure that they are doing something good in the long term when they buy their Christmas tree. Because what most buyers of Nordmann firs don't realise: The seeds often come from the Georgian Caucasus, where they have to be harvested from fir trees up to 30 metres high. The harvesting conditions are often very dangerous for the workers. This is why toom has been working with Fair Trees since 2018. Together, they ensure good working conditions in the harvesting region through climbing training, health insurance and a fair wage for the cone pickers and also support various social projects such as a girls' football club, the establishment of a dental practice in a local primary school where pupils are treated free of charge and the provision of scholarships to students.
Fair Trees cone harvest in Georgia
More sustainable and fairer through the Advent season: with arrangements, wreaths and poinsettias from toom
toom has been the only retailer in Germany to exclusively sell Fairtrade-certified poinsettias since 2015. The red shining star does not originally come from Europe, but from East Africa, where the cuttings are sometimes produced under difficult conditions for the workers. Fairtrade is committed to improving living and working conditions on the farms.
As a pioneer, toom and Fairtrade have launched a pilot project this year for more cuttings with the Fairtrade seal. In concrete terms, this means that more fairly traded plants and lower production costs result in higher Fairtrade premiums for workers in the Global South. Fairtrade certification has many advantages for them. These include, for example, fixed labour contracts, maternity protection and training in the safe handling of chemicals. In addition, certified companies receive a Fairtrade premium, which benefits the workers and can be invested by them in social projects of their choice. These premiums are now to be increased through the pilot project.
Poinsettias
Last year, the more sustainable range was joined by more environmentally friendly flower arrangements and Advent wreaths, which customers can recognise by the PRO PLANET label for more sustainable products. These are decorated with vegan candles, OEKO-TEX-certified and compostable ribbon and exclusively natural materials sourced from Germany and other EU countries.
"A cosy Christmas atmosphere is of course particularly important to our customers at the end of the year. At toom, we also want to help them shop more sustainably during this very consumer-intensive time. We make this possible for our customers with our greener and fairer Christmas range. Sustainability plays a very important role in our everyday business and that doesn't just stop at Christmas," says Kai Battenberg, Lead Sustainability and Product Compliance at toom.

From now on, customers can conveniently pick up their selected Fair Trees Nordmann fir tree at toom.de - before they buy it. How it works: simply scan the QR code next to the selected tree and place the Fair Trees tree virtually in the desired location via smartphone. If the tree fits, customers can simply add it to their shopping basket and have it conveniently delivered to their home. Toom's augmented reality campaign, which was realised in collaboration with OMD Germany and Cynapsis Interactive GmbH, was launched just in time for the first Advent and will run until shortly before Christmas.
In addition to the function on toom.de, ads associated with the campaign are also played out via programmatic advertising - all exclusively via mobile devices.
This allows users to go directly from the advert to the Christmas tree configurator easily and without any detours. "With our virtual Christmas tree configurator, we are once again expanding our digital service for our customers and offering an innovative way to get an idea of whether their Christmas tree will really fit before they buy it," says Stefanie Holl, Head of Cross Channel at toom. "We have also been pursuing a more ecologically and socially sustainable approach for years in order to switch our products and services to more environmentally friendly alternatives or improve the corresponding working conditions. Of course, our commitment doesn't stop at Christmas time," Holl continues.