It's a different kind of price campaign: instead of discounts in euros and cents, REWE is showing the climate benefits of vegan products for the first time - and demonstrating how easily customers can improve their personal carbon footprint.
How should food prices actually be labelled if the impact on the climate is also taken into account? Still in euros and cents? Or does our planet have a different "currency" with which it pays for our purchases? The more realistic approach for the planet would probably be to label in terms of emissions and impact.
REWE is now demonstrating this for the first time in a campaign for Veganuary: the new offers refer to theCO2e valuesof the item, not the actual price.
For example, REWE Bio + vegan vegetable falafel balls only cost 1.50 Co2e/kg. Compared to pork meatballs (8.87Co2e/kg), this is a saving of 83 per cent. With the REWE Bio + vegan vegetable oat balls, which only have 1.45CO2e/kg, you can even save 84 per cent. (2)
If you use REWE Bio + vegan Soya Cream Cuisine, you save 67 per cent compared to conventional cream. And if you choose REWE Bio + vegan Paprika, Tomato, Courgette & Aubergine spread over organic cream cheese, you save 60 per cent Co2e/kg. (1)
The current climate offers at a glance:
save 60 per cent - with REWE organic + vegan spreadable cream paprika, tomato, courgette & aubergine, which has only 2.78CO2e/kg(compared to 6.90CO2e/kg for organic cream cheese) 1
save 83 per cent - with REWE organic + vegan falafel balls, which have only 1.50CO2e/kg(compared to 8.87CO2e/kgfor ja! pork meatballs) 2
save 84 per cent - with REWE organic + vegan vegetable oat balls, which have only 1.45CO2e/kg(compared to 8.87CO2e/kgfor ja! pork meatballs) 2
save 65 per cent - with the REWE organic + vegan natural oat drink, which has only 0.60CO2e/kg(compared to 1.70CO2e/kgfor organic whole milk) 1
save 67 per cent - with REWE Bio + vegan Soy Cream Cuisine, which has only 1.73CO2e/kg(compared to 5.30CO2e/kgfor organic cream made from milk) 1
Detailed information on products and calculations can be found at www.rewe.de/veganuary
For the first time, every customer can see at a glance how their own purchasing decisions can contribute to the fight against climate change. In REWE stores, customers learn about the campaign via digital steles, in-store radio and large posters. In the largest German cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Stuttgart, more than 1,500 digital screens in eye-catching locations draw attention to the campaign.
Alongside housing, mobility, electricity, public emissions and air travel, food accounts for around 15 per cent of a person'scarbon footprint- an important lever for living in a more climate-friendly way. REWE itself focussed on vegan alternatives early on. The wide range now includes around 1,400 products that are specifically labelled as vegan.
CO2eis a unit of measurement that aims to make the effect of all greenhouse gases on the climate comparable. The different greenhouse gases contribute to the greenhouse effect to varying degrees and remain in the earth's atmosphere for different lengths of time. In addition toCO2, there are, for example, methane and nitrous oxide, which are produced in agriculture and are much more harmful to the climate thanCO2.
But how much more harmful is methane really? This can be calculated usingCO2 equivalents(CO2e): The effect of one tonne ofCO2 is compared with that of one tonne of methane - usually over a period of 100 years. A tonne of methane is around 25 times more harmful to the climate than a tonne ofCO2. One tonne of methane therefore corresponds to around 25 tonnesof CO2 equivalents(CO2e).
Footnotes
(1) Calculation using average values, each calculated to 1 kg; source: Ifeu study, Ecological footprints of food and dishes in Germany, 2020 and PCF calculation based on the GHG Protocol by Climate Partner.
(2) Compared to ja! Frikadellenbällchen pork, each calculated to 1 kg, PCF calculation based on the GHG Protocol by Climate Partner.
Both German and English comments appear here.
Now politicians would have to take the carbon footprint of food into account in VAT, which would also increase the financial incentive to buy more vegan products