ICA Gruppen AB: ICA Gruppen’s Operations to Be Climate-Neutral in Five Years

Regulatory News:

ICA Gruppen (STO:ICA) has taken the decision to be climate-neutral by 2020.* This encompasses the climate impact of operations in stores, pharmacies, warehouses and offices from areas such as refrigerants, electricity, goods transports and business travel in both the Swedish and Baltic operations. The decrease will be measured using a science-based method developed by the UN and WWF, among others.

ICA will achieve this by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and through more efficient use of resources as well as by climate compensating the climate impact than cannot be eliminated in ICA’s operations by 2020. The target has been set using a method for science-based climate targets developed by WWF, the UN Global Compact, CDP and the World Resources Institute.

"Sustainability and the climate are a strategic priority for us,” comments Per Strömberg, CEO of ICA Gruppen. "We achieved our previous target – to lower our direct climate impact by 30% from 2006 to 2020 – already at the start of this year. So we know what we are capable of. We are therefore now setting a much more ambitious climate target that we are proud of and that hopefully will inspire other companies to take their responsibility.”

Climate impact of our suppliers ICA aspires to be a driver in this development and will therefore, on top of the climate target for its own operations, be further developing the manner of working for lower climate impact among its suppliers. This is also in line with the method of setting science-based climate targets. Today ICA already works on reducing the climate impact from its product range by making certain demands on its suppliers in the environmental area, but also by focusing on matters such as greater sales of vegetarian meals, and fruits and vegetables.

Climate impact of our customers In addition to setting an ambitious climate target, ICA is also developing services designed to help customers lower their own climate impact. Among other things, ICA is working with recipes on ica.se that have been created to help customers eat more climate-smart. Another example is the Klimaträtt project, which allowed participants to monitor their climate impact weekly and thereby see the consequences of various changes in their lifestyle. The Klimaträtt project helped the participants reduce their climate impact by 31%.

In addition, in cooperation with Stockholm Resilience Center, during the year ICA conducted a study at 26 ICA stores focusing on how customers can be urged to make more climate-conscious choices through so-called green nudging. The result showed that there is potential in how we can use various tools to steer customers toward sustainable choices.

*The climate target encompasses the direct climate impact in all of ICA Gruppen’s companies excluding the portfolio company inkClub. Read more about science-based climate targets at http://sciencebasedtargets.org.

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 time CET 8:00 a.m on Monday, 7 December 2015.

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 the portfolio companies inkClub and Hemtex. For more information see icagruppen.se

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