Recycle and Remake

In 2024, in line with the offline campaign of our private label fresh milk, we called on customers to participate in milk box recycling activities. During the campaign, we set up recycling bins in six stores, collected over thousands bottles of fresh milk cartons, and unlocked new possibilities for these "garbage". The collected milk cartons went through hydraulic pulping, impurity removal and purification, separate paper/plastic/aluminum to make environmentally friendly pulp, and finally press them into new paper to make 80-page notebooks. By redesigning, upgrading, and remaking, we give new life to milk boxes that were once considered garbage, reducing the burden of our living city, bringing sustainable living to every consumer.

LEED Store

ALDI Shanghai Suhewan MixC World Store has obtained LEED ID+C (Interior Design and Construction) Retail Gold certification. On April 12th, 2023, the awarding ceremony was held at the store. This is also the first ALDI store to receive this honor in the Chinese market. It demonstrates ALDI’s initiative and vision to create high-quality and comfortable shopping experiences for consumers while actively promoting green and sustainable development and creating a better future together.

Strict quality control is carried out on building materials before purchasing, so that the use of recycled and local materials in the project not only meets the performance requirements, but also reduces the energy consumption to transport building material. In order to effectively reduce the energy consumption of the store during operation, in terms of construction, the Suhewan MixC World store uses energy-saving lamps and high-efficiency HVAC equipment. The electricity consumption of lighting, sockets, and air conditioning all measures separately, making it convenient to adjust the operation plan in a timely manner according to the actual electricity consumption of each category during operation. Meanwhile, the cooling in store adopts a water system, and the corresponding refrigerant charging amount is only 20% of that of the normal system. Moreover, ALDI requires the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of refrigerants to be less than 2200 in order to reduce the environmental impact. In addition, the fresh air system designed in the store not only maintains the most suitable temperature and humidity indoors, but also ensures the flow of fresh air in the store, allowing all personnel to feel comfortable and pleasant. During the construction process, the five types of waste generated, including paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, and metal, are effectively recycled with a recycling conversion rate of over 80%.

The ALDI Forest

In 2023, ALDI donated to the Beijing Entrepreneur Environmental Protection Foundation (SEE) to plant 10120 Suosuo trees, and acquired an ALDI forest in the Alshan region. Those were planted in April 2023, after digging pits, planting seedlings, watering, and setting seedlings, the planted saplings took more than half a year to adapt to the soil, take root, and grow new branches. With the careful care of the staff and local herdsmen, more than 10000 Suosuo in ALDI Forest have grown strong and passed the year-end assessment, meeting the preservation rate standard and officially becoming a member of the desert guard to prevent the spread of the desert. Each adult Suosuo can fix 10 m2 of desert, and our forest is equivalent to helping fix 101200 m2 of desertified land, which is approximately the size of 15 regular football fields.

Our first E-truck trailing

Moving further from using green electricity, ALDI CHINA has officially established E-truck delivery trails for dispatches from Distribution Centre (DC) to some stores. All the electricity used for the trunk will also be covered by green electricity to ensure the journey is free from carbon emissions.

We will continue to explore solutions to achieve the zero carbon emissions goal. We would also like to invite everyone to embrace a green and low-carbon lifestyle into everyday living, bring reusable shopping bags and bring your own cup for drinks, travel green and save resources. Let's all work together for a better and sustainable future.

ALDI CHINA POWERS UP WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY

ALDI CHINA covers all electricity power needed in our daily operation from renewable energy sources since the beginning of 2020, and obtains I-REC (International Renewable energy certificate) from the wind generator from Inner Mongolia. By changing supply to renewable electricity, ALDI CHINA reduces over 2750t of carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 alone. ALDI CHINA aspires to be a responsible retailer, to ensure a more sustainable lifestyle is accessible to all our customers.

Practicing circularity

At ALDI CHINA, we are committed to our environment by utilising our resources responsibly. To achieve our goal of minimising waste, ALDI CHINA recently started a project that encourages our employees to recycle ice bags used in the transportation of frozen products to reduce the environmental impact of plastic waste to contribute to a more sustainable future.