The Peek & Cloppenburg Group has published its sustainability strategy 2025. With this, the group is pursuing a holistic approach that aims to identify concrete, measurable goals by 2030 and beyond.
“In recent years, we have laid a solid foundation for sustainability at Peek & Cloppenburg – with a strong team that works closely with the business, a DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) strategy, our climate strategy and the first sustainability report. Now we are taking the next step: We are integrating sustainability even more closely into our processes and aligning our actions with new, long-term goals,” comments sustainability boss Lena Böringschulte in a statement.
Like the first sustainability report that the company published in April of this year, the strategy is divided into the three CSR action areas people and companies, products and customers and planet and climate, which are divided into a total of eight topics.
people and companies
The “People & Company” area is dedicated to the topics of diversity and working conditions in the supply chain. This means that the Peek & Cloppenburg Group is committed to promoting diversity, equal opportunities and inclusion and ensuring equal development opportunities for all employees.
Social audits along the supply chain are intended to ensure fairness at the production facilities of the exclusive brands. The company defines these as its own brands Christian Berg, McNeal, Jake’s and Review. Peek & Cloppenburg works with Amfori BSCI, a global business association for open and sustainable trade founded in 2003 by the Foreign Trade Association. By 2030, the audit requirements are to be tightened and extended to the “deeper levels of the supply chain”. The group of companies does not reveal exactly what these are and what the tightening will look like.
Products and customers
The “Product & Customer” area is divided into the topics of products and materials, circular economy, transparency in the supply chain and cooperation with suppliers.
In the product area, 30 percent of the entire range should have a sustainability seal from independent third parties recognized by the company, or 40 percent by 2030. This means 50 percent of the exclusive brands (by 2027) or 75 percent by 2030 and 20 percent of the third-party brands by 2027. This gives a target for its third-party brands (including Hugo Boss, PVH (including Tommy Hilfiger) and Bestseller) by 2030 Companies don’t on.
When it comes to the circular economy, Peek & Cloppenburg remains vague and talks about “capacity building” by 2028 among design, product and procurement teams that should apply principles for waste reduction, reuse and recycling of clothing. The cautious wording allows speculation that the teams mentioned are still at the very beginning in the areas listed.
On closer inspection, the transparency in the supply chain also appears to be somewhat murky, as it only extends (until 2030) to those production facilities that produce and supply materials for the final production of the exclusive brands. In the 2024 Sustainability Report, which the group published in April of this year, it was announced that it wanted to extend transparency to Tier 2 supply companies in order to ensure that materials and raw materials are also procured under fair and resource-saving conditions.
Under the item “Collaboration with suppliers”, the goal is to evaluate production sites based on ecological and social criteria by 2028. It is not specified whether this is the first assessment of the production facilities and who is carrying out it. According to the company, a good two-fifths (44.5 percent) of its exclusive brand products are currently manufactured in Bangladesh, a fifth (20.8 percent) in China and an eighth (12.5 percent) in Turkey. The remaining quarter (22.2 percent) is produced in Cambodia, India and Vietnam.
Planet and climate
The “Planet & Climate” area is dedicated to reducing the ecological footprint. This is to be achieved through lower-emission materials, renewable energies and an increase in energy efficiency at our own locations and in partner factories. By 2033, CO2 emissions in our own sales stores, office buildings and logistics centers should be reduced by 45 percent and in the supply chain by 30 percent.
These account for around 5 percent of the group’s CO2 emissions; A large part (83 percent) arises at the product level. Since no information is given as to how the reduction should be staggered, achieving the goal of reducing total CO2 emissions by 90 percent looks questionable.
When it comes to environmental protection, the group seems to be lagging furthest behind, as it only wants to “know” the impact of its supply chain on the environment, water and biodiversity by 2030. To be fair, it should be noted that the actual impact along the supply chain is currently difficult to measure reliably and that some companies are still struggling to do so.
Building on the findings, Peek & Cloppenburg wants to ensure compliance with relevant industry standards and country-specific regulations.
The Peek & Cloppenburg group of companies employs 16,000 people in 16 countries, 70 percent of them in the Düsseldorf subgroup, which means it falls under the Supply Chain Act, which has been in force since 2023.