Our sustainability projects 2022

For us at mey, sustainability is a tradition – since 1928.
For us, sustainability is a pillar on the basis of which our success as a company can also be secured in the long term. We are constantly working to improve our standards, production processes and goals in order to be able to continue to guarantee our customers, above all, durable and high-quality products.

Find out here how we supported climate protection and minimised our ecological footprint in 2022 through several sustainability and donation campaigns.

At Christmas, mey's motto was: "Share your opinion and do good at the same time". With every completed participation in our brand survey, which was available in our stores and online, we guaranteed, together with the organisation Deutsche Lebensbrücke e.V., to provide a warm meal for a child in need. The Christmas campaign by mey is intended to make a contribution and support the smallest members of our society. Through your participation in our brand survey, a total of 5.347 warm meals were donated to needy children. 

As in the previous year, mey stood up to the offer battles on Black Friday in 2022 – this time under the motto "Moor Sustainability". By shopping in our local mey stores or via our online shop, you automatically supported the bog restoration campaign in cooperation with the Schleswig-Holstein Nature Conservation Foundation during the period from 25 to 27 November. Peatlands store important nutrients and are the largest carbon reservoir we have on land. According to BUND, peatlands worldwide bind twice as much CO2 as all forests combined. A total of € 11,500 was collected during the campaign – with which a total of 28.750 square metres of moor will be renaturalised, which corresponds to an area of about four football fields. 

On Black Weekend 2022, we supported the bog renaturation campaign of the Schleswig-Holstein Nature Conservation Foundation. For every 10 € of shopping basket value, 1 sqm of moor was renatured. For each 1 sqm of renaturalised moor, 2 kg of CO2 are offset per year. Through this campaign, we will be able to compensate for approximately 57.5 tonnes of CO2 per year from now on. 

Through the "BEE HAPPY" project, we want to counteract the massive decline of bees: From 20 May 2022, every end customer could add a free bee hotel to their shopping basket in the online shop or receive one directly in the store with their purchase. Each mey bee hotel creates a home for around 60 wild bees. To ensure that the insects also find enough food, we also include mini flower balls with every purchase in the online shop or in the store. Flower balls are small balls that – consisting of seeds, soil and clay powder – can be placed directly on the potting soil and germinate after adding water or in outdoor areas through rain. 

Every year we donate our Third Choice items to a social project. In 2022, we worked with "Aktion Hoffnung", which will take our clothing donation to Lesbos and Ukraine. In 2022 we donated 2 tonnes of laundry to Lesvos and over 10.000 items of laundry to people in Ukraine. The items we donate can no longer be sold due to visual defects or small holes, but they are fully functional and are therefore very suitable for donation. There is a great need especially for underwear, as these items are rarely collected through private donations. For our clothing donation, "Aktion Hoffnung" cooperates with the "HOPE Project". This organises the acceptance of the donations and distributes the goods to the respective people in need in cooperation with a self-organised group of refugees. 

mey has long attached great importance to renewable energies and therefore purchases green electricity from hydropower. Now, in 2022, another milestone in climate protection has been reached and the existing possibilities of sustainable power generation at the Albstadt-Lautlingen site are being used for the energy supply. In close cooperation with an engineering firm, a PV system with 750 kWp was installed on the roof of the production facility in Albstadt in 2022. The PV system will enable mey to cover more than 30% of its annual electricity consumption in the future with electricity generated in-house. 

In July 2022, the Cologne Chamber of Industry and Commerce promoted and awarded sustainable and innovative ideas and projects in the area of Circular Economy across all sectors with the "Going Circular" competition. Among projects from all over Germany, we were able to assert ourselves with the "mey Circle" project and thus took second place. Against the backdrop of the circular economy, mey has set itself the goal of returning production waste to its own cycle. Fibre-to-fibre recycling is intended to turn offcuts into a high-quality textile product again (the "mey Circle"). 

Since 1993, the state of Baden-Württemberg has been awarding the environmental prize to companies that show a particularly high level of commitment to corporate environmental protection and sustainable business practices. A total of 22 companies from different sectors were selected for the final round. mey had to prevail against six other companies in the category "Industrial companies with more than 250 employees". Although it was unfortunately not enough to win in 2022, the nomination already shows us what we have achieved in this area in recent years and that we are one of the top companies in BW. 

We compensate for climate emissions that we cannot reduce or eliminate by investing in climate protection projects, which enables us to offset our CO2 emissions. In our compensation project, we work together with a farmer from Rosenfeld and positerra GmbH. positerra oversees the transparent and verifiable process, which enables mey to offset CO2 emissions through adapted land use using regenerative, humus-building farming methods. mey invested over three years (2020-2022) and thus binds more than half of the emissions generated in 2019 by all mey locations (incl. its own stores) – namely 2,200 tonnes of CO2e. 

The "Cycle to Work" campaign, which we offered in cooperation with the AOK, started on 1 May 2022 with the aim of collecting as many kilometres as possible. A total of 21 of our colleagues actively participated and diligently collected kilometres. They left their cars on 251 days and covered a distance of 2.974 km by bicycle. This saved 0.59 tonnes of CO2. This not only improves our fitness and enhances our attitude to life, but also makes a valuable contribution to reducing the company's CO2 emissions.