Interview with Katharina Scheidereiter, CSR Manager Kaufland Romania:

Highlight: “We are interested that the message of a project reaches as large an audience as possible. It is important both for the NGO, which gains visibility, new opportunities, new volunteers, other sources of funding, but also for us, because community investments are a main pillar in the company’s corporate communication strategy, through which we aim to promote best practices in the market, increase reputation or attract new talents.“

1.What is the company’s current CSR strategy and how has it changed since you started?

Active involvement in the communities in which we do business has always been a priority for us, and our commitment has intensified as we have evolved. During 2022, we have strengthened the support given to the five strategic directions of community investments, focusing on projects aimed at education, environmental protection, social issues, sports and health, as well as promoting culture.

We particularly pursue large-scale projects with long-term impact, as well as innovative initiatives, united by a common goal: improving the quality of life in the community. We also quickly adapt to exceptional situations, such as the COVID19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine, and intervene according to needs. The most powerful example for adaptation is the In Stare sa Ajut call for projects, developed within the In Stare de Bine financing platform, which later became a permanent component and now functions as a funding mechanism for projects addressing pressing societal issues, such as consumption of drugs in adolescents.

In Stare de Bine is our annual NGO funding program. In the last 5 years, we have awarded non-refundable grants totalling 1,000,000 euros annually to winning projects and I am glad that, in 2023, we have allocated a budget of 1,200,000 euros.

2.Who are the stakeholders involved and how do you take their input into account?

For social responsibility projects, we collaborate exclusively with non-governmental organizations, with whom we develop and establish the forms of intervention or the appropriate ways of involvement.

Moreover, we consider that the non-profit environment is one of the essential stakeholders for CSR activity. At the same time, we annually ask our clients which social responsibility or sustainability topics are of particular interest to them in relation to the company’s activity, and then we integrate the results into our strategy. Every time we aim to always have a top 3 relevant themes in our action plan and in our communication.

3.Lately, there is a lot of talk about Impact Investing. Are there projects where you have this approach?

Regardless of the terms used, we at Kaufland have always aimed for the investments made to bring added value for the environment, people and society in the long term. As proof, for 5 years we have ranked first in the top of transparent and performing companies in the direction of sustainability at the national level, recognition offered by CST Index.

Moreover, 5 independent market studies, carried out by professional agencies, place us in the top of the companies that carry out sustainability projects at the level of the general public’s perception. This makes us happy but also makes us responsible to continue in this direction.

Whether it’s installing solar panels or green roofs on our stores, planting a network of urban mini-forests or developing measures to reduce food waste, our investments always aim for a consistent impact.

4.How do you measure the success of a program or project?

We have several indicators that we track both on the implementation side of community investment projects and for their visibility. From the pre-funding stage, we ask organizations to detail the identified need, the number of targeted beneficiaries and their geographical area, as well as the project continuation plan at the end of our funding.

We are interested in seeing that the organization has the capacity to implement the project and that the proposed objectives are realistic. And then in the reporting stage we look at the post-implementation data and see if there are notable differences and why these differences occurred, positive or negative.

For us, the greatest success is when the financed project manages to become financially independent, as is the case of „Sol și Suflet”, the first farm with regenerative agriculture in Romania and an educational center for future farmers, which in three years after the launch managed to support itself from its economic activity.

And at the communication level, we are interested that the message of a project reaches as large an audience as possible. It is important both for the NGO, which gains visibility, new opportunities, new volunteers, other sources of funding, but also for us, because community investments are a main pillar in the company’s corporate communication strategy, through which we aim to promote best practices in the market, increase reputation or attract new talents.

5.Do you have examples of communities that you have helped to develop over time, independent of the support offered at the beginning?

 We have strategic partnerships with non-governmental organizations with whom we have undertaken long-term interventions because change takes time. For example, in partnership with „Hope and Homes for Children” we have already built 5 family-type houses, and this translates into a home for over 100 children from the social protection system.

Another relevant example is in the area of the environment, which for us is a priority area, and where we intervene on several levels: firstly we are interested in the elimination of waste from nature and for this we have numerous greening actions with volunteers throughout the country.

Secondly, we make sure that we offer citizens the opportunity to develop responsible behaviors such as collecting recyclable containers at the separate collection machines in our stores, and we complement it with numerous education and awareness campaigns about the importance of environmental protection, aimed especially at the little ones.

The interview was initially published in the bilingual yearbook Community Index Magazine no. 5. You can flip through it here: https://communityindex.ro/community-index-magazine-2023/