"Responsibility is the key term for the future of the world," as the former UN secretary Kofi Annan once said. For for Karstadt Warenhaus corporate social responsibility is part of the core strategy.

With increasing globalisation we also have - having been a member of the UN Global Compact since April 2006 - great social responsibility for the behaviour of suppliers in other countries. Therefore our local representatives are monitoring that there are no violations. Trainings and individual talks bring to light possible problems on the suppliers' side and create a sense of responsibility. A code of conduct defines social and ecological rules, which follow the working standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the social standards Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000) accepted worldwide as well as the declaration of the United Nations on human and children's right and the OECD guidelines. Since 2004, we have been involved in the "Business Social Compliance Initiative" (BCSI), which was developed under the roof of the European Foreign Trade Association FTA.

Partnership is the starting point: To enforce the principles of social responsibility and compliance with social and environmental standards in the production facilities of suppliers, we choose a co-operative approach. Because the essential question is not, what the company can do for its suppliers, but what it can do together with its suppliers.
 
Therefore the focus is on promoting responsibility in suppliers.

Thus Karstadt is continually working on improving relationships with suppliers, staff and other groups the company is involved with, because the way in which a company deals with them is a reflection of its own social responsibility.