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corporate & social responsibility

20 CSR reasons why we're good for everyone

1. We are the UK’s most ethical brand, for the second year running!
2. In 2007 we gave £10.4m (6.9% of our pre-tax profits) to the community
3. We returned £38m of our 2007 profits to our individual members 
4. Committed to ethical trading since 1844 
5. Our climate change strategy has been acknowledged as the best in the UK
6. We are one of the world’s largest purchasers of wind and water power
7. Our wind farm generates enough electricity to power over 9,000 UK homes!
8. We have been recognised as the greenest retailer on the UK high street 
9. Our £2m Green Energy for Schools scheme provides clean, green energy for over 100 schools
10. We’ve built one of the largest in-house office waste-recycling centres in the UK
11. We are the only major food retailer or financial organisation to have received the Queen’s Award for  Enterprise for sustainable development across our operations 
12. We undertook the world’s largest consumer poll on ethics
13. More than 6000 children have visited our farms to see where their food comes from and learn about healthy eating
14. We were the first major retailer to champion Fairtrade
15. We’ve provided clean water to 250,000 people in Africa 
16. We have created a £25m fund to support small business development in the world's poorest countries 
17. We offer the largest range of RSPCA Freedom Food-labelled products in the UK  
18. We were the first major retailer in the UK to have all our own-brand toiletries accredited to the Humane Cosmetics Standard 
19. We are the UK’s only bank to have a customer-led Ethical Policy
20. The Co-operative Insurance is the only business in the UK to have a customer-led Ethical Engagement Policy