Kobe Bakery Cologne Receives First-Year “Kobe SDGs Encouragement Award

　On March 27, Cologne, a long-established bakery in Kobe (headquartered at 1 Mikage-nakamachi, Higashinada-ku, Kobe City), announced that it had received the Kobe SDGs Encouragement Award at the 2022 Kobe SDGs Awards.

Kobe SDGs Commendation Award Ceremony

　The “Kobe SDGs Commendation” established by the City of Kobe is a commendation system under which the “Kobe SDGs Grand Prize,” “Kobe SDGs Merit Prize,” and “Kobe SDGs Encouragement Prize” are presented to organizations or individuals who have contributed to the achievement of the SDGs in order to realize a sustainable city by achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (hereinafter “SDGs”). In this inaugural year, one organization was selected for the Grand Prize, three for the Distinguished Service Award, and two for the Encouragement Award.

　Cologne” was founded in Mikage in 1946 and has directly operated stores in the Kobe area. Chocoppe, Mikage melon bread, and croissant bagels are said to be popular.

　The third-generation president, Go Tsuboi, says, “We have been working closely with the local community to improve our operations and aim to create a highly sustainable bakery that makes people involved with our bread happy. In recent years, the company has been working to solve social issues through its business in order to achieve SDGs goals and realize a sustainable society. In September 2021, the store opened its first sustainable bakery, Hibi Cologne, which aims to “create a virtuous cycle in the world while enjoying shopping,” and also launched an economic cycle bakery that reduces food waste loss In December of the same year, the store launched “Tsunagupan,” a new sales system for bread that is designed to reduce food waste and create an economic cycle.

　Tsunagupan” was born out of the desire to “create a simple system in which sales of discarded bread would lead to the resolution of environmental and social issues in a chain reaction,” and the system enables customers to purchase unsold bread, thereby reducing food loss and helping the socially vulnerable at the same time, which was the reason for this year’s award. This was the reason for the award.

　As a result of this initiative, the amount of unsold bread has been reduced from 11% to 2% of the total. A total of 7,894 bags of bread have been sold in the year since the program began, up to December 30, 2011.

　Mr. Tsuboi attended the award ceremony held at Kobe City Hall on March 24 and said, “I am very honored that ‘Tsunagupan’ received the Encouragement Award. The entire staff is delighted that our bakery business has been recognized not only for selling bread, but also for our efforts to help solve various social and environmental issues. Encouraged by the award, we will continue to set even higher goals and make further efforts in the future.