round table oecdcarrefour participated in 2008 to raise supplier awareness on opportunities and...

Round table OECD

April 15th, 2010

Group Sustainability Department P.2 - 15 avril 2010 Véronique Discours-Buhot

Ethicity’s survey


Ethicity’s survey

Même chiffre qu’en 2008


Ethicity’s survey


Sustainability and Responsible Commerce :

Reducing the environmental impact of our products and

helping our customers to reduce their environmental

footprint

1. Why giving consumers carbon footprint information is not an

appropriate solution 2. How we are using Life Cycle Assessments to drive

environmental improvement strategies 3. How we are raising supplier awareness on environmental issues 4. How we are promoting sustainable consumption


1. Why giving consumers carbon footprint

information is not an appropriate solution


Evaluation of systematic product environmental

footprinting

Carrefour conducted a number of simplified product environmental life cycle assessments with Accenture to gain insight into the feasibility of making systematic environmental footprinting in order to provide consumers with detailed information

Simplified life cycle assessment of packaged organic sliced ham:

Eutrophisation impact

from the life cycle of

packaged organic sliced

ham

1 slice of organic ham: 389 gCO2e or 1,5% of typical daily emissions 4,125 l water consumption or 2,5% of typical daily consumption 1 pack of organic sliced ham: 39g packaging waste


Evaluation of systematic product environmental

footprinting

Simplified life cycle assessment of organic pasta

1 portion of organic pasta: 149 gCO2e or 0,6% of typical daily emissions 1,03 l water consumption or 0,6% of typical daily consumption 1 pack of organic pasta: 20g packaging waste

Acidification impact from

the life cycle of organic

pasta:


Evaluation of systematic product

environmental footprinting What we learnt : 1. Carbon footprinting alone is insufficient as there are other environmental

impacts such as air and water pollution, waste production, biodiversity…. The importance of the other impacts varies depending on the product.

2. All steps in the life cycle need to be considered (from raw material production,

transformation, packaging, transport and distribution, to use and disposal) in order to avoid ignoring a major environmental impact (e.g. often significant impacts are in the use phase)

3. Product life cycles are complex requiring the collection of lots of different data

from the supply chain. A simplified assessment tends to use more standard, average values therefore providing a more average / less specific result.

4. Many hypotheses are employed in the absence of specific data and knowledge

on the manufacturing, logistics, use and end-of-life scenarios. These hypotheses often influence significantly the results.

5. Given the complexity and variability of product life cycles, quantitative results

are not precise. They give an idea of scale and importance (i.e. identify hotspots) and they need to be understood in context, i.e. in an LCA report where the limits of the study, the hypotheses used etc. are explained.


Evaluation of systematic product

environmental footprinting

What we believe : Life cycle assessments (LCA) are a useful tool to help analyse the environmental

impacts of a product throughout its life cycle. LCA results need to be understood in the context of the specific product studied

(country, supply chain…), the hypotheses used and the limits of the study LCA results can be used to help identify the environmental « hotspots » and as such

the priorities for action plans to reduce the environmental footprint in the supply chain

LCA results often need to be completed with other considerations such as the

evaluation of the product impact on biodiversity Simplification and the use of standard data reduce the quality and thus the value of

LCA results There would be an uncompressible cost of conducting systematic LCA even if

simplified. Communicating such information to the consumer would require even more control

and verification of data at further cost


2. How we are using LCA to drive environmental

improvement strategies


2003/2004 : 1st retailer to conduct an LCA

on bags

Published, peer reviewed LCA, according to ISO14040, on

checkout bags

The study found that the major hotspot* (*main activity

contributing to environmental impacts) was the production of

plastic.

The Group strenghtened actions to promote reusable checkout

bags thus reducing the number of disposable bags and the

quantity of plastic consumed.

Since 2004 the number of checkout bags per sq.m have been

more than halved.


2005/2006 : LCA on catalogues

Published, peer reviewed LCA according to ISO14040

The major hotspot was the production of paper.

In addition to promoting recycled and certified

sustainable forest management fibre the Group

increased efforts to limit overall paper consumption. For

example through lower paper weight.

Average paper weight has been reduced by 6% saving 20 k t

of paper in 2007 compared to 2005.


2007/2008 : LCA on packaging and

products

2007 : LCA on shelf ready packaging:

This comparative study confirmed the key drivers of environmental performance

for transport packaging: material resource use and pallet optimisation.

The findings and recommendations were communicated internally to supply chain

and merchandise organisations.

2008 : LCA on own-brand food product : frozen green beans

2008 : LCA on own-brand non-food product : car windscreen washer fluid


3. How we are raising supplier awareness on

environmental issues


Raising supplier awareness on

environmental issues

Development and diffusion of a tool to enable suppliers to auto-evaluate

themselves on environmental management

Supplier visits to review environmental management

Supplier surveys on environmental issues such as palm oil and soya use

in own-brand products

Carbon Disclosure Project – Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration

Carrefour participated in 2008 to raise supplier awareness on opportunities and risks

associated with greenhouse gas emissions and climate change

Request for information sent to > 500 own-brand suppliers


4. How we are promoting sustainable

consumption


Meeting customer expectations

Low priced products which meet their needs and which have a minimum impact on the environment

Therefore we consider that the consumer wants specific information, especially if this will not cost

more and if that permits an easier decision.

Spending less time in-store to do their shopping Therefore we consider that the consumer does not necessarily want to spend more time reviewing

more information in our stores

Wanting « to do their bit » to reduce their environmental impact and contribute to making the planet and their local environment a better place to live

Therefore we consider that the consumer appreciates simple messages and information that help

them « act » - For example : energy efficiency tips, wash right tips,…

A growing, but still minority, segment of consumers who want to purchase environmentally friendlier products – identified by third party certification/labels

Therefore we develop a growing range of organic, eco-labelled and environmental friendly products


A growing offer of affordable

environmentally friendlier products

We are committed to making our environmentally friendlier products affordable to as many of our customers as possible

2008

• New cosmetics organic line

• New MSC products


Carrefour Quality Lines - fresh produce

integrating environmental criteria with regular

supplier controls


Many own-brand EU eco-labelled

products

In 2007 Carrefour sold more than 14 million household care eco labelled products in

France, Italy, Spain and Belgium

Dishwashing detergents

Hand dishwashing detergents

Laundry detergents

All purpose cleaners

Tissue paper

Paints


Carrefour Agir Eco-planète – meeting consumer

demands for environmental friendly products


A large range of certified Carrefour organic

products


Films Carrefour Agir Bio

Movie shown from the 22nd of April to the 4th of May:



Movie shown from the 22nd of April to the 4th of May and from the 2nd to the 5th of June:



Movie shown from the 2nd to the 15th of June :


Raising awareness through

communication in our catalogues


Developing promotional offers :

during the Sustainability Week

round table oecdcarrefour participated in 2008 to raise supplier awareness on opportunities and...

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