As the world's second largest retailer, the Carrefour  Group is commited to democratize and promote sustaianble consumption. The Group is thus developping own brand and banner brand products affordable to evey budget and which integrate environmental criteria.

10 years of organic products

Carrefour launched its first organic own-brand products in 1997. It now offers food products, including children’s food, plus textile products in some countries. The Group plans to launch 18 organic cosmetic products in France in 2008. Hypermarkets and Supermarkets France have the widest range of organic products, with 235 own-brand products and 1,370 national-brand products in hypermarkets. In 2007, the Group hypermarkets marketed 6 700 organic products , of which 16% were own brand products.

 Carrefour Quality Lines

Protecting the environment has historically been onr of the key features of Carrefour Quality Lines. In 2002, the Quality Lines objectives have been formalized: protecting species, crop varieties and ecosystems, maintaining local identity, managing fertile plts of land, checking production inputs, soil contamination and erosion risk, water use, water quality and pollution, controlling effluents, CO2 emissions and refrigerants release, sorting, collecting and recycling waste. These chemicals commitments are were then translated into actual action plans for the fruits and vegetable Quality Lines, such as banning the use of chemicals disinfectants on soils, crop rotation, piecemeal use of fertilisers, banning the chemical treatment of harvest crops….

398 Carrefour Quality Lines marketed in 14 countries

AGIR Eco Planète range

The Group has developed the Carrefour Agir Éco Planète range, which comprises products that are certified (European Ecolabel, FSC, MSC and so on) or which carry an external support. In 2007, the HPC range was extended to include 13 eco-label products marketed in four countries: France, Belgium, Spain and Greece. The non-food sector also offers Agir Éco Planète products, including a fertilizer range suitable for use in organic cultivation (15 products) and a window cleaner produced using natural ingredient. Carrefour also offers numerous national-brand products and/or environmentally-friendly products, including recycled or certified paper, water savers, energy saving products and more.
In 2007, ranges to help households save energy at affordable prices were expanded. Dynamo torches, thermostats and programmers, insulating material, solar energy-powered products and wood fuel were added to our existing range of low-energy light bulbs and rechargeable batteries.
Regarding its wood offer and more particularly wood garden furniture, Carrefour discontinued sales of Teak in France in 2006, and Keruing the following year. In 2007, the Group's international purchasing office confirmed its commitment with an
assortment of outdoor furniture made from FSC Amburana, FSC Eucalyptus and Acacia (non-endangered species according to the IUCN list). Currently, no endangered species is included in list assortment, of which 80% are FSC certified and 20% are in the VFTN process.

      

 

Sustainable Fishing products

Since 2005, the Group has offered a responsible-fishing range in France and Belgium comprising four frozen products – sold at “core market” prices – that guarantee sustainable stock management and respect for the ecosystem. In 2008, the Group plans to launch MSC-certified frozen seafood products under the Carrefour Agir Éco Planète brand. Over the past several years, the Group has been developing a range of quality farm-raised fish with limited environmental impact (example: Carrefour Quality Lines).

Optimizing the Group's own brand products packagings

Since 1996 Carrefour France has integrated environmental concerns into the conception of own-brand product packaging. This approach has achieved savings of over 10 930 tons since 1996 in France. In 2007, the Group packaging standard – a guide to best practices in packaging – was updated and deployed. To protect resources, it uses recycled and recyclable materials such as recycled PET, and prioritizes single-material packaging, which is easier to recycle.
In 2006, the Group developed a wide range of 12 household and personal care eco-label products in France, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Portugal under the Carrefour AGIR Eco Planete and Champion Eco Planete brands. The Group supports all methods aimed at reducing the environmental impact of packaging at the source by offering concentrated or refillable products and it has become an associate member of the AISE Charter for Sustainable Cleaning. The Sustainable Cleaning Charter aims at promoting sustainability practices among companies that produce detergents and other industrial and residential cleaning products.