Controlling energy, water and refrigerants consumption

The Group Carrefour employees mobilize every day to reduce the environmental impact of the store. The first objective is to limit energy, refrigerant and water consumption and to promote clean energy as much as possible.

For example, since several years, an energy Centralised Technical Management has been implemented: the energy consumption is driven by a software enabling to adjust it.
Carrefour in France has also signed in 2005 a energy performance contract with Schneider Electric. The objective is to cut store energy consumption by 10-15%.
See the Press Release:

Managing waste

The second objective is to cut waste by reducing the packaging of own brand and banner brand products, developing the use of reusable containers and encouraging the sorting of waste and innovative recycling networks.A waste management, water and energy consumption reduction policy has been implemented since 1994.

Preserving natural resources

The third objective is to conserve natural resources, in particular by taking action with regard to the paper used to print advertising catalogues and brochures.
The Group’s objective at a European level is to use only paper made from recycled and/ or certified sources by 2008.
In 2005, the Group’s European paper purchasing office bought 203,000 tons of paper, of which 84% is from certified wood/ and / or recycled sources, up from 71% in 2004 and 64% in 2003.
The Group also promotes the reduction of the paper grammage, which enabled to record a decrease in 7.8% of its paper consumption/sqm of sale area between 2004 and 2005, on a like-for-like basis.

An environmental impact assessment of catalogues
In partnership with La Poste, Mediaposte and the ADEME, Carrefour has conducted a life-cycle-analysis on a catalogue. All the stages in the life of the catalogue (paper production, ink, staples, transport, printing, catalogue production, distribution and end of life)were studied. The study was subjected to a critical review in accordance with ISO 14040 standards, and its results confirmed that Carrefour’s action were on the right track, in particular with respect to using low-grammage paper and recycled and/or certified wood pulp from well-managed forest.

See the press release:

An environmental impact assessment of checkout bags

In allying greater customer choice with the group’s quest to reduce environmental impacts Carrefour proposes alternatives to the disposable plastic checkout bag with practical and low cost reusable bags and in some countries reusable foldable boxes. Following the Group’s continuous search for progress and improvement and in addition to developing alternative solutions, Carrefour organised a study to provide quantified, robust data detailing the environmental impact of 4 types of bag: plastic, paper, biodegradable and reusable. The environmental impacts associated with each step in the life cycle were evaluated: production of materials (plastic, paper, biodegradable material, glue, inks, etc.), bag manufacturing, transport and end of life management. This study, the first to be completed according to the international standards for life cycle assessments (ISO14040 – 14043), was peer reviewed to complete its validation and enable the diffusion in complete transparency.
To download the study :

 

Offering environmental-friendly alternatives to our customers

To enable its customers to adopt more responsible habits, the Group proposes an alternative to disposable checkout bags, in each of its banners and in most of the countries where it operates.
It has also set up collection programs for used oil and batteries as well as electronic waste so as to route these to recycling systems.