How to reduce your carbon footprint and become a committed company?

Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development challenges

A company's climate strategy is a significant competitive advantage because, in addition to generating substantial savings, it places the company on a path of continuous improvement. This approach falls within the concept of corporate social responsibility, more commonly known as CSR, which refers to the contribution of companies to sustainable development goals, across environmental, social, and economic dimensions.

In this article, we will outline, through examples, effective practices for reducing your company's carbon footprint.

Reducing your carbon footprint through waste reduction and recycling

To effectively reduce your carbon footprint, it is always worthwhile to seek to limit waste production. Paper and water are two resources that are heavily used in businesses and whose consumption could be reduced.

Paper is the most significant office waste in France. The raw material used — wood — comes from deforestation, and its production is highly water-intensive, making its carbon footprint far from negligible. To address this, it is possible to:

• Limit printing and recycle ink cartridges,

• Use recycled paper,

• Use both sides of sheets of paper,

• Use scrap paper.

It is also possible, and advisable, to reduce water consumption. L'Oréal, rated "A" by the NGO CDP for low-carbon investments, uses "dry factories". At these production sites, the water consumed is exclusively reserved for product formulation or human consumption. Water used in industrial processes, such as tank cleaning, is purified and reused in other on-site processes. Setting up a dry factory is now made possible by highly effective wastewater purification technologies, such as ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and evaporative concentration.

Promoting public transport and limiting business travel

Transport makes a significant contribution to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Companies can reduce their carbon footprint by promoting public transport, or by investing in a car-sharing fleet. To indirectly limit transport, it is also possible to adopt remote working, at least a few days per week. By implementing an effective videoconferencing system, it is also possible to drastically limit business travel, which is often highly kerosene-intensive.

Metron, a company developing intelligent systems to reduce the carbon footprint of industries, is implementing innovative technologies in the service of transport decarbonisation. Their artificial intelligence system collects data on vehicle consumption to manage the large-scale shift of transport to electric and enable efficient charging, drastically reducing overall energy consumption.

Prioritising local supply chains

To limit the emission of significant volumes of CO2 during transactions and thus drastically reduce your carbon footprint, it is also important to prioritise local supply chains, by opting for partnerships at a local scale.

This strategy has been adopted by Danone, whose ambition is to source ingredients coming entirely from French regenerative agriculture by 2025. This approach is part of their carbon neutrality ambition.

Other solutions of various kinds

There are other ways to limit your carbon footprint. Among these is carbon offsetting, which refers to initiatives such as reforestation or agroforestry, which enable carbon sequestration through ecosystem restoration.

It is also advisable to limit energy consumption, by prioritising the use of a laptop over a desktop computer, or by using multifunction devices. The most impactful step is to switch from fossil energy to green energy, if not already done. To improve energy efficiency in industry, it is also very useful to carry out an energy audit, to benefit from better energy performance.

Likewise, combating planned obsolescence and practising mindful internet use are among the recommendations. Among the more concrete tips are:

• Keep only essential emails,

• Unsubscribe from unnecessary newsletters,

• Limit recipients to the strict minimum,

• Take time to formulate queries carefully

Adopting a circular model

Ultimately, the most overarching goal today is to produce goods and services whilst limiting the consumption and waste of raw materials and non-renewable energy sources. This goal can be achieved by operating "in a loop", thereby abolishing the concept of "waste". This is what is known as the circular economy. Each company can, through its own management, participate in establishing a circular system.

However, sometimes a CSR strategy is no longer sufficient to make significant progress. Faced with a systemic barrier, it can sometimes be difficult for companies to move beyond declarations of intent and commit in a sustainable way. It may then become necessary to redefine the company's "purpose", in order to evolve its governance.

By drawing on these tips and exploring strategies tailored to your processes, you will be able to reconcile performance with sustainable development.