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The climate strategy, launched mainly by knowledge of the climate urgency, has allowed a reduction of 26% of the impact by understanding which parts of the activity are the most emitting and how to decarbonize them effectively.
No more navigating by sight and disparate actions, hello structured climate plan and boosted employer brand!
What was your CSR strategy before contacting Sami?
The societal and social dimensions were and are still managed by our human resources team.
Being aware of ecological issues, we wanted to do things right, without really knowing how.
The group has been implementing actions for several years to limit its impact: waste sorting, recycled paper, composters.
These first steps helped us get started, we quickly saw the limit of navigating by sight without knowing the relevance of the actions put in place.
Had you already done a carbon assessment?
No, before, we thought that carbon assessments were reserved for large companies.
By implementing our first actions, it quickly became apparent that advancing by sight was complicated: which actions to implement? What is emitting in the company's activity? What is the impact of possible actions, are they worth the efforts of implementation?
The carbon assessment then appeared as a first indispensable step to have a concrete and quantified strategy.
Many people on the team are sensitive to ecological issues, but no one had yet pushed to integrate these issues into the company.
Since then, we have carried out 3 successive assessments, in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and the one for 2022 is being finalized.
Who launched the idea of doing the first carbon assessment and why?
It was me, after doing my personal carbon assessment, I understood the importance of this tool and I proposed to Scybl to implement it. I was surprised to receive a positive and favorable welcome right away.
Launching a carbon assessment requires motivation, knowledge, and time to devote to it. I was motivated, I had a basic knowledge that I was able to supplement on my own and when you know the issues, you find the time to devote to it.
Motivated by the group's altruism, the CSR approach also serves other no less importantissues : brand image, employer brand, competitive differentiation, respect for legislation, etc.
Today there are many reasons for companies to be concerned about their CSR policy, notably by doing a carbon assessment and beyond that by adopting a climate strategy.
How was the carbon assessment received internally?
The approach was very well received internally, I received a lot of very encouraging positive feedbacks.
The collective intelligence put in place around the action plan was indispensable to advance the approach effectively, the actions not being able to be implemented alone.
Some resistances to change have of course appeared, I made sure to take the time to explain the issues to the whole team, to raise awareness of the importance of questioning our ways of doing things and the fact that we all gain by improving.
Getting the teams engaged in implementing the action plan was more complicated. The desire was there, but the climate could quickly take a back seat, amidst already well-filled to-do lists.
It was when we explicitly allocated time slots to each person to contribute to the climate plan during their working hours that things really started to move quickly.
Why did you choose Sami?
After contacting different service providers, we chose Sami because the contact with the teams was very good and the proposed rate was very interesting in view of the precision of the calculations and the support included.
What do you think of the work done with Sami?
The approach makes the climate initiative accessible and simple, which helped Scybl get started.
Thanks to Sami, we were able to define and launch a real strategy, where we were advancing a bit blindly before.
Now, we have a global vision, we know where we want to go and how to get there.
After understanding how to conduct a carbon footprint by doing the first one, we were able to save a lot of time on collecting the necessary data for the next three, going from 2 weeks of work for the first to 2-3 days for the fourth.
The support of our carbon expert Matthias is also appreciable, in addition to a good relationship, he is always available, ready to help and to answer our questions when necessary. He has made us relevant recommendations for actions and gives us useful advice to implement them.
What are the main lessons from your carbon footprint?
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Doing a first assessment helped us better understand the impact of our activity in terms of emissions, have a global vision and establish a real strategy.
The results of the carbon footprint surprised us: we suspected that the majority of our emissions would come from the purchase of the products we resell. We didn't suspect that they made up nearly 90% of our impact!
In light of the carbon footprint, we have refocused our energy on the actions with the greatest reduction potential, necessarily focusing on our purchases: reworking the offer, proposing new less carbon-intensive products and services, etc.
I knew most of the actions we selected in our action plan. What the carbon footprint brought us are numbers to prioritize them and focus our efforts on the most effective ones.
A very simple example: I was wondering what to choose between an electric hand dryer and paper towels. I thought that the impact of the electric hand dryer, despite its manufacture, would be lower over several years than consuming dozens of rolls of paper per year. Yet when we quantified the impact, the verdict was clear: the paper rolls are less emitting even over several years.
What impact reduction targets have been set?
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Our objectives are aligned with the recommendations of the Science-Based Targets (SBT): a 7% annual reduction in our economic carbon intensity until 2030.
We have largely achieved the objective in 2020 with a 20% reduction in our economic carbon intensity, necessarily helped by the health crisis.
The rebound was mechanically visible in 2021, but controlled: if we look between 2019 and 2021 our carbon intensity has decreased by 26% i.e. an average annual reduction of 13% higher than our 7% objective.
We are now waiting for the result of our 2022 carbon footprint to see if the actions implemented have borne fruit and adjust our action plan accordingly.
Does the climate initiative help you achieve your other initial objectives?
Internally, the objectives are met: the whole team is aware of the approach, the ambition and the roles are well defined.
In terms of impact on the employer brand, it's hard to track the impact of our CSR approach, what I can say from experience, is that for a recent recruitment, 9 out of 10 candidates mentioned our CSR approach, because it is well highlighted on our website and in our documents.
I think there is an impact on the number and quality of people who apply, all the more so for junior positions, young people seem even more sensitive to these issues.
What are the next steps in your action plan?
We have established an annual action plan that I coordinate, in which each action is led by a group of 2 to 3 people.
We started with the simplest and most obvious actions to get the machine running: supplies, energy, waste, or even customer gifts.
This year, we continue in this vein by tackling more technical and structural actions, such as developing a new low-carbon product catalog to offer more sustainable options than the products listed in our classic catalog.
Encouraging our customers to favor these options is virtuous for our own carbon footprint by reducing the impact of our inputs, as we select eco-designed products that have a lower carbon footprint than their classic equivalent.
This also directly reduces the carbon footprint of our customers for the same reason: everyone wins!
