It is not enough to conscientiously sort your waste or stop flying to stop the destruction of the planet . Unlike citizens (who may feel isolated in the action), companies can change the situation more quickly and significantly by changing their practices.

What measures are not green washing?

What is corporate social responsibility?

Called CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility concerns the effects that a company has on society. It takes into account several dimensions related to sustainable development: the social aspect, the economic aspect, but also and above all, the ecological aspect . Although no law obliges companies to encourage CSR actions, most are committed to making improvements. The largest companies have entire departments dedicated to CSR. This mission ranges from verifying that legal obligations in social and environmental matters are respected, to the implementation of virtuous processes including ethics, eco-design, fairness and many subjects affecting all dimensions of the company, from manufacturing to product development. While these are sometimes concerns largely motivated by the need to communicate and show concern, many companies are making real changes to meet consumer demands and create products that are more respectful of the environment and people.

Measuring the impact of companies on the environment

Companies must first and foremost assess the consequences of their activities on the environment. There are environmental reporting obligations and laws involving public policies to which companies' practices must respond. They must also comply with texts concerning water, biodiversity, energy or waste , among others. To initiate cross-cutting environmental measures in a company, step number 1 is the assessment of its 360° impact, taking into account the legislative framework and the spontaneous initiatives taken by this company, whatever its size and sector of activity. A small internal audit corrects certain simple habits while a life cycle analysis, for example, can trigger real transformations: packaging, waste management, water, air and sometimes soil pollution , even biodiversity . But the very first concern is the company's impact on global warming via greenhouse gas emissions.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions: the carbon footprint

To implement CSR actions to limit the company's impact on the climate, it is first necessary to assess this impact via a carbon footprint . Specialized experts certified by "Carbon footprint" carry out this calculation through a study that takes into account all of the company's positions: from energy consumed to design, including all materials. This assessment costs an average of €8,000 (ADEME can cover the cost up to 70%). This assessment identifies the activities that emit the most CO2. The company then has to find solutions to change its practices: change in the use of natural resources, modification of the production process, transfer of personnel.

Reduce energy consumption

The energy used by the company is more or less polluting and therefore generates CO2. Nuclear power plants produce electricity without emitting much CO2, as do renewable energies. In France, most of the "decarbonized" electricity comes from these resources. On the other hand, all the machines, or sometimes the heating , which run on oil or gas, emit a lot of CO2. These factors vary according to the sector of activity. The company will launch its reconversion plan to find its own low-carbon energy solutions, taking into account its activities relocated abroad.

Furthermore, each company can implement a list of "best practices" without changing processes: turning off lights, appliances every evening and store windows, lowering heating and air conditioning. Small gestures that, if practiced by all companies, would bring about a significant change. And as a bonus, significant savings. Especially since it is possible to automate these small gestures with timers to program the appliances.

Reduce waste

A company can produce a lot of waste, ranging from cardboard that could be recycled, to industrial waste, organic waste in the case of livestock farming or even scraps of materials such as leather, fabric or wood that can be reused. Waste reduction is specific to each company. It can be done at the production level but also internally with staff, and in international subsidiaries if necessary, in accordance with the legislation of the country concerned.

To take action, it is necessary to review the production process upstream to initiate a reduced use of resources, downstream to work on the economy of the materials used and at the end of the cycle to study the recycling, reuse or recovery of waste by selling it to others who will use it, in a principle of circular economy.

Internally, review orders with the person responsible for purchasing to ban single-use items such as cups or stirrers, and set up a recycling system. Why isn't employee waste recycled? Because everyone has their own bin in which they mix cans, leaves and apple cores, emptied by cleaning companies at the end of the day, who cannot sort these individual bins. It is up to the company to set up a system with shared bins available, to sort paper, household waste and plastic.

Switch to eco-design

A company can make efforts without its products being completely eco-designed.

The eco-design of a product (or service) involves manufacturing that has the least possible impact on the environment, throughout its life cycle: raw materials, resources used (such as water), until its end of life. These efforts therefore focus on degradability, packaging, transport, etc. from A to Z! There are environmental labels, known as ecolabels, issued by certification bodies to guarantee respect for the environment. While lightening plastic packaging is beneficial and allows less plastic to be used and waste to be reduced, this is not enough to be able to talk about eco-design. Beware of green washing, which allows companies to highlight an ecological aspect of the product and suggests that it is entirely virtuous when the rest of its production has not improved. In this area, the ISO14001 standard and EMAS registration (or SMEA in French) exist. This eco-audit, resulting from a European regulation, takes voluntary initiatives into account and assesses their environmental performance.

Integrating ecological actions into corporate culture

In addition to installing recycling bins, turning off lights and changing suppliers in favor of more environmentally friendly tools and supplies, many actions are launched directly by management with employees. They are included in the internal regulations or shared with employees, via a charter.

Transportation is one of the sectors that emits the most greenhouse gases: the company can, for example, decide to avoid air travel, facilitate carpooling, reimburse public transport. Granting teleworking days and replacing certain trips with video conferences also avoid transport. A charter can inform employees about computer pollution in order to optimize the sending of emails, heavy attachments or signatures with an image. It is also possible to reduce the printing of documents and use these (non-confidential) as drafts.

The company can limit meat in the company restaurant and cooperate with an association to avoid waste, install water-saving devices in the toilets, resell used equipment to employees or have machines repaired instead of replacing them.

She can offer a mug and a water bottle to her employees to avoid cups and water bottles - two easy anti-plastic gestures to implement -, refillable pens instead of single-use ballpoint pens, etc.

These are all messages also sent to customers and suppliers in order to raise their awareness. The cost of these measures is negligible but if all companies committed to this, the result would be significant.

Professionals from all sectors can take this responsibility for the environment - and it is often easier than you think. And to sustain the initiatives, it is necessary to set up objectives, reporting on results and monitoring to ensure the effectiveness of the action plans and the company's commitments.

Ecology includes humans and engages staff in a common project, at home as well as in the workplace. Whether it is an office, a store, a factory or a field, this state of mind creates strong adhesion and a valuable sense of team that also increases efficiency at work.