Environmental protection is a core value of our strategy. We have been calculating our carbon footprint since 2009, with the aim of measuring the impact of the action we have taken to protect the environment. Today we can say that our ongoing efforts to lower our carbon emissions have paid off! Since our first calculations in 2009, we have reduced our emissions by 22.4% in ten years.
We have implemented a number of measures to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
- Reduction of distances between manufacturing sites and shipto parties by opening new sites and via the use of subcontractors.
- Optimisation of our packaging in 2008 following a study conducted by a student of the Packaging and Conditioning Engineering School (ESIReims) in Reims. This study has allowed us to optimise the dimensions and thickness of the packaging for all of our product references and enabled us to offer advice to our customers and distributors with regard to their own packaging.
- Use of renewable raw materials and more lightweight materials, such as HORTIFIBRE®, TURBOFIBRE® and WOODPEAT®. These are renewable within a human lifetime and allow us to halve, or even completely replace, the peat in our soil mixes.
- Reduction of the weight of our products, thanks to these raw materials, which has allowed us to increase the volumes we can transport per lorry. As a result, we have reduced our transport mileage and the tonnage transported, considerably reducing the carbon footprint of our downstream freight haulage operations. Florentaise grants licenses abroad for these unique raw materials by engaging in partnerships with companies sharing the same activity, in order to disseminate our technology throughout the world and thus help to reduce the commercial destruction of peatlands.
- Waste management: The Group’s 9 factories rigorously manage their industrial waste. Out of concern for the environment, each factory has provided for the recycling of cardboard, plastic, wood, metal and glass, etc. This waste is then taken care of by external companies specialised in the recycling and recovery of these materials.
- Renewable energies: In 2012, FLORENTAISE installed 8,500 m2 of solar panels at its Lavilledieu site in southeastern France.
The concept of low-carbon economy is nothing new to FLORENTAISE, and the company has already witnessed its beneficial impact on its activities. However, we wish to take matters a step further and entirely compensate for our GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. This has numerous benefits. It offers our employees the opportunity to work and evolve in a company that respects the environment and which has a truly meaningful CSR policy. For our customers, it means having access to high-quality and environmentally-friendly products that allow them to reduce their own GHG emissions thanks to our efforts. For the company, it means successfully implementing a long-term approach and banking on the future by proving that it is possible to reconcile environmental protection and economic performance in an industrial setting.
