- In the lead up to the COP 21 climate talks in Paris, Kingfisher plc is pleased to announce that it has signed the “French Business Climate Pledge”, launched today.
- 39 businesses have signed the pledge, demonstrating their commitment to combating climate change, to making COP 21 a success and to limiting the warming of the earth to 2°C.
- The pledge includes aggregated commitments from these companies in terms of investments to fight against climate change, such as the use of renewable energy and the systematic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the lifecycle of their products.
39 major French companies take concrete action to combat climate change
PARIS, 2015-11-27 — /EPR Retail News/ — In the lead-up to the Paris climate summit (COP 21), 39 major French companies, employing a total of 4.4 million people worldwide and generating sales of 1,200 billion euros, have made a firm commitment to combat climate change. By signing this climate pledge, they want to contribute to making COP 21 a success and to limiting the warming of the Earth to 2°C. They emphasize their driving role and leadership in the fight for a more sustainable world.
Active since many years, these companies are taking concrete steps to reduce their carbon footprint through:
- The use of active and passive energy efficiency solutions,
- The use of renewable energy, notably hydro, wind or solar energy,
- The systematic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the life cycle of their products,
- The development of new low-carbon materials and solutions,
- The reduction of food waste and packaging,
- The adoption of long-term investment strategies actively promoting the energy transition.
From 2016 to 2020, the 39 companies plan to invest at least 45 billion euros in industrial projects and R&D devoted to renewable energy, energy efficiency and other low carbon technologies. Over the same period, they also intend to provide bank and bond financing of at least 80 billion euros for projects contributing to the fight against climate change.
In addition, they foresee low carbon investments of 15 billion euros in new nuclear capacities and investments of 30 billion euros in natural gas as energy transition solution, planned over the next five years.
THE SIGNATORIES
Augustin de Romanet, chairman and chief executive officer of Aéroports de Paris
Patrick Kron, chairman and chief executive officer of Alstom
Philippe Varin, chairman of the AREVA board of directors
Thierry Le Hénaff, chairman and chief executive officer of Arkema
Vianney Mulliez, chairman of the Auchan supervisory board
Jean-Philippe Puig, managing director of Avril
Henri de Castries, chairman and chief executive officer of Axa
Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, chief executive officer of BNP Paribas
Georges Plassat, chairman and chief executive officer of Carrefour
Philippe Brassac, chief executive officer of Crédit Agricole SA
Emmanuel Faber, chief executive officer of Danone
Jean-Bernard Lévy, chairman and chief executive officer of EDF
Max Roche, chief executive officer of Eiffage
Philippe Salle, chairman and chief executive officer of Elior
Gérard Mestrallet, chairman and chief executive officer of Engie
Jean-Charles Decaux, chief executive officer of JCDecaux
François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of Kering
Véronique Laury, chief executive officer of Kingfisher
Bruno Lafont, co-chairman of the LafargeHolcim board of directors
Philippe Wahl, chairman and chief executive officer of Groupe La Poste
Gilles Schnepp, chairman and chief executive officer of Legrand
Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and chief executive officer of L’Oréal
Jean-Dominique Senard, chairman of Michelin
Stéphane Richard, chairman and chief executive officer of Orange
Maurice Lévy, chairman of the Publicis Groupe board of directors
Elisabeth Borne, chairwoman and chief executive officer of RATP
Rudy Provoost, chairman and chief executive officer of Rexel
Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain
Olivier Brandicourt, chief executive officer of Sanofi
Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman and chief executive officer of Schneider Electric
Denis Kessler, chairman and chief executive officer of SCOR SE
Guillaume Pépy, chairman of the SNCF
Frédéric Oudéa, chief executive officer of Société Générale
Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, chairman of Solvay’s Executive Committee and Solvay’s CEO
Jean-Louis Chaussade, chief executive officer of Suez
Patrick Pouyanné, chairman of Total’s Executive Committee and Total’s CEO
Jacques Aschenbroich, chief executive officer of Valeo
Antoine Frérot, chairman and chief executive officer of Veolia
Xavier Huillard, chairman and chief executive officer of Vinci
Read the announcement in French
Download the English announcement
Kingfisher – our concrete commitments
Kingfisher and its retail brands commit to tackling climate change
Kingfisher plc is an international home improvement company which operates nearly 1,200 stores in 10 countries in Europe. Its main brands are B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt and Screwfix. Kingfisher also operates the Koçtaş joint venture in Turkey.
The company has an ambition to bring a positive contribution to the environment: creating economic, social and environmental value by fully integrating sustainability into business as usual.
Kingfisher’s convictions
That’s why, in the frame of the discussions around COP 21, Kingfisher strongly states :
- Its support in favour of a 2C-compliant low carbon economy
- Its belief that the low carbon agenda is good for business and the wider economy ;
- Its wish to support low carbon innovations, especially in the fields of its business.
Kingfisher’s commitments
Kingfisher believes it can fight against climate change with every day, affordable, products, while reducing its own carbon footprint. That’s why the business has made the following commitments by 2020:
- To actively fight deforestation, achieve 100% responsibly sourced timber (certified or recycled) – the organization has already reached 92% ;
- To reduce the environmental footprint of stores, by decreasing energy consumption by 45% (from a 2010/11 baseline) – so far the business has reduced by 17%;
- To enable customers to make their home more comfortable, affordable and sustainable, Kingfisher’s retail brands have developed a quality offer in terms of products and services, at an affordable price with an ambition to enable customers to save 38 TWh – so far customers have saved 8.6 TWh through purchasing Kingfisher products and services
More broadly, the company has set the objective of a 25% reduction of its absolute CO2 emissions by 2020.
Outreach actions
To contribute to awareness-raising amongst stakeholders about fighting against climate change, Kingfisher has launched several initiatives:
- Joining several business campaigns calling for an ambitious agreement on climate;
- Communicating to customers the importance of climate change and about the concrete solutions offered;
- Raising awareness amongst employees; .
- Sharing with the public our commitments at « Solutions COP 21 » at the Grand Palais from December 4th to 10th.
Media
3 Sheldon Square
Paddington
London
W2 6PX
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7372 8008
pressenquiries@kingfisher.com
Nigel Cope
Head of Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7372 8008
nigel.cope@kingfisher.com
Clare Feast
Media Relations Manager
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7372 8008
clare.feast@kingfisher.com
SOURCE: Kingfisher plc