Edwyn

Analysis: Waste and Recycling in the CAC 40

This project’s goal was to search for information concerning waste (in general), by assessing 3 of the 40 most powerful French companies, from CAC40. Waste and recycling are part of the actual concerns of the UN, so I decide to choose 3 firms acting in 3 different markets, thus I would obtain a global overview of waste in its different forms, and how company manage to fight against it.

The metrics in this section were all based on amount of waste produced, recycling waste amount, and natural & renewable gas consumption. Comparing the results per year for each company gave us insights about the evolution of anti-waste and recycling actions that those firms settled.

The first firm, Sodexo, is a leader in the dishes made for schools and universities, but also a highly active company concerning sustainability, especially food waste and recycling. The second one, Pernot-Ricard, world-wide leader in wine & spirits, manages to limit waste concerning water, and renewing it, and finally, Danone, eternal leader of the yogurt and milk market.

New measures are appearing, projects are born such as the WasteWatch program, powered by LeanPath and created by Sodexo. This worldwide initiative aims to identify waste causes (related to food) and elaborate an action plan to reduce it. Sodexo sites using this plan are supposed reduce by 45% their food waste within 2 to 6 months. Sodexo also created the IFWC (International Food Waste Coalition), that aims to reduce food eaten outside home waste (PepsiCo and McCain are also part of the coalition). Finally, a food tracking system permitted the company to avoid over 483 tons of pre-consumer food waste (over 1.07 million pounds). Danone on its side, claimed that their goal was to cut by 50% CO2 emission by 2030. Concerning recycling water, Danone mentioned in their 2016 CSR report that they are building up water cycles on their farming sites to save a re-use water to decrease waste. Yet, the full scope is to cut gas emission. Pernot Ricard’s main sustainable goal was to cut emission related to natural gas consumption and protect its own sites (“Protéger son terroir” – Suze brand example). Their CSR 2015 report was encouraging, unfortunately, the group did not follow its engagements: P.R increased its CO2 gas emission by 3.4% from 2015 to 2016.

Overall, efforts are made by these French national firms and means to achieve long term fixed goals are increasing every year, it will not be sufficient to achieve the target objectives. The 2015 UN report concerning sustainable development goals (SDGs) showed to the world an alarming situation: most of the previous goals have not been reached, but many new ones appeared such as: End hunger; Fight waste and recycle in “Climate action” goal.

This project underlined the limit of the figures provided by the companies: most of the figures were percentages and there is no indication with exact numbers, probably to avoid deep external researches. Most of the firms communicate the information they want; those figures are meticulously filtered before being published. Another disappointed point is that any of these 3 companies communicate clearly about the amount they recycle. Many reports mention the amount of waste avoided within the year, but only few concerning recycling figures. Both Danone and Sodexo sell and produce perishable goods, which implies a high risk of waste, and it is nearly impossible to reach the 0% waste, as there will always remain stocks. The best alternative would be to increase partnerships with NGOs and program fighting malnutrition worldwide, or even local ones (for example by distributing unsold goods that would initially end up in trashes because of strict regulations in the food industry). Pernod Ricard strongly supports the UN SDGs especially concerning saving water, recycling it and cleaning it (goal 6 “Clean Water &Sanitation”).

It is encouraging for the future when we take a look to these actions, projects, program or partnerships because the more they increase, the more changes may occur. But I strongly believe that transparency in communication of information may be a priority too. Most of the companies only highlight their “sustainable action” and all of its encouraging results but nothing else, and we need the total amount of information required to completely trust those firms’ actions mentioned in their CSR report. Furthermore, recycling measures are still low compared to other ones, and finding new ones may unlock the actual situation and help to reach SDGs.