Environment
As an electrical retailer we have a relatively low direct environmental impact, but we still wish to minimise the environmental impact of all our operations throughout the group. We also want to ensure that neither our products nor our operations adversely affect the health of our customers, our employees or the community at large.
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As the European market leader in large white goods, we specialise in offering our customers specific advice on the energy efficiency of our ranges. This enables them to make informed buying decisions in terms of power and water consumption. We also offer practical advice, in store and on the web, on how to use the products in the most efficient way and help dispose of them at end of life.
This programme is tailored to each of our markets and is currently in its most advanced stages of implementation at our major operations in France and the UK and is being adopted across the Group. In addition, we were the first retailer in the UK to test the energy efficiency of all the televisions, DVD players and computers we sell and then promote the better performing products. Darty France devotes two pages in its monthly magazine “Darty et vous”, and has a dedicated section on its website, on environmental matters.
A major Group strength is its ability to facilitate the recycling of large white goods, helped by the efficient “reverse logistics” capability. Annually we recycle over 60,000 tonnes of products, representing more than 50 per cent of products sold. Darty France alone collected over 39,000 tonnes of products for recycling in 2010, which is 35 per cent more than in 2007. We believe this makes us the leading MDA recycler in Europe and we still have further opportunities to improve as our Developing businesses gain scale in their markets and grow their logistics infrastructures.
We also aim to reduce the amount of packaging we use and ensure that it can be recycled. We collect all waste packaging when delivering a household appliance unless the customer requests otherwise. At Darty France, BCC and Vanden Borre we have specialised equipment that compresses all polystyrene packaging collected from customers’ homes for recycling and re-use as garden furniture. At Darty France, packaging waste is also collected from the warehouses and after-sales service centres and annually it recycles over 40,000 tonnes of packaging waste.
The ongoing rapid development of new technology creates increasingly high levels of hazardous electronic and electrical waste, which is the background for the WEEE Directive. Its aim is to minimise the impact of electrical and electronic equipment on the environment when those products eventually become waste. In order to sell products within the EU manufacturers must demonstrate compliance with the new regulations. This means that electrical retailers must extend their take back facilities to cover all categories including smaller appliances such as kettles and microwaves. We also have in-store collection points for batteries and Darty France has been so successful that it now collects and recycles more batteries than it actually sells.
Additional projects from around the Group include 109 centrally based Building Management systems at Comet to control all energy usage in the stores, reducing consumption without affecting customers’ in-store experience; 40 stores now have some LED lighting installed and store managers have specific energy-saving targets. Vanden Borre has an ongoing campaign to reduce plastic bag usage,which has seen total bag usage decreased by 38 per cent against rising sales. Vanden Borre’s new warehouse has been fitted with solar panels that produce enough power for over 270 households.
