Carrefour has announced a series of initiatives aimed at reducing water consumption in its French stores by 10% by 2025.
This goal aligns with the company's broader environmental commitments, having previously signed the Ecowatt and Ecogaz charters in 2022 to enhance energy efficiency.
The new measures come in response to critical water shortages, as France experienced an unprecedented drought in the summer of 2022, followed by exceptionally low rainfall in the winter of 2023.
Water Conservation Efforts
To address the pressing water scarcity, Carrefour began implementing water-saving strategies in 2022
To address the pressing water scarcity, Carrefour began implementing water-saving strategies in 2022.
These initiatives included the installation of water-saving devices in sanitary facilities and the introduction of a closed cooling circuit for refrigeration units.
As part of its operations, Carrefour stores require over 1,000,000 m³ of water annually, with supermarkets consuming 739,000 m³ and other stores utilizing 421,000 m³. Water is crucial for food production, cleaning, and refrigeration processes.
Enhanced Water-Saving Measures
The retailer is now introducing additional measures to further minimize water waste. These include optimizing ice production and installing white-walled units at fish counters, utilizing water-saving guns to regulate flow, installing steam-cleaning ovens when replacing equipment, and investing in diagnostics to identify and repair leaks.
These actions not only aim to conserve water but also fit into Carrefour's biodiversity policy. In June 2023, Carrefour was selected by the Science Based Target initiative to help establish new biodiversity standards among 17 major companies worldwide.
Aiming for a Sustainable Future
Carrefour's action plan seeks to reduce water use by an amount equivalent to 40 Olympic swimming pools by 2025. This initiative is part of an internal campaign launched in July to promote environmentally friendly practices among employees and customers.
"Tackling all forms of waste has been a priority at Carrefour for a long time now. Saving water is a major environmental issue right now, and Carrefour is bolstering its commitments to limit its consumption in stores to exactly what it needs," stated Carine Kraus, Carrefour Group's Executive Director of Engagement.
As part of its commitment to make more efficient use of energy in 2022 with the signing of the Ecowatt and Ecogaz charters, Carrefour is now pledging to make more efficient use of water: it wants to reduce consumption in its France stores by 10% between now and 2025. To achieve this, it has put in place a new series of initiatives designed to tackle water waste.
Water is a precious resource – and humans need to preserve it. In the summer of 2022, France was hit by a drought the likes of which it had not seen since 1959. The winter of 2023 then saw rainfall that was among the lowest ever recorded in history.
Given just how urgent the situation is, Carrefour had already taken the initiative and introduced a number of water-saving solutions back in 2022 to keep consumption to a minimum. These included installing water-saving devices in its sanitary facilities and introducing a closed cooling circuit for its refrigeration facilities.
Carrefour stores water consumption
Carrefour stores in France consume just over 1,000,000 m³ of water: 739,000 m³ of water per year for supermarkets and 421,000 m³ for supermarkets.
Stores need water to operate on a day-to-day basis – and it is used for three purposes in particular:
- Food production: baking bread and pastries, and producing ice for the fish counter;
- Washing shopping trolleys, shopping baskets and waste containers;
- Refrigeration production: operating the vacuum pumps for the closed refrigeration units, and cooling the stores in the event of the fans getting overheated.
Carrefour is now raising its target and is bolstering its initiatives, introducing new ones that will further reduce the amount of water that it wastes:
- Producing just the right amount of ice and installing units with white walls at the fish counters;
- Deploying water-saving guns across the cold water network so that flow can be adjusted to meet needs;
- Installing ovens with steam cleaning systems when the time comes to replace equipment;
- Investing so as to optimize the way in which the internal network is managed, and adopting best practices in this regard (diagnostics to tackle water leaks, etc.)
This action plan also falls within the framework of the Carrefour Group's policy on biodiversity, reducing the quantities of water consumed. Furthermore, in June 2023, Carrefour was chosen by the SBTi (Science Based Target) initiative from among 17 major world companies to define new biodiversity standards.
Further reducing water consumption
With this new action plan, Carrefour is aiming to reduce its water consumption by 10% by 2025, compared with 2022 levels – that is equivalent to 40 Olympic swimming pools. This action plan sits alongside the internal communications campaign that was launched in stores in early July – its aim is to raise people's awareness of good environmentally friendly habits that they can get into to save water.
“Tackling all forms of waste has been a priority at Carrefour for a long time now. Saving water is a major environmental issue right now, and Carrefour is bolstering its commitments to limit its consumption in stores to exactly what it needs”, said Carine Kraus, the Carrefour Group's Executive Director of Engagement.
