CSR news of 02/12/2024

This week, CSR issues are at the heart of discussions.

Between climate challenges, social initiatives and regulatory adjustments, businesses and institutions play a key role in the transformation towards a sustainable future. Here are the 10 highlights of the week that are reshaping the contours of CSR.

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Limiting environmental disasters is cheaper than repairing them

The very prestigious scientific journal Nature has published an article that corroborates an observation increasingly shared by researchers: the damage caused by the consequences of climate change will cost much more than the investment required to limit the change itself.

In this study, which focuses on the notion of “tipping point”, the hypothesis of a sudden melting of the ice sheet is explored by scientists. They show that crossing this “tipping point” would cost 4 times more “than trying to limit the damage”.

Thus, this notion of “tipping point” is a useful tool for understanding the almost irremediable effects of events that cause serial reactions that are beyond human control, and lead to major ecological degradation.

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Businesses committed to fighting violence against women

“What can the company do to contribute to the fight against domestic violence?” This was the question asked on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, at a meeting of members of OneInThreeWomen: the first European network of companies committed to fighting domestic violence.

A first response, considering that gender-based violence is part of a “continuum of gender violence”, is to take measures internally within the company to give victims a voice, and fight against ordinary sexism, in order to improve behavior in the private sphere.

The network includes very large companies (L'Oréal, BNP Paribas, BNP Paribas, Clariane, Carrefour...) and obtains the commitment of these companies by signing a Commitment Charter against Domestic Violence.

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Voices are being raised to save the CSRD

Entrepreneurs, researchers and consultants are taking the floor in an article addressed to Le Monde to give another voice to all the speeches that have tended, in recent months and weeks, to question and undermine the CSRD, European sustainability reporting directive for companies.

They say that behind the arguments of simplification, we must not forget the great ambition of the directive: “to prepare a sustainable and competitive economy”. Moreover, changing a European directive takes many years, leaving economic actors in uncertainty, a much heavier handicap than the production of sustainability reports.

The collective argues that alarmist speeches Exaggerate a situation that is actually much easier to negotiate: “barely 20% of the topics listed deserve to be reported.” The whole challenge is tonotify and to return reachable to everyone at the CSRD, in order to make one competitive tool and transformative for the business.

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Censorship by the Barnier government: what are the consequences for ecology?

On Wednesday 4 December, 331 deputies censored the government of Michel Barnier, who resigned from office to the president. This will most likely put the next government's presentation of a finance bill back to 2025.

It would therefore seem, at first analysis, that the renewal of the 2024 budget is very good news for the climate, since the government was giving it “unprecedented resources”. Conversely, the one that was being discussed for fiscal year 2025 presaged a drastic drop in green spending.

But the reality is more difficult than that : expenses automatically renewed to avoid a shutdown do not concern That the “necessary credits to the conduct of the life of the nation”. In other words, operating expenses who don't understand usual big expenses of French environmental policy...

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Environmental law under the threat of industrial arguments

Some central provisions of French environmental law are threatened with relief, the government announced. In fact, the “Ambition Industries” plan highlights the need to reindustrialize the territory, justifying a series of measures that weaken social and environmental regulations in this area.

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Temu: a flood of cheap products, but at what cost?

France is the second European market for the Chinese e-commerce giant Temu. Its product offer is gigantic, its prices are unbeatable and delivery is free: the Temu formula has won over French consumers, totaling “94 million monthly recipients”, thus surpassing Amazon in some markets.

The Post Office said that Temu and Shein alone represent “more than one in five packages” (22%). In February, the European Federation of Toy Industries published a study showing that 95% of the products tested were harmful and potentially dangerous for children.

Temu has invested 2 billion dollars in Facebook and Instagram ads. Aggressive marketing that is not without consequences for the environment: it is estimated that 54,900 tons of CO2 eq.CO2 are emitted every day by the firm (Forbes).

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Postponement of a global treaty on plastic pollution

The 175 countries meeting in Korea, under the aegis of the United Nations, failed to reach agreement on a common text. Thus, discussions on a treaty to reduce the damage caused by plastic pollution have been postponed.

However, 400 million tons of plastic are produced annually around the world. While less than 10% of this quantity is actually recycled, much of it ends up in the ocean.

The core of the disagreements is between major oil and plastic producing countries (India, China and Russia) and nations grouped together under the name of the “coalition of high ambitions”.

It is only in the spring of 2025 that negotiations will continue, with a possible change in the posture of the United States, which will then be represented by a new administration.

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Coca-Cola targeted by a greenwashing complaint

The French federation of associations for the protection of nature and the environment, which is France Nature Environnement (FNE), has filed a complaint against the giant Coca-Cola Europacific Partners France. This legal attack is justified by FNE as a result of deceptive commercial practices, in particular greenwashing.

The federation of environmental associations accuses Coca of having “served more than 6 million drinks in reusable cups made from plastic bottles, without informing the spectators” during the Olympic Games.

However, the brand communicated at will about its ambition of “zero packaging waste at these Games”, presenting itself as a company in support of a waste-free world. A discourse clearly on the sidelines of the reality of a significant production of industrial waste.

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Recycling reaches record rates in France

67%. This is the recycling rate for household packaging reached by French households in 2023. Thus, each French citizen sorted 1.5 kg of additional waste compared to 2022, or 58 kg per household.

Interestingly, the explosion of e-commerce and online shopping practices is generating an increased circulation of cardboard waste (+12% recycled) and plastic waste (+15% recycled).

This positive trend has accelerated since 2015, as a direct result of policies to simplify sorting instructions. To date, “98% of French people have access to unified yellow bins”. In addition, it is the result of a significant investment in recycling infrastructure and new over-sorting centers that are beginning to bear fruit.

To achieve 100% recyclable, Jean Hornain suggests a “drastic reduction in overpackaging”, especially for e-commerce.

Sustainable tourism: a priority for the French

An Accor study entitled European Travel 2025: Balancing Growth and Impact, analyzes the dynamics of travel across Europe in light of record transit flows on the continent in 2024. Thus, 75% of French travelers surveyed say they “take into account climate change and sustainable options” when planning their trips.

The three main approaches are:

• Avoid areas threatened by extreme weather conditions (24%)
• Do not fly (17%)
• Finding sustainable accommodation solutions (9%)

However, half (50%) of the travelers surveyed “deplore the high cost of sustainable options”. Indeed, this remains the main obstacle to sustainable travel practices, at the risk of otherwise feeding overtourism circuits, which are more accessible.

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sourcing

• Novethic: “Ecological tipping points”
• Carenews: “Combating violence against women”
• Le Monde: Tribune for December 5
• Green: “Fall of the Barnier government”
• Novethic: “Reindustrialization and environmental standards”
• Green: “The Temu platform and its impacts”
• RSE Magazine: “Plastic pollution and stalled negotiations”
• Carenews: “Coca-Cola accused of greenwashing”
• RSE Magazine: “Packaging recycling on the rise”
• RSE Magazine: “The French and sustainable tourism”