We adopt a responsible and proactive stance, aiming to reduce the carbon footprint resulting from our activities.
We want to reduce our consumption of energy and water and we choose less polluting refrigerant gases, because we believe that only an efficient approach to natural resources can help mitigate the impacts of our activity.
In 2020, our carbon footprint decreased 1.2% in absolute terms, mostly as a result of a reduction in the consumption of electricity and heating in Poland, and of the respective emission factors.
This also contributed towards our goal of reducing the Group’s carbon footprint by 5% for every 1,000 euros of sales in the 2018-2020 triennium, compared to 2017.
By being committed to efficient resource management, we are able not only to optimise our consumption, but, more importantly, to implement initiatives aimed at fighting climate change.
In the projects for building and remodelling our infrastructures, we try to implement:
As a result of these measures, have avoided the emission of more than 265 thousand tonnes of CO2e since 2015, in an investment of over 190 million euros.
With the Water and Energy Consumption Management Teams project, we aim to raise the awareness of the employees working in our stores in Portugal of the rational use of those resources. Between 2011 and 2020, we saved 494.902 m3 of water and 47,902,211 kWh of electricity, corresponding to a total of more than 6.2 million euros.
The Let’s Go Green project, created in 2015 for office buildings in Portugal, has already been implemented in the head offices of Biedronka and Ara. This project aims at encouraging employees to adopt good practices in the use of energy, water and paper and to recycle.
In 2020, a large portion of head office employees worked from home. For this reason, the results are not comparable and cannot be effectively attributed to the adoption of good practices.
We invest in renewable energy systems, such as passive underground cooling/heating, the use of solar collectors for heating water, lamp posts fed by photovoltaic panels, and photovoltaic panels for self-consumption in our infrastructures. Since July 2018, purchased electricity required for our banners’ operations in Portugal has come from renewable sources.
In 2020, the investment in renewable energies resulted in a savings of around 7.6 million kWh, corresponding to an increase of 38% compared to 2019.
In total, 23% of the energy consumed by the Group comes from renewable sources. In absolute terms, consumption decreased compared to 2019 as a result of the reduction in electricity consumption at Pingo Doce and Recheio.
As our core business is Distribution, we seek to reduce the environmental impacts linked to the logistics processes throughout our value chain, minimising the consumption of raw materials and energy resources and reducing the amount of waste and emissions.
Through our backhauling programme, we collect empty pallets from our stores and suppliers during the return journeys. Between 2011 and 2020, we avoided 86.1 million km in journeys, the equivalent of 112 trips to the moon and back, and avoided the emission of 80 thousand tonnes of CO2e.
The fronthauling project implemented at Pingo Doce and Recheio has our suppliers stopping by the Group’s stores to deliver goods on their return route to their facilities after delivering products to our Distribution Centres. This helped shave off 94,329 km and avoided the emission of 83 tonnes of CO2e in 2020.
The fleet that supplies Pingo Doce and Recheio stores now has FrigoblockTM technology installed, which uses the vehicle’s engine power to keep cargo chilled, with an estimated reduction of 8 tonnes of CO2e per vehicle, per year.
At Ara, the project to transport non-palletised goods to optimise transport loads between our suppliers’ facilities and our Distribution Centres helped shave off 1,091,111 km in 2020, while avoiding the emission of 1,712 tonnes of CO2e.
Launched in 2019, Ara’s by-truck project shaved off 65,832 km and avoided the emission of 51 tonnes of CO2e in 2020 by using trailers to transport goods between the Distribution Centres in two regions and the farthest stores.
86% of goods transport vehicles in Portugal, 90% in Poland, and 50% in Colombia comply with the Euro V and/or Euro VI requirements defined by the European Union.
To reduce carbon emissions associated with cooling and air conditioning systems, we use leak control technologies and, increasingly, more natural refrigerants.
We implemented the following initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to refrigeration gases:
Whenever possible, new stores and those that undergo major refurbishments use equipment with low Global Warming Potential (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and 100% natural refrigerants (industrial refrigeration installations).
Information on the Group’s carbon footprint, water (including water withdrawal, reclaimed water and discharges) and energy consumption, and the respective variations were confirmed by an external and independent entity for the Group’s 2020 Annual Report.
