financial report and registration document 2011 - Groupe SEB

Financial Report and Registration Document 2011
3
Corporate, social and environmental responsibility
Challenges of Groupe SEB
Upholding our commitment to corporate citizenship
Corporate citizenship. In the regions in which it operates, Groupe SEB
acts as a responsible economic stakeholder and, in the event that a site
needs to be restructured, it makes every effort to limit the impact of its
decision on the employees and local life. The Group is also an active member
of the community. It fosters many connections with local stakeholders
and participates in public debates, such as discussions on nutrition and
health. Its commitment to corporate citizenship is also seen in its corporate
sponsorship policy, which focuses on the promotion of social integration.
This policy is embodied by the Groupe SEB Corporate Foundation and the
many local initiatives carried out by its subsidiaries. Its corporate sponsorship
actions represented a total of €2.2 million in 2011.
Creating sustainable innovations to meet consumer needs
Consumers. Today’s consumers demand products that take health and
safety into account. These products need to be environmentally friendly and
produced in a responsible manner. Groupe SEB has taken the necessary
steps to ensure strict control over all of these aspects. Each new generation
of products is enhanced by innovations that embody an ever-increasing
respect for people and the environment and that take health and nutritional
Reducing our environmental impact
Eco-design. Groupe SEB’s eco-design policy aims to limit the environmental
impact of its products throughout their entire life cycle: increasing their
recyclability, prohibiting numerous hazardous materials, reducing the amount
of resources used, reducing energy use in stand-by mode, etc. These efforts
drawn on the internal eco-design guide, which will be completely revised in
2012. This new guide, intended for the R&D and marketing teams, will include
aspects related to the ability to repair and recycle, energy consumption, and
LCA*, and its “materials library” will guide teams in their choice of materials.
Eco-production. In 2004 the Group adopted a worldwide environment
management system aiming, first and foremost, to control the use of
resources (water and energy) and to reduce waste and emissions. At yearend
2011, 74.3% of the Group’s industrial and logistic entities, worldwide,
were certifi ed under the environmental standard ISO 14001. This fi gure
includes Supor, Imusa and Asia Fan. Action plans aiming to reach 100% by
the end of 2013, excluding new acquisitions, have been approved.
Eco-logistics. The transport of products, as well as the materials and
components used to make these products, is one of the main sources
of greenhouse gas emissions within Groupe SEB, which clearly hopes to
reduce these emissions. At the end of 2009 an initial balance sheet for
* Life cycle analysis.
concerns into account. The Group also pays close attention to the quality of
its products and to the relationship with its consumers. Two key objectives
in the Group’s policy toward consumers are improving after-sales service
and encouraging product repairs over replacement. In this regard, the Group
relies on a network of 3,500 licensed repair technicians around the world.
greenhouse gas emissions related to transport was drawn up, and, since
then, the Group has continued improving the reliability of the data in this
assessment. To further reduce its emissions, the Group is focusing on two
main areas: maximising the load factor of freight vehicles (trucks or sea
freight containers) and increasing the use of alternative, environmentally
friendly modes of transport (waterway, rail, etc.). A Group-wide initiative
has also been deployed across the Group’s manufacturing facilities aiming
to take logistical constraints into consideration from the beginning of the
product and packaging development process: EffyPACK (packaging system
for supply chain effi ciency).
Green IT. Groupe SEB continues to expand its environmentally responsible
IT policy, focusing on three main priorities in 2012: reduction in the number
of printers and the amount of paper used in France and, later, worldwide;
virtualisation of servers; and the integration of sustainability criteria in the
procurement of hardware (computers and telephones).
End-of-life. In Europe, the collection and processing of small domestic
appliances are managed by eco-organisations. Groupe SEB is especially
involved in this endeavour in France, where it chairs Éco-Systèmes, the
country’s largest eco-organisation.
GROUPE SEB
3
45