CARREFOUR - 2014 annual financial report

2014 Registration Document

Social responsibility

Action plans

2.2.4.3

Playing an active role in society

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Connecting stores with their communities

Environmental protection is an integral requirement whenever Carrefour

builds or renovates a store. The Group strives to go still further, playing

an active role in local life by connecting its stores to their surrounding

community.

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Designing shopping centres that respect the

environment and are integrated with their surroundings

Carrefour Property, the Carrefour group subsidiary which manages real

estate assets and shopping centres, has adopted documents that guide

its practices to better respect the environment: the Eco-Construction

Charter, the Landscaping Charter, as well as the Green Site Charter.

Guided by these framework documents, Carrefour Property strives to

integrate environmental best practices into each phase of a building’s

life cycle.

During the design phase, store architecture is chosen to optimise energy

consumption, preference is given to natural, eco-friendly materials, and

renewable energies are considered whenever possible. Each project is

designed to integrate seamlessly into the natural or urban landscape

and to minimise environmental impact.

During the construction phase, companies that worked on construction

sites for Carrefour stores in 2014 signed the Green Site Charter,

whose recommendations include sorting waste, cleaning earth-moving

machinery’s wheels, and limiting noise disturbances.

For the operations phase, environmental criteria are included in the

rental agreements and specifications for outfitting stores, calling for

energy-efficient equipment, eco-friendly materials, and waste sorting.

The environmental appendix is firmed for each new lease agreement

since September 2013.

The shopping centre renovation plan, which Carrefour undertook with the

creation of the Carmila company in April 2014, enables environmentally-

friendly solutions to be incorporated into new improvements. For example,

shopping centre relamping in LEDs should result in energy savings.

Studies forecast more than 50% of energy savings for lighting items.

In addition, landscaping will be redone at renovated sites to incorporate

local species, such as at Nice Lingostière, where Urginea Maritima -

a plant known to flourish in the sunshine of Nice - was used as a decorative

symbol for the shopping centre.

INSTALLATION OF APIARIES

AT CARREFOUR GROUP SITES

The banner aims to support beekeeping and local

beekeepers in France. The installation of apiaries raises

awareness among both customers and employees of

the need to protect biodiversity and the role of bees as

pollinators in supporting plant species. The first apiaries

were installed in France during 2014 at Carrefour stores

in Villiers en Bière, Portet sur Garonne and Troyes, and

at the Garonne and La Chapelle Saint Luc hypermarkets.

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Tapping and supporting each community’s potential

Resulting from constructive cooperation with elected officials and local

players, a Carrefour store is a centre of neighbourhood life, creating

social ties and responding effectively to residents’ everyday needs. The

Group’s stores and shopping centres are designed to contribute to local

life, create social ties, and energise local communities.

Based on the “smart city” model where buildings and stakeholders can

connect, Carrefour has developed “smart stores”, linked to their local

communities through:

■

transport networks which ensure access to all stores, including for

people with disabilities, and which promote a wide range of transport

modes;

■

energy distribution networks, adapting the store’s electricity

consumption to the network on which it relies, energy production by

the store itself, and efforts to optimise consumption by using energy-

efficient equipment;

■

networks of community stakeholders, including customers, local

suppliers, local associations and neighbours;

■

water collection networks: to avoid overuse of the local water system,

the store favours rainwater infiltration and storm basin construction;

■

waste collection systems, to consolidate collection methods with the

community after sorting the waste;

■

the natural environment, seeking to preserve existing species at the

sites during renovation, construction and facilities maintenance (no use

of chemical products).

The Salaise-sur-Sanne and Nice Lingostière shopping centres

demonstrate Carrefour’s desire to connect its stores to their environment

and to best tap their potential.

The renovation and expansion of the Salaise-sur-Sanne shopping centre,

which began on November 4, 2014, incorporates centralised technical

management, waste sorting, rainwater collection, as well as lower energy

consumption through the use of geothermal power. The system, which

supplies the entire shopping centre, provides heating during the winter

and cooling during the summer. Thanks to this renewable energy source,

each year the centre will lower its CO

emissions by seven tonnes and

save 111 MWh.

The Nice Lingostière shopping centre has established a partnership

with the Nice metropolitan area and with “autobleues” - electric vehicles

available through a car-share programme - to inform users of the charge

terminal presence on the site.

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Stores that drive employment

With nearly more than 10,800 stores, Carrefour is a major player in the

socioeconomic development of the regions in which it operates. Carrefour

stores are important as centres of direct and indirect employment. In

each Carrefour country and each district/region where it has a store, the

banner follows a local recruitment policy. For example, with over 116,000

employees, Carrefour is the second-largest private employer in France.