3. 3.3 Circular economy and waste management Issues and impacts The growth of the circular economy, regarded as one of the priorities of the European Green Deal, is creating more sustainable closed-loop fl ows to enable the recovery, reuse, treatment, repair and recycling of products. This model also opens new business opportunities for logistics players positioned in the reverse logistics market, as these new closed-loop fl ows require a different organization and operations. Collaboration among different stakeholders (logistics providers, businesses, collectors, recyclers, etc.) and the pooling of processes, resources, and data sharing are essential to making the model sustainable and relevant, ensuring the shared use and consolidation of material fl ows. Reverse logistics is a global business that is expected to grow by more than 13% a year by 2030(1). GEODIS has been involved in the logistics of customer returns for more than ten years, extending the life of products by recovering, repairing or recycling them at the end of their useful life. The process of identifying the impacts, risks and opportunities of the circular economy in relation to GEODIS’s business model and strategy is presented in section 2.6 of this report. Governance The strategy, programs and objectives of GEODIS’s environmental policy have been validated by the members of the Management Board, who are responsible for them being communicated and applied throughout the Group. Action plan GEODIS is committed to the circular economy on two levels: ● customer fl ows: the Group supports its customers by providing solutions for redefi ning their logistics fl ows and creating sustainable closed loops; ● management of operational sites: internally, the Group applies the principles of the circular economy to its own operations to help reduce its environmental footprint. 3.3.1 Operating reverse logistics services for customers GEODIS has a long experience of working with customers to manage the second life of their products, i.e., physically reinjecting them into an economic circuit. The Group has acquired genuine expertise in recovering end-of-life electronic products to give them a second life or to recycle their components and raw materials. This service contributes to reducing the consumption of materials and electronic components. The Group has around ten product recovery and refurbishing sites worldwide, in addition to some thirty partner sites giving it global coverage. The teams refurbish electronic products such as PCs, servers and tablets to extend their value and that of their components. Mid-life products sometimes just need to be inspected, cleaned, restored or repaired before being returned to circulation on the market. This prevents a product that is simply faulty from moving on to the end-of-life phases of recycling and/or dismantling. Once a product has been recovered, repaired and refurbished, it can be put back on the market, thereby increasing its lifetime. When the product cannot be repaired, parts and components in good condition can be reused by the production and repair departments. Some minerals are rare materials (gold, aluminum, copper) that can be recovered and sold on specifi c markets. In 2024, GEODIS went one step further by extending this service offering to the automotive sector. This solution makes it possible to recover metal production scrap, reprocess it and reintegrate it into production in foundries. The skills and tools to manage this offer have been developed at new sites in North America and Europe, and new customers have chosen GEODIS for these services. Reverse logistics for e-commerce In view of the dramatic rise in e-commerce, the management of product returns has become strategic for customers in terms of cost and environmental impact. The solution proposed by GEODIS combines the power of digital technology, an international transport network and logistics expertise. This “turnkey” offer includes consumer return requests, product take-back and identifi cation, repairs and recycling. In 2024, the GEODIS Global Contract Logistics team extended its collaboration with an e-commerce player for which it already manages the shipment of large and heavy goods. The solution proposed consists of receiving items returned by customers, assessing and reprocessing them to give them a second life in the marketplace, or assigning them to external repair or disposal services. A 3,000 sqm section of the 55,000 sqm logistics warehouse in Torija, Spain, has been allocated to this service. (1) Source: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/reverse-logistics-market-2392 2024 ACTIVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY REPORT - 57 EDITORIAL > 1. GROUP PROFILE > 2. GENERAL INFORMATION > 3. ENVIRONMENT > 4. SOCIAL > 5. ETHICS > 6. ANNEXES
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