3. ENVIRONMENT The Reverse Visibility tool extends the life of products In the United States, GEODIS has developed a tool accessible online called Reverse Visibility, which allows IT assets to be traced. Customers can track the lifecycle of their assets in real time: installation, repair, reconditioning or dismantling. This optimizes the lifecycle of equipment, minimizing downtime, maximizing usage and extending overall product life. Available at the Endicott, New York site, the Reverse Visibility tool was operational in Germany, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom in 2024. 3.3.2 Operations: inbound and outbound flows At the level of its own operations, the Group strives to preserve resources through sparing and effi cient consumption and use of its assets (on an as-needed basis). The Group’s principal inbound fl ows consist of IT, electronic and optical products, printers and ink cartridges, maintenance and cleaning products, storage systems (mobile shelving), packaging (cardboard, plastic, wood, pallets), road freight vehicles, handling equipment and vehicles, consumables for vehicle maintenance and servicing, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Parcel packaging is a key resource in the logistics sector. GEODIS is working to reduce its impact by reducing the quantities used and by favoring recycled materials. The Global Contract Logistics line of business, for example, reuses the cardboard boxes it receives, either to cushion goods, or by repurposing them to ship parcels. Other measures have also been taken to reduce the consumption of raw materials: ● reducing the size of packaging and plastic fi lm to save resources and optimize truck loading; ● training customers on site to reduce the volume of parcels and maximize space in delivery trucks. As far as the end-of-life of its IT equipment is concerned, the Group has decided to increase the lifespan of its equipment by setting new rules for the duration of use depending on the type of product (copiers, computers, screens, smartphones, etc.). At the same time, GEODIS is working on recycling its equipment with recycling partners. Implementation of this initiative, particularly at Distribution & Express, has enabled their partners to recover 5,265 workstations and 4,267 cell phones in 2024. This represents savings of 1,800 and 275 tonnes of CO2 respectively. GEODIS has signed outsourced management contracts based on a pay-per-use model with two tire suppliers for the truck fl eets in Europe of the Distribution & Express and European Road Network lines of business. This entails paying a price per kilometer driven, rather than per tire. The lifespan of each tire is optimized thanks to a tire’s “four lives”, which include regrooving, retreading and a second regrooving. The regrooving process saves raw materials in the rubber and casing. This partnership also reduces tire operating and maintenance costs. Suppliers carry out tire inspections on the GEODIS fl eet at least every 90 days in order to decide on the operations to be carried out. They are also asked to check tire pressure regularly to reduce fuel consumption (and therefore CO2 emissions) as well as improve roadholding and reduce braking distances. Results ● regrooving: for four regrooved tires, up to 70 kg of raw materials saved, the equivalent of one new tire, and up to 161 kg of CO2 are avoided; ● retreading: for one retreaded tire, up to 50 kg of raw materials saved and up to 115 kg of CO2 are avoided(1). 3.3.3 Waste management In 2024, GEODIS performed an inventory of its main waste products (pallets, wood, paper, cardboard, plastic, metal, used electrical and electronic equipment) and their lifecycles in all four of its regions. The aim was to quantify the volume of waste more accurately, establish common rules with reduction targets, and identify the most appropriate channels for recovering and recycling hazardous and non-hazardous waste. The data and fi gures will be available in 2025. The waste generated by GEODIS is directly linked to the packaging of its customers’ products. The three main types of non-hazardous waste produced by GEODIS are mixed waste, wood and cardboard. Waste such as plastic, paper and metal is also produced, but in smaller quantities. The hazardous waste generated includes waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), sludge (oil separators, mud separators) and batteries, which come mainly from maintenance workshops and vehicle washing facilities. Some hazardous waste may also result from the destruction of stocks at the request of customers. Hazardous waste is outsourced to external service providers for recovery or elimination through approved specialized channels. The materials present in the waste generated are primarily wood (waste from damaged pallets, cardboard, paper), polyethylene (plastic fi lm from packaging), hydrocarbons (engine oils and fuels) and the chemical components of batteries (lithium, cobalt and nickel). (1) Source: suppliers’ data. 58 - 2024 ACTIVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzMxNTcx