Priority 2: limiting the environmental impact of products and services
While awareness of climate issues increased in 2019, the Lagardère group continued with its commitment to promoting environmental responsibility through three main priorities: fighting climate change, responsible paper management in connection with book and press publishing activities, and environmental responsibility of foodservice activities at transportation hubs.
A new theme came to light in 2019-2020: the circular economy and fighting waste. Reducing use of plastic has become a key issue, both for Hachette Livre, which launched a new project in this regard in 2020, and for Lagardère Travel Retail, which has begun to get rid of plastic containers and cutlery at some of its foodservice outlets. For both divisions, which have a number of warehouses, this will require considerable effort over the years to come.
Independently of considerations about the circular economy in Travel Retail, which for example mobilised staff at Lagardère Travel Retail in Singapore during a dedicated workshop in January 2019, Foodservice teams have also decided to take steps to fight food waste. This has been made concrete through measures such as the partnership between certain outlets in France and start-up Too Good To Go, donations of unsold food to various charities in Romania, and including reducing waste in the monthly bonus criteria for certain employees in the Czech Republic.
At Hachette Livre, responsible paper management is the main environmental topic, driven meticulously for more than 10 years both in terms of protecting natural resources with excellent certification rates (PEFC and FSC) of paper purchased, as well as in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions with Scope 3 carbon footprint assessments carried out every four years across its French-speaking operations. This has allowed for a significant reduction in the business’s carbon footprint.
Furthermore, through all its editorial content on environmental matters, the Lagardère group helps to raise awareness among its readers, listeners and internet users who have all the keys to understand climate and social issues and can therefore decide to act or not. After acquiring Éditions La Plage in 2018, a publishing house specialising in practical ecology, a number of publishers such as Hachette Pratique, Marabout and Larousse have published works targeted at readers looking for advice, such as the Les Cahiers du consomm'acteur collection (Larousse).
One last point should be highlighted: the commitment of employees, who are increasingly active and aware about protecting the environment in their personal lives and also want to invest in their professional lives. The LL Network has acted on this expectation and organises regular meetings to promote best practices in this regard.
Key figure
120,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases (scope 1 and scope 2) were emitted by the Lagardère group in 2019.