On 26 March, Diamart Group, together with Altavia, hosted the ‘Retail for Good’ event. It was billed as a gathering for those crafting the future of sustainable retail. The agenda centred on critical CSR issues, with a focus on pragmatic solutions to how sustainable business models, traditionally volume-driven, can evolve. Key questions addressed included how to finance these transitions amid economic constraints and the practical steps necessary to implement change.

Decarbonising the supply chain.

The event, now in its second year and opened by Cédric Ducrocq, CEO of Diamart Group, and Raphaël Palti, CEO and founder of Altavia, featured insights from Marie Simunic Leclercq, Deputy Managing Director of Market and Supply Issues at Leroy Merlin, Katia Ruet, CSR Secretary at Altavia, and Bertrand Swiderski, Chief Sustainability Officer at Carrefour. They discussed strategies for decarbonising the supply chain, highlighting the urgent need for environmental adaptation in retail logistics and operations.

The discussion raised a pressing and increasingly relevant question: What kind of world are we aiming to create?

In pursuit of answers, several approaches were highlighted including eco-design, promoting product reuse (second life), and optimising the customer journey to support consumers in choosing products with minimal environmental impact. The speakers emphasised the necessity of recentering the consumer within retail sector priorities, ensuring they are guided and engaged with sustainability issues on a commercial level.

By encouraging customers to choose ethical and sustainable consumption practices and products, we foster a genuine, long-term commitment and build a trustful relationship that guides them towards more responsible consumption.

Many retailers concur that customers shouldn’t have to choose between quality, sustainability, and affordability. The goal is to provide everyone with organic, sustainable, and high-quality options. Marie Simunic Leclercq strongly advocates for complete transparency regarding product ingredients and their manufacturing processes. This knowledge ensures that if customers seek alternatives, they can be offered products that are both affordable and maintain high ethical and quality standards, thus helping everyone to lessen their environmental footprint.

Altavia x L’Oréal: A Focus on the Inclusive Sourcing Programme.

During its presentation, L’Oréal outlined the advancements of its “L’Oréal for the Future” initiative, initiated in 2020. This programme reflects the company’s commitment to responsibility and its belief in the significant role corporations must play in addressing contemporary environmental challenges. Altavia has been instrumental in developing engagement strategies with L’Oréal, collaborating closely to evaluate and understand the ecosystems across the countries they operate in or intend to enter. This partnership aims to foster a fully ethical and responsible business approach. Moreover, through the Inclusive Sourcing Programme, they ensure that their suppliers not only adhere to responsible production practices but also positively impact local communities by, for instance, providing fair and equitable wages.

Thanks to this expertise, L’Oréal ensures that its primary suppliers are dedicated to a real CSR strategy. Anthony Papin, International Accounts Director at Altavia, and Christophe Prud’homme, Sustainable Sourcing Director Europe Indirect at L’Oréal, emphasized that the Positive Sourcing® initiative, through an inclusive procurement policy and the integration of socially marginalized individuals, “was just the spark needed to further our ‘Retail for Humans’ vision.”

Initially, the programme enabled about 25 individuals with disabilities or who faced discrimination to secure full-time jobs under Positive Sourcing®. Today, this number has risen to 280, thanks to insights gained from ecosystem research and studies. Altavia has also played a critical role by conducting extensive training and raising awareness among its staff, and by creating a directory of committed suppliers. This directory helps clients and employees easily find suppliers that meet their social and environmental standards.

These initiatives and projects are now everyday practices for many companies and are showcased at forums like Retail for Good, allowing the wider retail industry to learn and adopt similar strategies.

Christophe Prud’homme, Sustainable Sourcing Director Europe Indirect at L’Oréal and Anthony Papin, International Accounts Director at Altavia

© Diamart Group

Ultimately, ‘Retail for Good’ has united a wide array of stakeholders from the retail sector around common goals and visions, particularly with the aim of contemplating the future. This forum strives to show that practical solutions are available to diminish the environmental footprint of retail entities, and to tackle social discrimination. It promotes professional integration through shared efforts and collaborative actions, highlighting that progress in these areas is not only possible but already underway.