CHILI CONCEPT continues to reduce its ecological footprint by becoming the first European carbon neutral storage company.
Designing responsible and sustainable advertising objects has been part of Chili’s DNA for more than 12 years. In 2019, Chili had already made the choice to reduce single-use plastic by 80%. This year, Chili has decided to take a step forward and become the first supplier of carbon neutral promotional items.
The “carbon neutrality” of a stock is very simple to understand. It means offsetting the carbon that has been emitted into the atmosphere for each product created by reinvesting in projects that will eventually recapture it.
In collaboration with the Nature Office in Germany, Chili was initially audited very thoroughly on the manufacture of its products. This audit makes it possible to reveal and measure the different aspects that come into play for each product created: raw materials, energy resources, factory processes, packaging, transport, storage, marking, delivery to the end customer, etc. Once this audit has been carried out, it is possible to calculate very precisely the quantity of CO2 that has been emitted into the atmosphere for each product created, marked, and delivered to the end customer.
This is when the reduction phase comes: it allows us to know which items still need to be worked on to further reduce carbon emissions.
Once the maximum reduction of carbon released into the atmosphere for each product has been reached, then comes the offsetting phase. The idea here is to reinvest in projects that will allow the carbon that was emitted for the creation of the products to be recaptured in the atmosphere. These projects are managed by Nature Office and are generally massive reforestation projects, creation of renewable energy sources, support and training for farmers to implement no-till and organic farming practices…
In addition, there is a traceability (using a code on the product label) that allows the end customer to transparently access the information from the carbon offset project related to the product they have purchased.
As an example, the products in the European stock in Chili are largely linked to a large reforestation project in Togo. This project is also one of the keys to meeting 12 of the 17 sustainability objectives of the Africa 2030 programme.
Even if the notion of carbon neutrality still seems rather unknown to the general public, it is a major challenge taken very seriously by the major companies in the CAC 40 and by the French government. Moreover, on this subject, the government has enshrined in law our country’s carbon neutrality objective by 2050.
