Innovation

Firstly, Optimize is as mentioned an application that encourages less carbon dioxide emissions. The initiative is for the company´s sellers who have to travel by car across the country and visit customers. Optimize provides the shortest way to travel and therefore reduces time spent on the road and the carbon dioxide emissions. Also, the programme consists of continual training for the sales personnel, of how to drive safely and environmental-friendly.

Secondly, to expand Berner France initiative in the climate action, the company is working every day towards less and more efficient use of energy and strive to control their carbon-footprint. For instance, the company is reducing the environmental impact and managing their consumption levels by, recycling electric and electronic waste. In 2015 Berner France managed their energy consumption by taking action and introduced an energy management system, including: Replaced lightning, replaced skylights and replaced windows.

Berner France is by these actions not only supporting the UN Global Goal #13 Climate Action, by contributing to a better world through having the environment in mind. But also UN Global Goal #12 Reduced consumption and production. Berner France is taking control of their consumption of energy and emission.

Inspiration

According to the Sustainability Report of Berner France (2017), the company has 1,457 employees, 46,000 square meters’ warehouse, and 10,000 packages shipped per day at the end of 2016. These figures show that Berner France is a big company with large resource expenditure. Berner France is the 7th most profitable company in the department of Yonne, France and the 20th in the region of Burgundy, France in level any sector of activity. In Yonne, the sector of wholesale trade of various supplies and industrial equipment, Berner France the first company of the classification followed by these competitors; CICHY MANUTENTION in second position with a yearly turnover of €24 million. As well as POLYBEL in third position with a yearly turnover of €4 million. As the corporate social responsible Manager of Berner says, the company is concerned about the sustainable goals.

Nowadays, more and more companies are concerned about the impact of their practices on the environment. Their practices must be ethical, sustainable and respectful of the environment.

The CSR department is therefore responsible for sustainability objectives. It collects information, does research, develops plans, to have a positive impact on the environment. As Ulrika Persson said: "she would like to invest more in the equality in general, and especially the gender equality", because she thinks that « there is not a goal on that for now […] we’re working on diversity, that is something that is integrated. In diversity, you have also the equality between man and women, that is something that is important to me ».

Overall impact

Sustainable development is an important part of the approach of corporate social responsibility for Berner France. The company initiated its sustainable development 8 years ago and during those years the company has made great achievements in energy efficiency and waste recycling. In 2016, the energy performance of the company decreased by 41% compared with 2010. And of course, there is a 15% reduction in energy bills, that means the company saved a lot of money on energy. Since 2014, Berner France provides a recycling system to their customers, so the customers can drop off their old electronic devices to get the reward and contribute to the protection of the environment. This action brings a profit of 50,000 euros to the company. Besides, Berner France also striving to control the carbon dioxide emissions that generated from the transportation of products. In 2016, the carbon dioxide emissions reduced by 21% compared with 2010. In brief, these actions not only bringing profits to the company itself but also benefit to society and environment.

Business benefit

Because Berner France manages their energy consumption levels through an energy management system, the company succeeded to reduce the energy bills by 15% in 2016 compared to 2010. For the simple reason that in 2015 Berner France replaced lightning and windows to better environmental alternatives. In addition, by their participation in a recycling-initiative, the company generated a profit of € 53 274 in 2016-2017.

Social and environmental benefit

Berner impacts in several different ways the society and the environment. In their sustainable report, Berner describes 3 mains actions: the environment aspect, the social aspect, and the societal aspect.

With regard to the company's environmental impacts, Berner has developed different actions, for example the energetic efficiency which is composed by the ISO 5001 certification, the reduction of waste by the sensibilization of the customer (collection point), garbage sorting and a responsible conduct (reduction of CO2 emissions). Berner also had a transport optimisation consisting of a responsible purchasing policy (certified supplier). To finish with the environment aspect, Berner also use the dematerialization to reduce their impact on the environment. Secondly, Berner acts on the social aspect by making health and safety training. For example, they make road prevention, trainings to carry heavy loads, and trainings to learn how to use fire extinguishers.

Moreover, the company also wants to invest in a societal approach. Their goals are to reduce the number of work accident. Furthermore, they also want to work on the diversity (disabled employees, employs young people and seniors, gender equality by status and age). They also develop the skills of their employees by making training and offers in-house promotions.

To conclude, Berner is also involved in charity by financial or technical means (“les Restos du coeur”). Through this study, we notice that Berner France is involved in many ways to get more involved in the sustainable goals.

Interview

Ulrika Persson, Sustainable Development Manager