Avoided emissions standard: what is it?

Emissions are a non-financial performance indicator for companies. This new indicator makes it possible to:

1/ complete the reading of DECATHLON's environmental performance. It goes beyond the simple carbon footprint indicator, which is essential but not sufficient,

2/ highlight the products and services that contribute to decarbonization. Reducing emissions is essential, but some products and services are just as essential for a low-carbon transition, so it is important to identify and strongly promote them,

3/ to allow our customers to compare products and services and thus choose the least impacting ones. We are aware that it is complicated to navigate between all the information, DECATHLON wants to be as transparent as possible and wishes to accompany customers in their choices.

After having identified the solutions, i.e. the products and services allowing decarbonization, there are 3 steps to follow:

1/ Calculate the emissions of the solution
Let's take the example of the cyclist who buys a bike from Decathlon to ride his bike to work. In this case, we will count the emissions related to raw materials, production, transport, packaging, use (if it is an electric bike) and end of life of this bike. The sum of the emissions throughout the life of the bike represents the emissions of the solution.

2/ Calculate the baseline scenario
The baseline scenario reflects the most likely situation that would have occurred in the absence of the low-carbon solution. In our case, the reference scenario is the use of the thermal car. According to a study by ADEME, people who have bought a muscle bike declare that they have substituted a part of their car journeys with journeys by bike. On average, according to the same study, 929 km are substituted per year when purchasing a muscle bike and 1817 km per year when purchasing an electric bike.

3/ Calculate the avoided emissions
The avoided emissions are the difference of the emissions produced by each scenario.
It is as simple as that, so we obtain: avoided emissions = reference scenario - solution scenario

And there you have it, we get the avoided emissions of a solution compared to a reference scenario :)

You should NEVER subtract the avoided emissions from the direct and indirect emissions, i.e. from the carbon footprint. It would be like adding potatoes and carrots, they are two different measures and therefore impossible to add.

The result depends completely on the reference scenario, it is necessary to justify and clarify the assumptions and be transparent about the modeling choices.

We are talking here about user behavior, will the person who buys the bicycle really use it to replace his car? Will they only use it for 2 years and not 10 as in the example? Nothing is less certain... but what is certain is that it is necessary to encourage cycling in order to reduce GHG emissions from transport. The avoided emissions make it possible to value and highlight this aspect.