Designing our products to reduce their environmental impact

Eco-design involves taking the environment into account from the earliest stages of design and throughout the product's entire life cycle.

In practical terms, this means thinking about how to reduce the product's impact on the environment throughout its life cycle.

A product that has been designed (or redesigned) using an eco-design approach remains a product that fulfils the same function as a conventionally designed product: a running T-shirt that has benefited from an eco-design approach remains, above all, a good running T-shirt!

The AFAQ ecodesign label (AFNOR) This approach was assessed using the AFAQ ecodesign label in December 2023. The assessment provides information on the level of performance of DECATHLON's ecodesign process with a view to continuous improvement. DECATHLON has been awarded an "exemplary" rating, which is the highest level of certification.

The AFAQ Ecodesign reference system is made up of five main criteria:
- Company strategy
- Skills and techniques for ecodesign
- Operational implementation of ecodesign
- Internal and external communication
- Measurement and improvement. 

This certification attests to DECATHLON's ongoing commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its activities, with eco-design being one of the main levers for achieving this.

Analysing a product's environmental footprint enables us to identify the stages in its life cycle that have the greatest impact. This approach enables design teams to develop products that reduce their environmental impact.

First, identifying solutions and assessing environmental gains
Thanks to a network of experts in DECATHLON's various industrial processes, the design engineers identify the most appropriate solutions for a family of products (= on the stages of the life cycle with the greatest environmental impact). It is then possible to estimate the environmental benefits of these solutions (in particular using the Glimpact life cycle analysis tool). In particular, this tool enables us to carry out environmental simulations on each of our products and to imagine different alternative design scenarios.

Once the solutions have been identified, we need to make sure that there are no mandatory regulations relating to this idea, either now or in the near future. If the solution envisaged is already a legal obligation, this cannot be a differentiating criterion.

For a product to be considered, the solution chosen must be differentiating, i.e. it must not already be a standard on the market. If we take the example of cotton, the BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) label is already very widespread and can hardly be considered as an action linked to eco-design.