Support our suppliers with the decarbonisation of production

In September 2021, the Science Based Targets initiative officially validated Decathlon's new emissions reduction trajectory plan across its value chain.Two targets are directly related to scope 3 and the activities of the company's suppliers:
■ curbing its carbon emission intensity (t. CO2-eq/value added euro) by 53% on scopes 1, 2, and 3 between 2016 and 2026
■ coordinating suppliers representing 90% of emissions linked to product and service purchases to define their own reduction trajectory in line with the science

In constructing its new strategy, the company undertook global work in the second half of the year to move from a commitment to reduce carbon intensity to committing to reduce emissions in absolute terms. Following this work, Decathlon will soon propose a new reduction trajectory to be validated by the Science Based Targets initiative.

It is essential that Decathlon’s production sites use renewable energy sources if the company is to drastically reduce its CO2 emissions. For the maximum reduction in impact, Decathlon’s priority today is to focus on setting up new renewable electricity generation capacities.

So, the company now aims to help its suppliers, in this order of priority:
1. Set up new generation capacities.
2. Participate in existing off-site projects.
3. Purchase Energy Attribute Certificates (in addition to the other activities).

The company also established various partnerships in India, Mainland China, Bangladesh and Vietnam in 2022  to support its suppliers in deploying solar panels. This involves conducting feasibility studies for each of the suppliers and seeking external companies to support the rollout locally.
Key figures for 2022
44% of the electricity used by the production sites of Decathlon suppliers managed on decarbonisation issues comes from renewable sources (33% in 2021)
6% of the electricity used by production sites is of renewable origin, excluding energy certificate purchases (4% in 2021)

Decathlon is committed to the elimination of all coal use by its Rank 1 suppliers by 2025 and its Rank 2 suppliers by 2030. To reach this goal, the teams have conducted feasibility and cost studies for most of the production sites that use coal, and have worked on setting up reduction trajectories.

Key figures for 2022
43 production sites (32 Rank 1 and 11 identified Rank 2 sites) still consumed coal in 2022 compared with 49 sites in 2021 (31 Rank 1 and
18 Rank 2 sites).
As of 31 December 2022, this number had fallen to 36, with five Rank 1 supplier sites having stopped using coal during the year.