Raising awareness about environmentally-friendly transport.
Customers travelling to and from stores and DECATHLON teammates' commuting to the workplace represent 12.2 % of the company's overall carbon emissions in 2022. To reduce this impact, promote environmentally-friendly modes of transport and encourage their daily use, DECATHLON is taking an active role in sustainable transport. The main objective of this strategy is to: reduce greenhouse gases linked to commercial activity, while highlighting the health benefits of active modes of transport for all.
For Decathlon, active travel means: modes of transport that use non-assisted human physical exercise, with the exception of electric assistance.
For Decathlon, sustainable transport means: modes of transport emitting up to 0.10 kg of CO2 per kilometre, such as electric buses and cars. Cars with a combustion engine and motorcycles are not included in the percentage of sustainable transport.
In 2022, 33 % of kilometres travelled by Decathlon teammates to get to the workplace was done thanks to active travel or sustainable transport (21 % in 2021).
We achieved this increase by sharing best practices among countries. Having exceeded the company's target (30 % by 2026) by three percentage points this year, Decathlon now aims to achieve 40 % of kilometres travelled through active travel or sustainable transport by 2026.
Several tools are used, depending on the country,to measure this indicator:
❓ an in-house survey to identify the number of kilometres travelled at store and country level (24 surveys carried out in 2022);
📱 a mobile app that automatically calculates the journey;
🙋♀️ a declaration via the human resources data management software.
In 2022, 17 % of kilometres travelled by Decathlon customers to get to the store was done thanks to active travel or sustainable transport (14 % in 2021).
The target of 30 % by 2026 remains unchanged.
We achieved the goal of 30 % of kilometres travelled
by teammates to get
to their workplace thanks to
active travel or sustainable transport in
2022. DECATHLON is therefore raising its target to 40% by 2026.
The company is continuing with
the sustainable transport test in Spain and is preparing
to roll out similar measures
worldwide.
Since 2020, DECATHLON has tested a set of solutions throughout Spain to support the development of active travel and sustainable transport.
For teammates, these solutions consist of:
🚲 organising events each year to raise awareness about sustainable transport issues and share best practices to adopt everyday;
👩💻 develop a tool to collect reliable data about teammates active home/work commute.
In 2022, Spanish teams organised the “Transport Challenge” with the aim of supporting rapid habit change: 3,283 people, who signed up this year, travelled the equivalent of 748,000 kilometres with help of sustainable means of transport.
What's more, a partnership with the EMS (Empresas por la movilidad sostenible : Spanish sustainable transport company) lets Decathlonians take part in different round tables along side other companies about the issue of the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
To find out more about EMS: https://www.movilidadsostenible.com.es/
The company also encourages active travel and sustainable transport by providing teammates with tools adapted to their everyday lives:
📱 a mobile app to encourage carsharing among teammates, which also provides information about the carbon footprint of journeys;
🧭 itineraries and safe parking spaces for bikes and kick scooters;
🧮 a carbon calculator.
Decathlon España received the "International Mobility Award" from EMPRESAS POR LA MOVILIDAD SOSTENIBLE for the best sustainable mobility strategy.
The jury that decided to award Decathlon after analyzing our Mobility Director plan in detail, is made up of: Ministerio de Transportes, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana, Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico, Dirección General de Tráfico, IDAE. Instituto para la Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energía, Royal Spanish Academy of Engineering, CSIC, Conama..., so it is a huge pride!
We carried out a series of measures to support the use of sustainable means of transport by customers:
- encouraging sustainable travel and promote the use of means of transport that increase physical exercise and improve heath;
- develop dedicated infrastructure on site (secure parking for bikes and scooters);
- supply secure and suitable equipment for sustainable travel in each new store open in the country (charging station for electric vehicles, kick scooter parking, build cycling lanes in the vicinity, etc.).
In 2022, Decathlon Spain organised “Better transport week” along with 229 other events dedicated to this issue. To support the development of sustainable transport within the country, the company also co-wrote a manifesto about active travel with twenty or so public and private organisations (companies, voluntary organisations and public administrations).
To improve the security of its customers bikes, Decathlon has replaced its old damaged bike chain locks with new equipment, reducing the risk of bike thefts in parkings next to each store (applies close to 1,000 parking spaces in 2022).
Since we put these measures in place, performance linked to sustainable transport in Spain has experienced significant growth:
- 19.1 % of kilometres travelled by teammates is done thanks to active mobility or sustainable transport (16.6 % en 2021),
- 420 teammates have switched from the car to a more sustainable mode of transport between 2021 and 2022,
- 16.3 % of kilometres travelled by customers are done thanks to active mobility or sustainable transport (7.4 % in 2021).
It should be noted that measures taken in the country were also recognised outside the company.
This year Decathlon Spain subsequently became the first company to get the Cycling Mobility Territory certification label and won for the third year in a row the Urban Mobility Challenge 2022. (The Urban Mobility Challenge is a competition that brings together universities, public and private companies to focus on the sustainable transport during a month. The goal is to travel as many kilometres as possible by sustainable modes of transport.)
To find out more about Cycling Mobility Territory certification label: https://biketerritory.com/es/sellos
Following on from test conducted in Spain, the goal is to now share these action plans with as many countries as possible while providing support as they develop their own sustainable transport strategies, taking into account local constraints
and particularities.
Thanks to the development of a worldwide network and regularly sharing best practices, some countries have already started following DECATHLON Spain example. It is the case of Brazil, Chile, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Thailand. Each of these countries have appointed a sustainable transport project manager to implement measures locally and train teammates.
DECATHLON Chile conducted a survey in 2022 to assess its teammates active travel and sustainable transport habits. The results showed that, every day, 45 % of teammates use a sustainable mode of transport, and 12 % of teammates have already encountered a problem linked to road safety during their commute.
On the back of these results, the team decided to put in place action plans to raise awareness among teammates about road safety:
🖥 an awareness campaign about “sustainable transport awareness” was conducted using on the one hand road accident victims' testimonials and on the other sharing videos about the impact of modes of transport on the environment;
a communication campaign has been organised with a wall mounted display in store on the issue of sustainable development, creation of content on social networks about road safety and sharing advice on the Internet about safely riding a bike.
Decathlon Chile organised the “Transport challenge” to continue raising awareness among teammates.Each Decathlonian was assigned to follow a pre-determined route and updated an app dedicated to the event, while inputting the kilometres travelled with sustainable means of transport. 60 % of kilometres travelled this year by Decathlonians to get to their workplace were done thanks to active travel or sustainable transport in Chile.
To promote rapid habit change in
everyday travel, six countries (Germany, Brazil, Colombia,
Spain, Philippines and Singapore) organised “Better transport
week” from the 16th to 22nd September 2022Bike repair workshops,
in store product testing, discovering itineraries
in town and advice was on offer at these events from
the teams involved on site. It is worth noting that 155 events dedicated
to sustainable transport were also organised throughout the year
in eight countries (Belgium, Ivory Coast, Croatia, France, Hungary, Philippines, Slovenia, Tunisia).
Several countries have also put in place for the first time
initiatives to raise awareness among teammates about
sustainable transport in Asia in 2022:
▪️ in India: to mark world bike day, stores
offered free bike inspections, use of a platform
for bike sharing among teammates, as well as
extra discounts on second life products;
▪️ in the Philippines: stores, in collaboration with local NGOs and
governmental organisations, celebrated “Better transport
week” by organising events such as bike
rides with customers and teammates, free cycling
lessons for kids and free bike inspections.
