JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, has set a target of achieving carbon-neutral status by 2021 for all its activities in France.
For over 55 years, JCDecaux’s business model has created, supplied, managed and maintained products and services in the public interest, all funded by advertising with no cost to taxpayers. Rather than a cost to public finances, such products and services have a positive impact on, among others, fee payments to local authorities. Rent to private landlords has the same benefits.
Just as its first creation, the bus shelter, the Group is enhancing accessibility, ensuring optimal resource management and rolling out new services to the 890 million city dwellers, where the Group operates both in France and abroad.
Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said: “JCDecaux has always set its strategic priorities, in France and around the world, to constantly reduce the environmental impact of its activity, and particularly its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This commitment and transparency, supported by all our teams, have been recognised for a number of years, as illustrated by our various benchmarks. At the end of 2019, we joined the CDP A List and became the first outdoor advertising group to join RE100. Then, in early 2020, we were awarded the maximum AAA rating from the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) agency for the third consecutive year. I am proud that all JCDecaux France activities will achieve carbon-neutral status by 2021, following on from the actions carried out for many years by our Group. Whilst JCDecaux has become the outdoor advertising champion, the Group has never lost sight of its values and convictions. From its inception, JCDecaux has acknowledged that economic growth, permanent job creation, social and stakeholder responsibility and sustainable development to limit its environmental footprint are inextricably linked and part of its competitiveness. Such exacting standards should be better taken in account in public procurement, so that, quality and sustainability prevail in the general interest. As such, responsible public procurement will drive forward the ecological transition. We are active in over 2,000 cities around France and the preferred partner of 14,000 companies that trust JCDecaux for their local, national and international brand advertising strategy. Through our presence and partnerships, we are helping to raise awareness of environmental issues and promote more sustainable lifestyles, with the support of the brands we display. Crucially, brands exist through their presence in both the physical and virtual worlds, delivering multiple communication formats to cities, the space for better living together. The legitimacy of the messages we carry are based on the credibility of our initiatives and the trust we have earned from our customers (local authorities, social and governmental organisations, transport companies and advertisers).”
To this end, JCDecaux has mobilised its R&D team based in France in collaboration with the 1,700 suppliers from SMEs and mid-sized business that represent its nationwide value chain.
The Group is committed to ongoing innovation to continually reduce its environmental footprint and to offer services that are safe, aesthetic, eco-responsible and provide utility. In this spirit, the Group has designed and developed a new generation of innovative bus shelters® with a view to sustainably improving urban spaces. The range includes the Filtreo® bus shelter whose green roof contributes to the reduction of air pollution and the Natural Cooling bus shelter, which offers a solution to the issue of urban heat islands. Similarly, JCDecaux’s self-service bikes have made city bike use the backbone of urban mobility infrastructures. They have gained public support as demonstrated by more than 710 million journeys since 2003, saving more than several thousand tons of CO2. They also accelerate modal shifts, resulting in greener mobility, as well as driving forward a collective effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite Outdoor Advertising being a low-emitting greenhouse gas industry, JCDecaux has always made the conscious decision to lower its consumption levels. More recently, the Group has pledged to offset related emissions. Rainwater collection techniques to wash street furniture without any detergent date back several decades and street furniture’s life cycle analysis has been implemented for 25 years. Such longstanding initiatives are reflected in impactful day-to-day activities focused on:
- Strategy and risk management: environmental criteria incorporated into management compensation; Sustainable Development included in Group risk mapping since 2009; JCDecaux extra-financial performance statement audited by an Independent Third Party and finalised with an unqualified opinion and commentary issued on an annual basis;
- Product design: application of 10 eco-design principles and furniture refurbishment which we provide;
- Managed electricity consumption: LED replacement of classic furniture lighting technologies; intelligent solutions impacting lighting use and improving furniture energy efficiency by up to 70%; digital screens selected according to stringent criteria assessing quality and energy efficiency to ensure the lowest possible electricity consumption for services and expected uses; integration of photovoltaic panels in our furniture, where applicable with a ten year plus life span;
- Group decision to source 100% renewable electricity by 2022. In 2019, 88% was already sourced renewably at Group level with 100% in France and 18 other subsidiaries. In September 2019, JCDecaux became the first outdoor advertising group to join the RE100, a global initiative bringing together worldwide companies committed to renewable electricity;
- Operational excellence: optimised logistical routes; an eco-driving training course since 2003; the roll-out of hybrid and natural gas (NGV) electric vehicle fleet and soft mobility plans; ISO 14001 environmental management system for main locations, certified since 2007 in France.
Between 2017 and 2019, JCDecaux reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 26% in France and 55% internationally. By 2021 in France, JCDecaux will take an additional step in measuring its greenhouse gas emissions and in the reduction actions implemented. Lastly, JCDecaux’s voluntary purchases of carbon credits will signal a further final key phase, complementary to the Group’s approach, in order to offset residual carbon emissions from its activities.
Carbon neutrality in France, the Group’s historic headquarters and the largest market in terms of 2020 revenue, headcount and invested capex will lead the global action to enrich the Group’s sustainable development strategy.