Much is and will be said about the future of our planet. We talk about the greenhouse effect and the carbon footprint, we talk about biodegradable materials and materials that do not accumulate in the subsoil or in the seas, about microplastics, about recycling or refills, about circularity, responsible sourcing, fair trade, and so on. The more we look into all of them, the more we realise that they are not isolated concepts.
We cannot focus on one of them and pretend that we are doing it right because ecology is a bunch of elements that influence each other, like a big house of cards. We have seen how large companies advertise their certifications while fundamentally continuing to produce in the same way, the famous so-called Green Washing. The fact is that making our companies green will force us to change everything.
I was recently in Brittany visiting a company that is a pioneer in sustainability. In the land of Asterix and Obelix, there is a very special cosmetic raw material company. They have been treating their water with gardens for a long time now and they only use renewable energy. They have long been studying the best way to produce their raw materials so as not to impact the ecosystem, and so they develop responsible harvesting if the material is abundant and if not, they develop bio-sustainable crops. If in the development project of a new material they realise that it cannot be manufactured without impacting the environment, they simply do not continue with it. They work with local producers to minimise the carbon footprint derived from transport as much as possible and establish with them genuine collaboration agreements and fair prices in which everyone, including the ecosystem, wins.
Today, their concern for sustainability has trickled down to everyone working in the company, from R&D that is concerned about reducing plastic consumption to maintenance that is thinking about planting more trees and improving the biodiversity of the environment. It is impossible for me to explain in this article the number of large and small actions that the entire workforce has taken to improve the company's sustainability. What is important is how effectively they are all working in the same direction.
It is precisely this spirit of concern and search on the part of all that has impressed me deeply. It is clear that it is and will be necessary for all those involved to work together, each with their knowledge and responsibility, working day by day, weighing up proposals and putting them into practice with consensus. I am sure that this way of doing things will lead us to a truly sustainable world.
That company is called CODIF and it is no wonder that they have won the Ecovadis gold medal for the fifth consecutive year. They have achieved excellent results in all the categories assessed, particularly in the Environment category. These results place them among the top 3% of suppliers rated by EcoVadis.
It takes a lot of energy to set all these processes in motion and also courage to invest and support change, fortunately none of that is lacking in those unyielding Gauls of Codif.