During last week’s Climate Week in New York City, Decathlon, Europe’s biggest sports retailer, announced that the company will be joining RE100, a global initiative by The Climate Group that unites 144 businesses committed to using renewable electricity to accelerate the shift to a low carbon economy.
As a result, the French company is committing to sourcing 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2026, through the production and procurement of renewable energy. The commitment covers all of Decathlon’s retail and logistics sites around the world.
Speaking about the commitment, Emma Woolley, project manager for renewable energy at Decathlon Group in Lille, France, said, “Decathlon is really proud to join RE100. We look forward to learning from, sharing and working with other companies to make renewable energy more accessible. This commitment is totally aligned with our company’s vision for 2026, which was co-written by our teammates and has a heavy focus on reducing our environmental impact. By doing our part to combat climate change, we help to protect the natural environment where people play sports. We hope our commitment enables other companies to do the same.”
Decathlon, which mostly sells its own branded sporting goods and covers over 70 sports, is the largest French retailer to have signed up to RE100. The commitment covers both Decathlon’s free-hold and lease-hold sites. Currently, 70 percent of its electricity consumption is generated by France, Spain, Italy and China. Some sites already benefit from on-site solar production in Europe, and the first installations in China and India were completed this year.
Sam Kimmins, Head of the RE100, The Climate Group, said, “We’re thrilled to have Europe’s largest sports retailer join RE100. By transferring its global operations to 100 percent renewable electricity, Decathlon is demonstrating to its customers that sustainability is at their heart of its business. This is just the kind of leadership we need to see to drive down emissions at speed.”
The French sports retailer, which was founded in 1976, is present both on-line and off-line in 51 countries with over 1400 stores, 315 of which are in France (as of 30/6/2018). Its recent international expansion has led to the opening of many new territories including Australia, Israel, South Africa, Chile, Canada and also the USA, which opened its first concept store in San Francisco last year, and is set to open a larger 4000m2 store in Emeryville in 2019.
