Commitments

Paper

Catalogues, mail shots, commercial documents, etc.; the home shopping trade requires large quantities of paper.
It is therefore essential for us that the paper used for our catalogues comes from forests managed according to the principles of sustainable development.
For our supplies, we favour maximum traceability, based on stringent certification as to the origin of the wood.
In Europe, two labels have our preference: the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) international certification and the PEFC (Pan European Forest Council) pan-European certification.

Concerning global environmental management, 100% of our suppliers are ISO 14 001 certified, and 85% of them abide by the EMAS European standard.
Over the past five years, we have reduced the basic weight of our catalogues in France by 15%, which amounts to 10,000 tonnes of paper.
We are also striving to optimise the logistic chain for the manufacturing of our catalogues.  On the paper manufacturer/printer flows, the distances travelled were thus reduced by 18% since 2003, amounting to over 450,000 km, equivalent to over 300 tonnes of CO2.  This performance is attributable to a financial incentive inciting our entities to use the printer located closest to the paper factories.

Wood

As a furniture distributor, we refuse to use wood stemming from illegal cutting or virgin forests. We remain very vigilant as to the origin of the wood.
The wood used for the manufacturing of the furniture we distribute essentially derives from South-East Brazil and from forests under permanent replanting programmes.
Our Group also favours local certification and traceability of the woods which must come from planted forests.

Redcats Group is committed to reforestation.  In 2004 we renewed our partnership with the non-governmental organisation ESSOR in Brazil, which is the main source of our supplies.  This agreement provides for our brands and their Brazilian suppliers to donate 0.1% of the amount of the purchases made in the country to a reforestation programme.
The results have exceeded the objectives: 130,000 trees have been planted in North-East Brazil since 2003, providing a living for 1,100 families.

Management of packaging and waste

Management of packaging: due to our activities, this is a field where we need to be very active.
In France, we have been shareholder of Eco-Emballage since its creation in 1992.
We have also played a pioneering role in Scandinavia through our acknowledged efforts in the management of numerous types of waste, using extremely stringent sorting processes on our sites.

For product packaging and parcels, our policy essentially rests on compliance with European regulations concerning household packaging waste.

As for electronic equipment waste, we take part in the PPR work groups on the D3E mission and have set up an action plan to act in compliance with the European directive.
Concerning supplier packaging (pallets, cardboard boxes, plastic film), the company's position consists in promoting very stringent sorting and recycling the waste on industrial sites.

Transport

In the field of transport, Redcats Group has chosen to optimise the management of its flows by adopting a preferential delivery policy.  In line with this concept, our requests for paper deliveries are sent to the printers who are situated nearest the paper producing factories.  In less than two years, we have managed to reduce the distances travelled by 18%, i.e. over 450 000 km.  This effort has also given rise to a reduction of CO2 emissions of more than 450 tonnes a year.

Our organic "BIO" products

In its 2005 Spring-Summer catalogue, Somewhere lists 15 items made with organic cotton. This product line is called BIO, for "Believe In Origins", a Swiss label certified by the Institute of Marketecology (IMO): it guarantees the absence of pesticides and chemical processing during cotton manufacturing and the use of dyes containing no heavy metals.