Branding Belgium eco-friendly (E F N)
From household cleaning products to beer and renewable energy supplies, Boyd Farrow takes a look at the Belgian brands that are big on being green
At Park+Road, Belgium’s first trade show for “mobility, parking and road safety” in January, an emotional Roland Cracco proclaimed his company would soon be the greenest name in Belgian car parks. So far, he said, 55 of Interparking’s 69 sites are powered by green energy, supplied by Brussels-based Electrabel, and they will all be carbon neutral by 2010. “We were inspired by the colours in our logo. After all, mixing blue and yellow gives green,” declared Cracco, a salvo of such cheesiness it nearly curdled the event’s whole Al Gore vibe.
Of course, one might wonder how much greener it would be to walk or cycle instead of drive and park, but that’s not the point. In Belgium, hemmed in by the militantly tree-hugging Germans and the windmill-flaunting Dutch, greenness is a prized badge. As well as the agenda-setting Electrabel, the country boasts world-leading Thenergo, which produces electricity and heat from natural gas, bio oil and woody biomass. Meanwhile, Carrefour Belgium, a subsidiary of France’s retail behemoth, is trialling Energie EcoPlanet, a scheme to supply households with electricity generated by wind and water. And France’s Total chose the Ruisbroek-Brussels highway as the location for Europe’s first roadside hydrogen station.
Additionally, Belgian companies are exporting green know-how to their neighbours. Clothing chain C&A – Dutch owned but based in Brussels – recently opened Europe’s first redeveloped shop to earn BREEAM certification in Mainz, Germany. The store will use around 50% less electricity and 70% less heating fuel and will also be carbon neutral. In 2008, the company launched an organic cotton collection that sells for the same price as traditional cotton goods. Profits generated from sales of organic cotton bags are donated to projects promoting the crop’s cultivation in developing countries.
Green Belgian enterprise comes in all shades and scales. Take the Cistercian Trappist monks of Chimay, who’ve dedicated their lives not only to serving God but also to the production of sustainable foodstuffs, specifically beer and cheese. Water for the 120,000 hectolitres of beer produced annually is drawn from wells in the abbey grounds. Grain husks left over from brewing are donated to dairy farms, extra yeast produced in the fermenting process is resold as yeast tablets, and waste water is processed and reused in the area.
Profits from Chimay beer and cheese are donated to charities and community development schemes. But other sustainable food-making endeavours are more entrepreneurial, such as Alpro, the soy products company owned by Belgium’s mighty Vandemoortele Group.
Alpro, unsurprisingly, claims that by consuming soy products we can save natural resources otherwise squandered on livestock, while soy plants suck nitrogen out of the air, minimising the use of artificial fertilisers. Additionally the company has engaged in various projects in a bid to become ‘best in class’ in the energy efficiency benchmark agreement by 2012 and to obtain carbon-neutral production facilities by 2020. Alpro claims to have already reduced energy consumption by more than 25% and produces 10% of its own green energy.
While all the above are noteworthy, it would be impossible to talk about Belgium’s green companies without mentioning Ecover. Formed in 1980 by Frans Bogaert, whose dream was to create a washing powder free from phosphates – well, everyone needs a dream – the brand includes an ever-widening range of household products made from plant and mineral-based ingredients. The evangelical company practises what it preaches. Ecover operates from factories built to maximise daylight, with sedum-covered roofs to support wildflower planting, and which use only green energy and have their own water purification systems and rainwater-flushing toilets. Indeed, the company harrumphs that its own environmental guidelines for the selection of ingredients and manufacturing processes are far stricter than those required by EU legislation.
Five green European brands
Europe’s greenest… electronics
Greenpeace recently ranked Finnish phone giant Nokia as the most eco-friendly electronic brand because of its improved take-back practices in India, toxic chemical issues, utilising models with no PVC and aiming to have all new models free of brominated flame retardants and antimony trioxide by the end of this year.
Europe’s greenest… lightbulbs
Philips launched its A Simple Switch campaign in 2007 to promote low-power lighting. The Dutch company has made several advances in minimising power consumption in its products, last year reducing the 8 or 9 watts of a TV’s standby power to 0.15 watts.
Europe’s greenest… cars
According to leading provider of automotive data JATO Consult, Fiat achieved the lowest volume-weighted average CO2 figure of Europe’s top-selling brands in 2008 at 133.7g/km. Peugeot sits in second place with Citroën, its PSA sister company, in third.
Europe’s greenest… hotels
Scandinavian hotel group Scandic is committed to eliminating half its fossil CO2 emissions by 2011 and all by 2025. The majority of its hotels have been awarded the Nordic Swan eco-label and the group has announced it will no longer buy bottled water, offering filtered water from taps instead.
Europe’s greenest… building
The new headquarters of the International Union for Conservation of Nature on the shores of Lake Geneva are made from recycled cement, while geothermal energy and photovoltaic panels on the roof will produce the electricity for lighting and computers.