Nine leading French retailers – including E.Leclerc, Carrefour, Auchan, Les Mousquetaires, U, Casino, Lidl, and Metro– have formally joined the Open Climat platform, a shared system designed to collect and standardise suppliers’ product-level carbon data. The initiative, backed by the French Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD) and Perifem, received approval from the French Competition Authority at the end of October, clearing the way for a national roll-out.
For retailers and manufacturers alike, the focus is Scope 3 emissions, which account for more than 96% of the consumer sector’s climate impact. By pooling data through an independent third party, Open Climat aims to accelerate decarbonisation and ensure consistent, scientifically validated reporting across the industry. A formal Stakeholder Committee – bringing together key manufacturing federations such as ANIA, FEEF, Ilec and others – has been created to guarantee transparency, safeguard competitive neutrality and oversee platform governance.
Major manufacturers have already engaged, but the real challenge lies with SMEs, which often lack the resources to track carbon impacts in detail. Retailers argue that a shared platform reduces this burden and will ultimately support more sustainable sourcing decisions. Open Climat currently includes around 150 suppliers, with an ambition to reach 6,000.
There are platforms and initiatives in other European countries that resemble the idea behind Open Climat. For example, the BRC Mondra Coalition, which brings together leading UK retailers — including Tesco, Asda, M&S, Ocado Retail, and others — and manufacturers to adopt a unified standard for product-level carbon foot printing and to address Scope 3 emissions at scale. Mondra offers an automated life-cycle assessment (LCA) system that can footprint thousands of products fairly quickly.