In response to the energy crisis expected this winter, InVivo is accelerating its 2025 energy efficiency plan

In response to the energy crisis expected this winter, InVivo is accelerating its 2025 energy efficiency plan

In response to the energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine, which is feared by the whole of Europe, and to the express request of the Prime Minister to reduce the energy consumption of its companies by 10% in the next few weeks, the InVivo group, Europe's second largest agricultural group, is stepping up the mobilization of all of its businesses: agriculture, malting, milling, industrial bakery, garden center, trade and wine.

A Mission Company since 2020, convinced that agriculture is a solution to climate change, the InVivo group has made CSR one of its main drivers for progress since 2013 and its subsidiaries are already continuously improving their practices.

However, the group is seizing this new crisis as an opportunity to challenge its businesses even more strongly on the issue of energy; it has already set up an energy crisis unit, which will work closely with the energy committee and the group's energy referents.

The InVivo group is accelerating its 2025 energy efficiency plan

The group's energy crisis unit met for the first time this week, for an indefinite period, to identify with the group's energy referents and business lines how to further reduce energy consumption, in order to reach at least the 10% target set by the government.

"After the COVID crisis, we are now facing an unprecedented energy crisis, and we intend to face it with the same philosophy: to make it an opportunity to further improve our practices. This is why we immediately mobilized to set up the crisis unit that will steer the development, implementation and monitoring of our new 2025 energy efficiency plan. By being present throughout the food chain, from the field to the plate, we also want to engage our stakeholders on this issue of energy: our employees, our customers and our partners," says Thierry Blandinières, CEO of the InVivo group.

At the group level, one of the strong measures already in place is telecommuting, which is imposed on 50% or 60% of all eligible employees following the New Work Organization put in place after COVID. The deployment of this measure to the 6,000 employees of the Soufflet business lines, recently integrated, will be accelerated.

At the same time, a series of immediate decisions have been taken for all the Group's administrative sites:

Raising the temperature settings for air conditioning and lowering the heating settings by 2° (1° less = 7% savings) during the day. Lower the temperature settings at night and on weekends.
Turn off (rather than put on standby) all electrical equipment at night and on weekends: screens (on standby -70% / off -100%), multi-function sockets, coffee machines, water fountains, etc.
Reduce lighting timers and increase the number of presence detectors.
Discussions will be launched with the owners of leased sites to identify ways to save money in common areas.

Some business commitments

 

InVivo Retail

95% of the 1,200 Jardiland and Gamm vert stores are not air-conditioned and only 1/3 of the sales areas are heated. In the closed areas (greenhouse area, pet shop, lifestyle, store, cash desks), the immediate reduction in heating settings is 2°C (from 19°C to 17°C). The stores will also benefit from the installation of air destratifiers in the hot greenhouse area, and the replacement of obsolete heating equipment is planned over the next few years.

 

With regard to lighting, the stores benefit from a significant amount of natural light during the day thanks to the greenhouses, which limits the amount of artificial lighting, and the exterior illuminated signs are already switched off when the store closes. The existing lighting fixtures will be replaced by LED lighting: tests have already been carried out and have shown savings of 20 to 30% depending on the size and profile of the store.

In order to better respond to the challenges of the group's energy and environmental strategy, InVivo Retail has chosen to implement Citron® Energy, a digital platform that allows the consumption of each point of sale to be monitored in real time in order to detect and immediately correct any anomalies in the consumption of the sites, as well as to analyze consumption, billing and greenhouse gas data.

 

Agriculture

The drying season will see a 40 to 50% drop in gas consumption (-25 GWH) compared to N-1 and a drop in associated electricity consumption. This is due in particular to the 20% reduction in the collection of autumn products.

 

Commitments have already been made to significantly reduce silo operations this winter (ventilation, cleaning, sizing) and to stop night operations. Raising awareness of good ventilation practices and the use of handling circuits will also help to reduce consumption. Replacing the existing heating systems with reversible air conditioning in the silo offices will reduce electricity consumption by a factor of three.

 

Transport 

The reduction in collection will generate a 20% reduction in transport (to take wet goods to the dryers): 7,000 fewer journeys, i.e. around 100,000 litres of diesel saved (3% of Soufflet Transport's annual consumption). The reinforcement of eco-driving training for HGV drivers, with 19 drivers trained in 2022/23, will result in savings of 23,000 L of diesel fuel (0.7% of annual consumption).