Monoprix wants to green its logistics with a new giant warehouse

This 100.000 m2 building was built with the American developer Prologis on a former PSA industrial site in Moissy-Cramayel in the Paris region.

It will gradually welcome some 400 employees previously spread over three other sites, also in Seine-et-Marne, to deliver non-food products to the group's stores and to individuals.

In logistics real estate, reputed to be very polluting, Monoprix is ​​not the only one to aim for carbon neutrality. For example, the transport company DHL is advancing a similar objective by 2050 for its new site in Tremblay-en-France.

The Monoprix warehouse will be the first in the world to be certified by the NGO International Living Future Institute but, according to an opinion from the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe) dating from April, carbon neutrality "cannot be defined. than at the scale of the planet or of a State ".

"It is a drop in the bucket, and we know it, on the scale of the global environmental challenge," Jean-Paul Mochet, president of Franprix and Monoprix, subsidiaries of Casino, told AFP.

To obtain this certification, it was necessary to build in a less polluting manner, for example by reusing materials from the demolition of the previous site. The huge frame is made of wood from sustainably managed forests.

According to Monoprix and Prologis, the construction emitted 40.000 tonnes of CO2 less than for a conventional warehouse.

The floor space is also less important thanks to high storage, supplied by robots.

The machines, similar to large autonomous vacuum cleaners, each have their own name written on the front: "Baba", "Toxi", or even "Loga", are recharged by themselves by connecting to a fast charger and thanks to their downhill movements.

Transport still polluting

Above the hundreds of boxes filled with irons or wicker baskets, the roof is also covered with 36.000 m2 of solar panels, which supply the site with electricity, and the heating is done by geothermal energy.

"We consume less and it should cost us less in the long term", assures Jean-Paul Mochet.

However, transport remains polluting, as most of Monoprix's trucks still run on diesel. A significant dimension when we know that more than 45 million packages must be sent from the warehouse.

By 2024, the company is targeting 50% natural gas vehicles.

Despite the efforts made, the promoter still has around 35.000 tonnes of CO2 emissions to be offset in order to achieve its objective of "carbon neutrality" over an operating period of 50 years.

He promises to do this a large tree planting program, a method contested by some conservationists who believe that it would be insufficient at best, and at worst disrupt the balance of the soil.

More unexpectedly, Prologis is committed to promoting biodiversity on the site by creating an orchard and installing beehives. Honey will also be analyzed every month to "assess the quality of biodiversity".

In total, the site cost 60 million euros to Prologis and 3 million to Monoprix, and represents "an additional cost of about 15%" compared to a traditional warehouse, according to Sébastien Laizet, general manager of Samada, the logistics subsidiary. by Monoprix.

The chain of stores will operate it for at least twelve years.

Prologis is one of the thirty or so players in logistics real estate who signed a voluntary charter with the government in August to make warehouses greener.

Present at the inauguration, the Minister for SMEs, Alain Griset, assured that the issue of warehouse development would be addressed during the Trade Conference, scheduled for November.