1- Could you tell us in a few words about your position and the activities of GS1 France?
GS1 is a neutral, non profit international standardization organization, present in over 150 countries, which was created by companies 50 years ago to facilitate and automate their exchanges through a common language. It enables a product to be uniquely defined and identified, assigned a unique code, captured and exchanged throughout the value chain. We’re best known for the barcode, “the beep at the supermarket checkout”, scanned 10 billion times a day worldwide. Our members include over 2 million companies and 58,000 in France, all of which trade using GS1 standards.
For my part, my role with my team is to lead this collaborative platform to create, by consensus, the standards of tomorrow in line with new regulatory, environmental and societal challenges.
2- GS1 France joined the CNE this year as a member of its 9th college (Other companies and associations): could you tell us why GS1 supports the CNE and its actions?
GS1 France has made the strategic choice to focus on issues related to reducing the impact of packaging, in line with its positioning towards greater circularity in the economy. It’s a subject with a lot of stakes for our historic member communities, and a collective challenge for ecosystems, where standards playing a central role in scaling up. It’s only natural that GS1 France should turn to the CNE as a central player and moral authority on this major issue. Our role is to federate players around a common cause, and then to create, by consensus, the standards framework that will provide concrete answers for all companies, large and small.
3- Can you tell us about GS1 France’s Impack’t initiative, particularly in relation to the CNE’s “Right Packaging” initiative?
In our view, “Right Packaging” is packaging that fulfills its function (logistics, safety, marketing), with a constant focus on reducing its environmental impact through eco-design, recyclability, re-usability, etc.
Impack’t focuses on federating initiatives to holistically address the “Packaging” issue and develop standards to accelerate the implementation of ambitious and economically realistic public 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) strategies.
For example: we need to share more data on the type of packaging used, we need to create a unified traceability model for reusable packaging, we need new (invisible) marking solutions for better industrial waste sorting, etc.
Our work program covers 6 areas: packaging data, development of reuse, bulk distribution, industrial sorting, logistics packaging and new digital deposit methods.
4- The CNE listens closely to its members, and each year organizes 3 working groups to deal with current issues or anticipate future ones. What are the themes that the CNE could investigate, and which would make sense for GS1 France?
We’d like the CNE to lead the way in thinking about tomorrow’s packaging in a context of strong pressure on materials and the need to reduce its impact, without of course forgetting the primary function of packaging (described above).
What solutions are available to implement effective and ambitious 3R strategies today?
Thinking about the packaging of “tomorrow”, GS1 France will be working on the associated data that will make it possible to share data, trace packaging such as reusable containers, and create the conditions for interoperability that will foster new business models.
We all know that the world of packaging is at a turning point in its history. The CNE’s collaborative work must support this major shift, and help marketers make the right choices.
