L.E.S.S.
Low Emission Sustainable Sourcing
Over the past several years, major retail brands have engaged in an effort to rise to the challenge of climate change, either on their own initiative or jointly:
Reducing direct and indirect emissions
Improving the sustainable management of their activities
Promoting an offer of responsibly sourced products
On average, 96% of greenhouse gas emissions from retailers are indirect emissions (77% caused by the products they sell and 19% arising from the use of those products by consumers). The remaining 4% are emissions that fall under scopes 1 and 2.
McKinsey survey for EuroCommerce, Transforming the EU retail and wholesale sector – Sustainability, Digitalization, Skills, October 2022, page 15.
A Collective Initiative
The LESS initiative, founded by nine retail chains within FCD and Perifem, aims to standardize the approach of distributors toward their Tier 1 suppliers by implementing a carbon data collection tool.
This tool will make it easier for suppliers to submit and share their carbon data on a single platform, thereby facilitating dialogue on the progress and sustainability measures implemented by manufacturers.
At first, the decision was made to use a single shared platform for transmitting supplier data to distributors, in order to avoid multiplying retailer-specific tools.
All retail chains — both food and non-food, whether or not they are members of FCD and/or Perifem — are invited to join this initiative, with the goal of reducing heterogeneous data requests from distributors.
The LESS initiative also aims to expand internationally, inviting European and global retailers to join.
A stakeholder committee has been established to facilitate dialogue between the representative organizations of distributors and manufacturers.
It brings together the two founding federations of the initiative:
And seven federations representing suppliers and manufacturers:
The main missions of this stakeholder committee (CPP) are to: facilitate and pool exchanges between the parties involved in the LESS initiative; define, when necessary, communication materials for federation members and external stakeholders; monitor future developments (of the platform, or complementary decarbonization initiatives).
The Data Collection Tool
A Call for Expressions of Interest, launched by FCD and Perifem, led — after analysis of the 17 proposals received with the support of consultancy firm Quantis — to the selection of the OpenClimat tool to meet the objective of standardizing carbon data collection.
A “LESS pack” has been designed to meet retailers’ needs. It includes: the collection of carbon data at the company level, or at the product level for suppliers able to provide this information; the entry of their emission reduction commitments.
All suppliers to the retail sector — whether manufacturers or importers, delivering agricultural, processed food, or non-food products — will be invited to enter their carbon data via the OpenClimat platform.
Suppliers who do not yet have a carbon footprint assessment will be able to register for free on the platform, enabling them to start dialogue with retail stakeholders.
Competition Law
FCD and Perifem have submitted a request for informal guidance to the French Competition Authority, which has confirmed the compatibility of the LESS initiative with competition rules.
The informal guidance note No. 25-DD-02, dated October 23, 2025, can be accessed via this link. A press release issued by the Competition Authority can also be accessed via this link.