According to the 2024 Forética report, there is a market trend for which, on equal terms, eight out of 10 consumers prefer to acquire a sustainable product. Of course, for this they must have sufficient information that allows comparison to be able to make informed purchase decisions.
That is the point where Home Index is located, Leroy Merlin’s tool to evaluate the environmental and social impact of its products throughout its life cycle. The result is reflected in a final grade with a single letter: from A to E, from more to less sustainable. More than 220,000 products of the household conditioning multinational have been evaluated and show it for a year. With her, as Cristina Sánchez, Leroy Merlin Spain’s impact director, “we empower customers so that they can make more informed and responsible purchasing decisions.”
A year after its implementation, the data seems to endorse the usefulness of this tool: the products with the best grades have experienced a greater growth in sales: 75% correspond to products with rating A, B or C, increasing up to 11% in sections such as renewable energies and comfort, compared to 57% of representing in the late 2024 customer”. It also helps the fact that, according to internal studies, “94% of customers confirm that the tool and information they contain are very easily understood.”
A letter, a lot of information
Home Index is based on the life cycle analysis, a methodology that identifies and evaluates the environmental impacts of the components and processes necessary for the production, use and end of life of an article.
In this case, when developing the tool, “30 objective and measurable criteria of eight key categories have been defined, such as raw materials, manufacturing, transport, phase of use, repair and durability, social impact, health and ecological label,” explains Cristina Sánchez. The result is a score that ranges from -1 to 100, which translates to a letter in its final rating and including the information of each specific product: from the A, for the most sustainable, to the E, for those with the greatest margin of improvement.
An issue that Sánchez stands out of the evaluation process “is that 80% of the environmental impact of a product is defined in the design phase, so this methodology allows to detect and apply improvements from the beginning of the process.”
This, on the other hand, means that “Home Index not only measures, but also promotes a real change in providing common language to both customers and sales equipment, of which 80% have been trained to advise the client on sustainability.”
I work with suppliers
Additionally, all this information provides the possibility of transforming the value chain to improve the final results of the evaluations, “because it offers the suppliers concrete guidance on where to act so that their products evolve, are more sustainable and,” adds the director of positive impact of Leroy Merlin Spain, “so we can work with them to improve the design, production and distribution, and reduce negative impacts.”
In fact, 85% of suppliers have adhered to Home Index, “of which more than 800, which suppose 93% of Leroy Merlin Spain’s volume, have received training in ecodesign and sustainability criteria.”
Strategic reflection
The Home Index project, whose methodology has required five years of development and has been presented to international organizations such as the French Environment and Management Agency
Of energy (Aedeme), the Nations Program for the Environment (UNEP), DNV and PWC, among others, has become a strategic pillar on the company’s sustainability route. Its matrix, the Adeo group, launched the new corporate strategy, Make It Positive, in 2020 with the objective “of creating a positive and useful company model, which improves its products and services and the well -being of its employees and local communities. Aligned all this with the company’s environment policy that seeks to minimize environmental risks and negative consequences in the environment derived from our business, ”says Cristina Sánchez.
The global objective, as Sánchez also expresses, is contributing to more homes being sustainable and more sustainable to be everyone’s home. In that sense, and fulfilled this first year of Home Index, we see it very consolidated and as an engine of change that connects the information with the action and encourages responsible production and consumption ».