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Eco'move: the strong new commitment of Le Petit Depot

It's back to school time and Le Petit Depot is back with Eco'move! Launched in July 2018 when Le Petit Depot moved to an eco friendly warehouse, this initiative is in line with our founders' commitment to minimise the environmental footprint of our company - a challenging task when living in Singapore! The majority of products on the market are imported. Supermarkets are stocked with products from Australia, New Zealand but also imports from countries as far as the USA … Our green-minded consumers are also aware of the added impact their travelling has on the planet. Is it even possible to be environmentally friendly in Singapore?

Le Petit Depot has decided to rise to this challenge one step at a time . From the beginning, we have been cultivating values ​​that are unique to our founders, such as limiting waste, delivering in cardboard boxes rather than plastic bags, and encouraging direct imports from grassroots French companies (Oberti cured meats, Erhard ice cream ...) . We are also increasing the distribution of organic products and sales in bulk with our Bio Rungis range.

The new ecofriendly warehouse

For over a year, le Petit Depot has been storing its products at JTC Foodhub - a building whose environmental specifications are clear and controlled by the BCA, a Singaporean government entity. The space has the following environmental advantages:

(JTC FOODHUB A building awarded the Platinum Green Award by the BCA - Business Construction Authority)

• Strict control of energy expenditure (estimated savings of 9MkWh / year).

• Strict control of water costs (estimated savings of 27,736 m3 / year).

• Enhanced efficiency of the water cooling system.

• LED lighting in common areas and automatic controls.

• Use of solar energy for the air conditioning system.

• Enhanced efficiency of ventilation mechanisms (regulation according to traffic).

• le Petit Depot warehouse is part of the green JTC Foodhub complex

80% of our goods arrive by ship

Ships are actually the means of transport that emit the least CO2, 15 to 30 grams per tonne per kilometer. They are followed by train, car, truck and plane. Cargo ships are therefore our preferred way for transporting all groceries, frozen food, drinks and household products.

With respect to fresh products, rather than choosing air freight (TNT, FedEx, UPS), we use airliners or passenger transport to limit our carbon footprint. Airlines generally use their leftover cargo space to transport  goods. While not being perfect, this system optimises the use of an airplane that would have flown anyway.

Additionally we ensure that our logistical routines are tight and optimized:

• Order just what is needed to meet the demand. No more, no less. This minimizes storage and prevents waste.

• Grouping orders to optimize transport. This limits travel by truck to the point of collection in France and ensures containers will not travel partially empty.

• Optimised home-delivery. Delivery routes are carefully planned to minimize transport time. An optimized delivery service is additionally much more energy-efficient than having everyone drive their car to a shop.

Our fight against waste.

At le Petit Depot, we hate waste. So much so that we have often preferred to risk shortages rather than having to throw goods away. Several initiatives are currently in place to waste even less.

• Promotions and delisting rather than throwing away

• optimised management of orders

• Enhanced packaging techniques to minimise breakage

• local training on proper handling of the cold chain and product storage.

• surplus is donated to local charity groups.

Reduce, reuse,.recycle

Please Return your delivery boxes during your next delivery!

We primarily use cardboard - unbleached - for our deliveries. These are recycled and we encourage you to return them in your next order for us to reuse or recycle again.

We also choose to print black and white delivery slips to limit the use of color inks.

At our new warehouse all workers are trained to sort and recycle waste responsibly. Packaging of waste is in:

• Bags for plastics
• Carts for cartons
• Foods are disposed of separately.
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And now: a wide range of products in line with these values

We have recently started carrying 'Lamazuna' and 'Love & Green' . These two "zero waste" brands  offer products for the bathroom, and diapers and feminine hygiene respectively.

Coming soon: a wide selection of toiletries and household goods you can make yourself - DIY the artisan soapmaker. We also plan to stock labels like 'Eco'cert', or 'Nature et Progres' for household cleaning , which have a much smaller carbon footprint or negative impact on the environment. We are also considering Cosmo natural and Cosmos organic for cosmetics ... we'll let you know more soon!

Little drops of water make a mighty ocean

Since its beginning, Le Petit Depot has been closely involved with the charity organisation 'les Enfants du Mékong' , particularly through the sale of their recipe books. All proceeds are donated to development projects in education. The edition # 5 "My little kitchen" was conceived and written by volunteers of the association and is currently available here. We invite you to check out the electronic version of the previous edition which allows you to automatically order all needed ingredients for any recipe in the book.

Additionally, since May 2019 we invite all our customers to round their orders up to the higher $. These micro-donations help to fund this association which operates in 9 countries of Southeast Asia.

More than ever, our little team is committed to being resourceful , creative and quick to adopt new environmentally responsible ways of working. Our customers, rightly concerned by their consumer choices, know they can trust the quality of our products, of our cold chain and the French and European 'organic' labels and reward us with ever growing loyalty.