Retail and CSR: How Can You Measure the Environmental Impact of Your Merchandising Operations?

‍Why merchandising is a blind spot in CSR strategy

CSR has been at the top of large companies' agendas for several years. Sustainability teams work on building energy use, transport emissions and recyclable packaging. But there is a common blind spot: the environmental impact of merchandising and trade marketing operations

POS materials generate 100,000 metric tons of waste per year in France, according to POPAI/ADEME data. The POS market is worth €1.5 billion, and a large share of it ends up as waste in less than 15 days (the average lifespan of a POS display in store). At least 2 out of 10 POS displays are never installed. Physical mock-ups of merchandising concepts, travel for validation meetings, shipping display units: all of this adds up to a significant carbon footprint that is rarely measured.

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💡 Did you know?

According to the 2025 Brand Commitment Barometer: 79% of marketers believe a brand must make environmental commitments to survive. And 92% of French people believe social responsibility should be a major priority for companies. Merchandising is no longer exempt from this scrutiny.

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Mapping the environmental impact of merchandising

The 5 emission sources in the merchandising cycle

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How 3D concretely reduces the carbon footprint of merchandising

1. Eliminating physical prototypes

Every physical prototype that is never built means materials saved, plus the energy for manufacturing, shipping, storage and disposal. With Retail VR's Virtual First method, design iterations happen entirely in virtual form. Only the final prototype (validated and approved) is manufactured. For a manufacturer producing 5 concepts per year with an average of 3 prototypes each, that means 10 to 12 prototypes avoided every year.

2. Reducing non-compliant POS displays

A poorly sized POS display (too big for the retailer's fixtures, wrong color, unreadable message) is a POS display that ends up in the trash after a few days. 3D simulation under real-world conditions, with the exact dimensions of the fixtures and the store lighting, eliminates these errors before production. 3D prototyping of POS displays makes it possible to validate the final look without producing anything physical.

3. Eliminating validation trips

How many times does a marketing director or merchandising manager take a plane or train to validate a concept in a pilot store? With Retail VR's cloud-based collaborative platform, validation happens remotely in immersive 3D. Stakeholders (whether in Paris, Lyon or abroad) access the same project simultaneously from their web browser.

4. Reducing reprints

Spotting an error on a POS display after production is a disaster: everything has to be reprinted. By visually testing every element in 3D simulation before launching production, the error rate drops by 70 to 90%. That is just as much material and energy that doesn't go to waste.

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Building your merchandising carbon footprint: a practical method

Step 1 — Take inventory of impact sources

Start by listing, over one year: the number of concepts created, the number of physical prototypes produced, the number of POS displays ordered vs. installed, the number of validation trips, and the quantity of POS displays destroyed before or after rollout.

Step 2 — Apply emission factors

Use the ADEME database (Base Empreinte®) to convert each item into kg of CO₂ equivalent. The main factors for merchandising:

• 1 kg of cardboard = 0.9 kg CO₂ eq (manufacturing)
• 1 kg of plastic = 2 to 3 kg CO₂ eq depending on the type
• 1 kg of metal (aluminum) = 8 to 12 kg CO₂ eq
• 1 km by plane = approximately 0.18 kg CO₂ eq per passenger
• 1 km by car = approximately 0.21 kg CO₂ eq

Step 3 — Calculate the gains from virtualization

Compare emissions in year N (before adopting 3D) with emissions in year N+1 (after). The difference is your measurable merchandising CSR gain, which you can include in your CSRD report, your annual carbon footprint assessment or your responses to tenders.

Step 4 — Communicate the results

The CSR gain from virtual merchandising is a differentiating argument in tenders from major retailers that include ESG criteria in their supplier selection. Retail VR offers its clients a dashboard to track avoided impacts (prototypes not built, POS displays not produced, trips eliminated) directly from the merchandising data platform.

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CSR and regulations: what merchandising teams need to know in 2025

The CSRD and its implications

The European CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) is gradually expanding ESG reporting obligations. From 2026-2027, a larger number of companies will have to report their Scope 3 emissions, which include waste generated by commercial operations, POS materials among them. Merchandising teams have every reason to start measuring their impact now.

The AGEC law and waste reduction obligations

France's Anti-Waste for a Circular Economy law (AGEC) is gradually introducing new constraints on packaging and single-use materials. Temporary POS displays are in the regulatory crosshairs. Brands that have already reduced their physical production through virtualization will be the best positioned.

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Conclusion

Merchandising is a significant and largely underestimated source of environmental impact. POS materials, prototypes, validation trips: all of these have a measurable carbon footprint. The good news: the same tools that accelerate time-to-market and improve the quality of in-store execution (3D simulation, mixed reality, cloud-based validation) are also the tools that reduce this impact. It is a rare alignment between business performance and environmental responsibility. To start measuring and reducing the impact of your merchandising operations, contact our teams.

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