Combining a social mission with significant ecological actions is the challenge that Envie has been tackling for over 30 years. This company refurbishes large household appliances (fridges, washing machines, etc.) with the help of employees, most of whom are in professional reintegration. “We make about 350 hires a year (...) there are many different profiles (...) depending on the regions, the specifics vary. We have many migrants in Lyon, for example.” explains Guido Locatelli, the general director of the organization.
These are professional contracts that serve as a springboard towards employment reintegration. Few employees have permanent contracts, but those who do are trained to learn the trade: “We refer to them in our jargon as ‘technical supervisors for reintegration’ and they must be able to welcome many people, train them, and integrate them…”
Additionally, Envie develops internal training programs to make people operational very quickly.
After 10 years of experience in this field, Guido Locatelli is now convinced that this internal training system is more sustainable and allows for balanced development aligned with a meaningful mission.
What motivated this former engineer from AirBus, is both the social mission of the company, of course, but also the ecological aspect: “The goals of this company are social to combat exclusion (...), and environmental, which means that all our activities share the common denominator of the circular economy.”
A project driven by commitment that, on its scale, helps reduce our environmental impact, although still insufficient according to their general director: “At the national Envie network level, we refurbish about 100,000 appliances a year. But this needs to be put into perspective with the 15 million household appliances put on the market each year. So that’s less than 1%, it’s very small. While citizens are starting to become more environmentally conscious (...) we have market studies showing that today 20% of consumers could buy refurbished appliances.” A growing market, indeed!
If you want to deepen your knowledge on this topic: https://www.airzen.fr/eco-challenge-sensibiliser-efficacement-les-lyceens-au-zero-dechet/
