CSR commitments

To share this approach and strengthen our partnerships with charitable and social economy organisations supported by the Maisons du Monde Foundation, Maisons du Monde is organising, for the first time, in partnership with the Ressourcerie de l’île recycling facility in Nantes and Emmaüs Défi in Paris, a major event combining decor, the circular economy, and community spirit.

By launching the ‘Give away, Give a makeover’ campaign together, we want to encourage customers and individuals to do their bit in offering a second life to furniture and decorative objects they longer need. By giving them away to recycling and upcycling organisations with a social and charitable mission, they can each prolong the life-cycle of the products and give them a unique value that forges human connection.

Product donations: a collection counter will be available to the general public and customers of Maisons du Monde who want to donate furniture and decorative objects they no longer have use for. A more positive solution than throwing away!

Furniture makeover workshops: participants can customise and upcycle furniture with smart and stylish techniques (prior booking required - for more information, visit our Facebook page).

The charity sale of the ‘Maisons du Monde Made in Ressourcerie’ and ‘Maisons du Monde by the Emmaüs Défi Redesigners’ collections: not all furniture had the same fate, some may have been damaged and Maisons du Monde gives these to Ressourcerie de l’île and to Emmaüs Défi. Thanks to the work of the artisan-reclaimers, Maisons du Monde furniture is discovering a second life!

From 16 May to 14 September 2017, the Cœur de Forêt association collected more than 140 000 euros from customer donations, exceeding its collection objective.

Your donations are fully transferred to the Cœur de Forêt association and used to:

• Plant 100 000 trees
• Train 600 producers on agroforestry principles
• Make 200 children aware of the need to protect forests

For more information about the Cœur de Forêt association: www.coeurdeforet.com

From 15 September and up to 14 January 2018 inclusive, 100 % of your "micro-donations" will be transferred to the Association Foyer Notre-Dame des Sans-Abris for its project "Le mobilier de 2mains".

The Notre-Dame shelter's project aims to propose qualifying training courses on furniture repair to persons in the process of professional reinsertion. By offering them the opportunity to learn how to restore wooden furniture, the Notre-Dame shelter has a mission which is therefore both social and environmental. It helps people in situations of exclusion to find a job and reintegrate into society, while at the same giving a second life to furniture which would otherwise have been thrown away!

The Foyer Notre-Dame des Sans-Abri is the project pilot structure, which is testing this new system for 3 years. This partnership will offer the association's employees training and the possibility of obtaining a diploma. This initiative will eventually be deployed throughout France for all associations in this sector of activity: they will therefore be able to propose to persons in the process of professional reinsertion a training course recognised by the State leading to a new innovating trade!

To share our vision and educate the talents of tomorrow, in December 2016 Maisons du Monde launched the first Sustainable Creation Awards, inviting students at French design schools to reflect on the eco-design of furniture or decorative items. The Awards are organized in partnership with the eco-organization Eco-Mobilier, the Association FSC France, the sustainability consulting firm EVEA, and the participation of ADEME and the Foundation for Nature and Mankind.

From December to February, we received 55 submissions from 12 different schools. After a pre-selection by the Maisons du Monde designers, stylists and product managers, a panel of eco-design experts from Eco-Mobilier, EVEA and FSC, supported by ADEME, met to assess the efforts to reduce environmental impacts.

In partnership with the eco-organisations Eco-mobilier and Eco-TLC, the association FSC France, the sustainability consulting firm EVEA, and with the participation of ADEME and the Foundation for Nature and Mankind, the aim of these Awards is to promote the young talents of the future, initiate a change in behaviour by raising awareness on eco-design, place sustainable management of wood at the centre of the product offering and identify sustainable products in order to sell them.

Students or young graduates from French design and fashion schools are invited to study the eco-design of furniture and decorative products (all materials, including textiles), including the product life cycle steps (choice of materials, transport, end of life) and innovate to reduce the environmental impacts without compromising on style.

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• One winner for the "Furniture" category and one winner for the "Decoration and household linen" category: a cheque of €2500, an internship with the Designer teams at the Maisons du Monde head office and creation of the prototype.
• A special FSC^® France prize: Maisons du Monde FSC-certified furniture worth €600.

• The winning items could be commercialised by Maisons du Monde, within the framework of partnerships to be set up between Maisons du Monde and the winner(s).

• An "I like it" people's choice prize: all short-listed projects will be posted on the Maisons du Monde Facebook page. The project receiving the most "likes" will win Maisons du Monde vouchers to the value of €500.

With the desire to initiate a lasting movement, the Maisons du Monde Foundation brings together, for the very first time, all the stakeholders who wish to take action to protect forests, biodiversity and the climate.

The first event, Aux Arbres! takes place in Nantes, on 8 and 9 June 2018, at the city’s iconic venue, Les Machine de l’Ile.

This event dedicated to forest conservation, biodiversity and the climate targets a diverse and intergenerational audience of professionals, experts, general public and families.  Aux Arbres! gives visitors an immersive experience to learn more about forests:

• conferences and debates (with renowned guests such as Francis Hallé, botanist, Sarah Toumi, French Tunisian entrepreneur who started 1millionTrees4Tunisia, Tristan Lecomte, founder of Alter-Eco and Pur Project, Chanee, founder of Kalaweit, Audrey Pulvar, President of the Foundation for Nature and Mankind, Johanna Rolland, Mayor of Nantes, and more).

• virtual reality exhibits showing what the forest looks like through the eyes of an animal, workshops on planting greenery in cities and nature films.

• a Village of Solutions brings together associations from France and around the world that work to educate people about deforestation.

Don’t miss this event on 8 and 9 June in Nantes, at the Machines de l’Ile.

All the information on the Aux Arbres! movement can be found on the event website (french only): www.aux-arbres.com.

Download the press release (french only).

In partnership with the eco-organisations Eco-mobilier and Eco-TLC, the association FSC France, the sustainability consulting firm EVEA, and with the participation of ADEME and the Foundation for Nature and Mankind, the aim of these Awards is to promote the young talents of tomorrow, help change behaviours by educating people about eco-design, make the sustainable management of wood a priority and identify sustainable products to include in our product offering.

50 students participated in the second Awards, representing 17 design, fashion and art schools from all over France. They submitted projects for eco-designed furniture or decorative items. The students used their creativity to reduce the impacts on the environment, without compromising on style!

From 3 to 30 April 2018, the 10 shortlisted submissions are presented on Facebook for the “I Like It” people’s choice prize. People can vote for their favourite project by liking the student’s photo. The winner will win a €500 gift certificate for Maisons du Monde.

The winners will be announced on 11 October in Paris at the official awards ceremony, in the presence of design experts. The prototypes of their projects will be presented to the participants.

Vote for your favourite project!

Starting on Tuesday 3 April, 100% of the micro-donations made via the Arrondi Round up at the Register program will be donated to the association Envol Vert for their project “In Colombia, protect the last remaining forest habitat of the cotton-top tamarin monkey”.

Selected during the 2018 Call for Projects by the Maisons du Monde Foundation to receive three years of support, this project is run by Envol Vert, a forest conservation and biodiversity NGO, in the world’s most disadvantaged countries and in France.

The Envol Vert project aims to protect and restore the tropical rainforest in Colombia. The association supports local communities in setting up agroforestry projects. 150 families of farmers are involved in this project.

Agroforestry is a farming method that combines agricultural crops and trees. The farmers plant trees in and around their fields to help the crops grow better naturally, without chemicals. The farmers thus participate in reforestation activities! Under this system the farmers not only grow more food, but also replant trees in the tropical forest.

The final goal of Envol Vert is to give local communities the resources to protect the forest while improving their living conditions. The farmers involved in the project form a network and can transmit their knowledge to other farmers, on agroforestry and protecting the tropical forest in Colombia.

The funds from the Maisons du Monde Foundation will help: 

• Set up agroforestry systems and plant more than 80,000 trees.

• Develop economic activities based on forest conservation to improve the living conditions of the local communities, such as the manufacture and sale of preserves made from the fruit growing in these fields.

• Train the farmers in agroforestry practices.

For more information, visit the association website: http://envol-vert.org/en/

• A plenary session entitled "Views from Key Figures" which will give the floor to well-known speakers in the field, including Johanna Rolland, Mayor of Nantes and President of Nantes Métropole, Audrey Pulvar, President of the Nature et l’Homme Foundation, Tristan Lecomte, founder of PUR PROJET, Shubhendu Sharma, founder of Afforest, which specializes in "tiny forests”, capable of growing 300 trees in an area roughly the size of six parking spaces,  the Franco-Tunisian businesswomen Sarah Toumi, leader of the 1millionTreesforTunisia movement, and exceptional guest speakers who will give talks over the two days, such as the botanist Francis Hallé, the “earth doctors” Lydia and Claude Bourguignon and Maxime de Rostolan, the founder of the Fermes d’Avenir (Farms of the Future) and participant in the recent documentary On a 20 ans pour changer le monde (We’ve got 20 years to change the world).

• Immersive experiences through workshops: such as DIY workshops to learn about how to recycle wooden objects, sessions on making seed bombs, nesting boxes for birds, growing mini forests, or using virtual reality to experience the forest through an animal’s eyes… a range of interactive, immersive experiences that will transform the Machines de l’île into a village-style presentation of solutions to raise awareness about the problems of deforestation and how to combat it.

For more information on the attached full programme, please visit the website aux-arbres.com.

One year after publication of our ‘Ambitions for 2020’, which established the Group’s CSR objectives, this new report is an opportunity to look at the main initiatives undertaken by the brand in 2017, and to evaluate progress in our key environmental, social and societal indicators.

It complements chapter 2 of the reference document, capturing the highlights of 2017.

To help our suppliers move forward on issues surrounding employee welfare standards in production, Maisons du Monde provides ongoing, enhanced support to our strategic suppliers. The Group joined Initiative Clause Sociale in 2017 to simplify our dealings with our partners and establish requirements that are in line with other members.

A training meeting for our strategic Indian suppliers was also organised, to bring together 33 suppliers around our purchasing teams, and set out Maisons du Monde’s expectations concerning working conditions.

Creating a responsible product offer is one of the key objectives of the brand’s commitment. From raw material traceability to giving products a second life, the brand encourages its partners to integrate the entire life cycle into product development.

The first Sustainable Design Awards, organised in 2017, recognised two eco-designed products created by students.

Achieving the Group’s responsible performance objectives requires everyone’s involvement. A network of CSR representatives in store was trialled before roll-out, to involve all employees and customers of the brand in the process. Customers were invited to take part in the first ‘Give away, Give a makeover’ days through furniture makeover workshops to raise awareness about giving products a second life, in partnership with charitable and social economy organisations.