The economy at the service of all, profitability for social or environmental purposes, participatory management, a limited profit aspect… a sweet dream or the emergence of a new form of entrepreneurship?
The social entrepreneurship appeared in the 1990s and tends to develop around concrete action in many areas. By virtue of their ambitions, social entrepreneurs are moving towards sectors in which their actions can help to fill a lack or an inadequacy of the traditional offer. They are therefore often found in food, education, health or the environment. Here are a few examples of these French start-ups not quite like the others who use sometimes new levers.
The development of short agricultural circuits: The hive that says yes!
Created in 2011 by Guihem Cheron, this start-up has 726 points of sale which provide links between small producers and responsible consumers. The latter will find there fresh products from short circuits. For Guilhem Cheron, it is a question of correctly remunerating producers to enable them to make a living from their activity. For 2015, La Ruche qui dit oui had an ambition of 80 million euros in sales, nearly 10 times the figure achieved two years earlier.
Energy savings: Qivivo
Adrien Suire and his smart and connected thermostat aim to lower your heating bills by 20%! The device modulates the temperature of the home according to the habits of its occupants and the weather outside. The creator of the Start-up Qivivo, the bearer of this project, announces savings of € 200 per household. An engineering idea as we like them!
Fight against exclusion: Acta Vista
A professional topographer surveyor, Arnaud Castagnède tackles the issue of qualifying the most excluded. Her baby, Acta Vista, after forging public-private partnerships and forging links with other social entrepreneurs, offers employee status to people in situations of exclusion with the aim of making them integrate a qualifying course within work sites. heritage restoration.
Scientific disciplines accessible to all: Interdisciplinary Research Center (CRI)
Science subjects are the most problematic for children from the poorest backgrounds. François Taddei, polytechnician and engineer of bridges, water and forests, wants to boost scientific education and make it more accessible. It aims to create an online platform (Wiser-U) to allow all students of the world to benefit from this new educational model which is intended to be participatory and interdisciplinary.
Acting on CO2: Pure Project
Tristan Leconte, a graduate of HEC, has used his know-how to provide solutions to companies to “decarbonize” their activities or offset them or even achieve the Zero Carbon Objective (OZC). Pur Projet relies on the preservation of forests or their rehabilitation to capture the excessive CO2 emissions of a lifestyle described as predatory. To date, nearly 4 million trees have been planted and 210 million others have been preserved.
Social entrepreneurship brings a new dimension to business creation. For social entrepreneurs, it is no longer a question of changing the world to impose a new economic model but of making the world a better place.
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