Manutan & Ateliers Sans Frontières: Three years of commitment to professional integration
As part of its IT equipment collection and recycling service, the Manutan Group, European leader in B2B e-commerce, is working with Ateliers Sans Frontières (ASF), a springboard structure of the ARES Group (Association pour la Réinsertion Économique et Sociale - Association for Economic and Social Reintegration), whose main mission is to promote the economic and social reintegration of socially excluded people through work, thereby enabling them to regain their self-confidence.
A meaningful partnership that has borne fruit
Manutan is pursuing its strategy of incorporating the circular economy at the heart of its CSR commitment. The collaboration between Manutan and ASF emerged in 2020 out of a desire to give a second life to the unused electronic products that accumulated in companies during the first lockdown. Not only has it reduced the carbon footprint of the equipment recovered and recycled, it has also helped to train and support around fifteen socially excluded people on the road to employment, enabling them to discover new trades, improve their skills and take part in a great entrepreneurial adventure. When products don’t work or don’t have sufficient resale value, they are donated to ASF, which refurbishes what can be refurbished and sells it on, then recycles the rest.
"We’re delighted to be working with Ateliers Sans Frontières. It enables the Manutan Group to combine a strong social impact through professional reintegration with the development of the circular economy via the fight against the waste of electronic products,” Pierre-Emmanuel Saint-Esprit, Circular Economy Director at Manutan.
For Édmée P, logistics officer at Ateliers Sans Frontières, ARES Group, her contribution to Manutan’s mission has opened up new prospects:
“When I arrived in Paris, I was in a rather precarious situation. I wanted to change my lifestyle and that’s how I came to ASF. Here, I'm working on the Manutan business, which gives me a lot of knowledge about logistics and different types of equipment. Working in a team is very rewarding. Everyone brings their own character and it enables you to find yourself. After Atelier Sans Frontières, I want to develop sound creation software, because working with music has always fascinated me.”
Manutan, a caring group committed to developing local employment
Today, Manutan’s business employs a team of five people on integration programmes, based in an Ateliers sans Frontières warehouse in Bonneuil-sur-Marne (94).
This partnership between Manutan and ASF supplements other solidarity and charity initiatives that Manutan has been implementing for many years, including the partnership with Sport dans la Ville, through which Manutan contributes to the success and professional integration of young people from priority neighbourhoods by organising meetings surrounding employment and sport, and with Moovjee, which enables young entrepreneurs to realise their professional projects. In 2020, Manutan and Moovjee co-created the ‘Moov'with Manutan’ programme designed to support innovative B2B start-ups.
In addition, Manutan has been a member of the Club ETI Île-de-France (Medium-Sized Business Association) for many years and is committed to local development. In April 2021, the Île-de-France region and the Club ETI Île-de-France signed the ‘ETI Act’. Fifteen commitments to transform SMEs and develop medium-sized companies in the Paris region.
About Ateliers Sans Frontières
Ateliers sans frontières (ASF) is a social integration workshop based in Val-de-Marne. For over 20 years, it has been welcoming people who are excluded from society (refugees, disabled people, the long-term unemployed). Each person is offered a paid job according to their abilities and skills: preparing parcels, reconditioning used computers, re-using glass.