And where does Morning fit into all this?!

Morning is committed to tomorrow!,
And to the days that follow

With workspaces all across the Paris region, Morning is lucky enough to play in the big league. We earned that place by playing the spoilsport, by bringing flexibility to a sector where property and paralysis tended to go rather too closely hand in hand. 

The environmental and societal challenges of our times give us a fine opportunity to shake up the sector once again. Today, the Morning team has set itself 3 battles: 

• Designing eco-friendly spaces
• Driving the commitment of our ecosystem 
• Promoting a better working life

With one firm goal for 2022: securing B Corp™ Certification

Morning is inventing eco-designed workspaces,
With a positive impact

The property sector has one of the largest carbon footprints going. And in that unenviable ranking, Morning has its share of responsibility. In our early years, when we had to keep a close eye on our finances, sustainability wasn't on the menu. Over the past few years, things have changed. The whole team has taken up the cause, and eco-friendly practices are gradually being built into the entire life cycle of our spaces. 

Right from the start of our building works, the materials removed are taken back by players such as Valdelia and Optimum. On the Morning Boissière site, more than a tonne of carpet was recovered! For our purchasing, three criteria are at play: traceability, durability, eco-design. Every supplier is challenged: paints, flooring, lighting and more. The first results are in. For the past 6 months, the carpet in our meeting rooms has been made from recycled material derived from repurposed fishing nets. For the opening of Morning Concorde (April 2021), the fit-out team is aiming for equipment that is 100% eco-designed and Made in France. If we pull it off, it's (organic) champagne all round!

Closing down our spaces follows the same logic. After transferring the reusable resources to other Morning spaces, we make the remaining equipment available on donation platforms (Emmaüs, Geev) or resale platforms (Backacia). Our aim is to reach zero waste. As a nice aside, it was a fellow operator from a coworking space in the Cévennes who came to collect the flooring from the Richelieu space. 

The design of our furniture meets the same requirements: raw materials to be sourced (reused or recycled) and durability a must. By the end of 2020, the life-cycle analysis of all our furniture — desks, meeting-room tables, lockers — will be complete. We'll then be able to make sound, responsible choices at every level: raw materials, manufacturing, assembly, delivery. All our partners are on the case, notably the Coutarel family, with whom we've been making Morning furniture for 3 years. We also work in partnership with ADEME, who support us on these matters. 

Today, an eco-designed desk costs at least 450 euros, and setting up a manufacturing process is long and expensive. We want to change that thanks to our ability to order "in bulk" and halve the price. Also worth mentioning is a project for an office chair made from recycled materials or reused parts, co-developed with Adopteunbureau. One to watch, as are many others... Our recent membership of the Club de la durabilité and our involvement in the BOOSTER du réemploi will allow us to share with other players to speed up the move to scale.

Driving the commitment of our community!,
To strengthen and grow it

No fewer than 6,000 members work at Morning. Professionally or personally, many are committed to a cause. Every day, we shine a light on their initiatives, notably through the Minute Morning. I invite you to listen to the interviews with Perfarmer, Awake or Surfrider who are all doing incredible work. 

Our in-house events are also a chance to share inspiring content. At our Impact Week (February 2020), Thierry Marx shared his experience to stir everyone's sense of commitment. We also co-ran workshops with B-Lab France and our members Imfusio and The Society Company, two brilliant firms that support organisations through their transformations. 

The Morning team is, in fact, the first to benefit from this daily sharing. When Too Good To Go arrived at Morning République, they challenged us on the consumables we buy and on recycling in our spaces. Coffee capsules and single-use cups are now banished from our coffee bars. 

To champion a committed community, we've also launched a specific offer aimed at companies certified "1% for the planet" or "B-Corp"*. Beyond the members already involved, Morning supports its whole community. In the current COVID context, we've launched a solidarity loan fund, a solidarity mechanism in the form of lending and borrowing between the companies in our ecosystem. As a result, 9 small businesses have benefited from a total of 210,000 euros. 

Promoting a better life at work,
So everyone has a good day

When I got the company off the ground in late 2012, I had no clear idea of where I was going to land. The only thing I had in mind back then: "Enjoying work, every single day." That's the mantra at Morning today: making sure people have a good day at work.

A good day at work doesn't depend solely on the quality of a space, far from it. Every day, we develop new practices within the team: how we recruit, ways of working, pay practices, feedback, training, the Parental Act and more. 

COVID has revealed the growing importance of company culture. The rise of remote work has brought new challenges for employees' balance, the quality of work and the interactions between colleagues. Today's safety measures (much needed though they are) work against direct, informal, natural exchanges. Organisations have to question themselves and reinvent themselves.

From the very beginning, the HR team at Morning has put rituals in place to support our flat, horizontal culture. Most people naturally want responsibility, freedom and trust. In times of crisis, the commitment of teams is vital. Beyond giving people responsibility, I believe employees should share in the success of their company. It's a subject especially close to my heart (here's an Usbek & Rica opinion piece for the more curious). What's more, this coming November, the whole team will have the chance to invest in the capital of the Morning adventure. 

Tomorrow's impact? Morning is working on it,
The day after tomorrow too.

There's an enormous amount still to do, not least measuring what we do. But the scope for action is incredible. The whole team is fully mobilised. With 130 people and an average age of under 30, the Morning team has a fine cast to make its lovely punchline ring true: "Tomorrow? We're working on it".