Morning renews its B Corp certification

Building on the momentum of its first certification, Morning is looking to take its social and environmental commitment a step further. 

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In October 2022, Morning joined the circle of B Corp certified companies. The label sets out to reward businesses that have a positive impact, assessed against environmental and social criteria. The certification is renewable and valid for a period of three years. In earning it, Morning affirms its determination to use its business as a force for good. 

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Today, as the company prepares for recertification in 2025, it is a good moment to take stock of the progress made, the challenges ahead and our ambitions for the future. This renewal is no mere formality, but a demanding process that pushes Morning to constantly rethink its practices and its impact.

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B Corp, more than a label

B Corp certification: a measurable commitment to a positive impact

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B Corp certification represents a concrete, measurable commitment to a responsible and sustainable business model. This holistic approach aims to transform the traditional economic model by encouraging companies to consider the impact of their activities on all of their stakeholders.

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The origins of B Corp go back to the experience of three entrepreneurs who, after selling their company, were dismayed to find that the new owners had abandoned the responsible practices they had put in place. That experience led to the creation of a rigorous assessment framework designed to ensure that a company's responsible commitments endure, even when ownership changes hands.

The five impact areas assessed and the scores achieved by Morning

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On its first certification in 2022, Morning achieved a score of 81.5 points, just above the minimum threshold of 80. "It means we have to redouble our efforts to go after new points and, above all, to hold on to the ones we already have. That's the challenge," explains Hélène Bertolone, head of impact at Morning.

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Assessed across five impact areas – governance, workers, community, environment and customers, Morning stood out particularly in several of them.

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On governance, Morning excels thanks to its flat decision-making structure and its transparency. Hélène explains: "B Corp really appreciates our organisation with its few layers of hierarchy, where decisions are taken at every level."

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When it comes to looking after its people, the company scores well thanks to its policies on wellbeing, training and gender equality.

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On community impact, Morning is above the national average, with a score of 16.3 against 11. The company sets itself apart through its responsible purchasing and its positive influence on its stakeholders.

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That said, Morning has identified areas for improvement, notably on the environmental front. This is where the company has the most progress to make, being classed as a polluter because of its construction-related activity.

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The actions taken since 2022

The team's commitments

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Since its first certification, Morning has redoubled its efforts to involve its employees in social and environmental responsibility. The company has put in place several concrete initiatives to achieve this.

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First of all, Morning has introduced an annual day of volunteering for every member of staff. Hélène explains: "We didn't just grant this day off, we also created an internal team tasked with identifying charities and time slots so that staff can easily complete their half-day of volunteering."

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Next, the company has developed an "impact onboarding" for new joiners. This induction programme includes a workshop on the climate, introducing recruits to the company's environmental concerns from the moment they arrive.

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Finally, awareness-raising workshops are offered to the teams on a regular basis. Hélène illustrates how well these initiatives have gone down: "We organised a screening of the film 'Responsables' by Welcome to the Jungle. The event was a real success, drawing nearly 10% of the Morning team."

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The Morning accelerator: supporting sustainable innovation in construction

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Since 2022, Morning has launched a flagship initiative: an accelerator designed to support start-ups developing sustainable solutions for the construction sector. This move illustrates the company's concrete commitment to sustainable innovation.

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Among the start-ups it supports, Hélène highlights two particularly promising examples. The first is Geosophy, a company specialising in geothermal energy. "Their approach is really innovative," Hélène explains. "They aim to cool buildings naturally by drawing on the groundwater beneath them. Their method involves sinking wells to extract the coolness from below ground and distribute it through the building. It's a low-tech solution that uses no energy."

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The second example is Lite, a platform that helps Morning optimise its energy consumption. Hélène goes into detail: "Lite lets us consolidate all our energy consumption data, for both electricity and gas, across all our sites. We receive alerts whenever there are consumption anomalies, which helps us make sure our energy use is in line with how busy our spaces are."

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The challenges ahead

Reducing carbon intensity

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For the years ahead, Morning has set itself a major challenge: cutting its carbon footprint, particularly on its building sites. To get there, the company has developed an innovative tool called Score Impact. Hélène explains: "This Score Impact is built directly into our Excel spreadsheets. It's essentially a calculator that measures the carbon weight of every item used on our sites."

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To illustrate how effective the tool is, Hélène takes the example of the Morning Beaurepaire project. "This project achieved an eco-score of A, which means less than 35 kg of CO2 per square metre. More precisely, we reached 13.18 kg of CO2 per square metre, a 45.67% reduction in CO2 emissions on this site. This performance is mainly down to our use of reclaimed furniture."

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Buoyed by these encouraging results, Morning has set ambitious targets for the future. The company aims to achieve an eco-score of A on all of its projects as a matter of course, which means staying below 35 kg of CO2 per square metre. Morning is also committing to use at least 50% eco-responsible furniture in its fit-outs, of which a minimum of 10% reclaimed furniture.

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Amplifying our societal commitment

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Morning is committed to strengthening its positive impact and its societal role. Hélène, who leads this project, has set an ambitious goal: to reach almost 100 points at the next B Corp certification. To achieve it, the company is banking on developing "impact-driven business models".

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The company is stepping up its awareness-raising efforts. It regularly runs B Corp workshops for its clients, which are proving increasingly popular. These sessions typically draw around fifteen motivated participants.

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Morning does not confine itself to working with companies already engaged in a responsible approach. Hélène stresses how important it is to "win over the people who aren't part of the circle" – in other words, to bring in businesses that are less advanced on these issues too.

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Renewing the B Corp certification is seen not as a mere formality, but as a commitment to continually improve the company's practices and reduce its environmental impact. Morning seeks to have a positive influence on its ecosystem. Rather than adopting an activist stance from the outside, the company prefers to "change things from within, across every sector".

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