Created in 2019 as part of the Pacte law, the status of mission-based company has attracted around a hundred companies. These are mainly SMEs and VSEs, as revealed by the first Observatoire des sociétés à mission. Zoom on this status.
What is a mission-driven company?
The "société à mission" status was introduced by Article 176 of the May 22, 2019 law on business growth and transformation, known as the Pacte law.
This article gives voluntary companies the opportunity to adopt a raison d'être, written into their articles of association, that takes into account the environmental and societal challenges of their business. The SNCF, for example, has drafted its raison d'être as follows: "to give everyone the freedom to move around easily while preserving the planet".
Companies wishing to adopt the status of mission-driven company do not have to change their legal status, but must include in their articles of association their raison d'être, the objectives they pursue and the methods for monitoring the execution of these objectives, known as missions.
A mission committee must be set up in companies with more than 50 employees. This committee is responsible for monitoring the project, and must include at least one employee. This committee is responsible for ensuring that social and environmental criteria are taken into account in all company decisions. The committee is also responsible for drafting an annual report.
Two-thirds of mission companies are SMEs
To date, 125 companies have opted to become Mission Companies. Two-thirds of these are small and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
If 2020 has been a year of experimentation, the Mission Companies Community sees 2021 as a year of amplification, during which ETIs and large companies should gradually join the movement.
The "société à mission" is a legal innovation that makes France a pioneer in responsible corporate governance, protecting companies' social and environmental ambitions. This unprecedented movement is still in its infancy," declared Kevin Levillain, professor at Mines ParisTech and co-holder of the Théorie de l'Entreprise chair, at the presentation of the first observatory.
- 79% of existing mission companies are in the service sector,
- 12% to trade
- and only 9% to industry.
Nearly half of these companies were set up less than 10 years ago, and 1 in 5 of them was created as a company with a mission.
15% of companies that have chosen a mission are B-Corp certified and already committed to corporate social responsibility. Moreover, as the observatory points out, in 3 out of 4 cases, "the reasons for being integrate a social prism" and, in 2 out of 3 cases, environmental issues. More than half of companies with a mission combine both social and environmental aspects in their raison d'être.
According to Anne Mollet, Managing Director of the Community of Mission Companies, 10,000 mission companies could be created by 2025.