Patina is a mission-driven company: mini explanatory guide

Patine has become a “Mission Company”.

The result of teamwork that began in April 2021 to formulate our purpose in the most precise way, which we are revealing to you!

Patine's mission: To make possible and offer a new brand model that reconciles fashion desires, humans and nature.

We explain to you why we did it, what it means, why it seems necessary to us for any company that wants to be responsible...and why it is not enough in itself to be a responsible company :)

This article, designed as a mini guide, could be useful to entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs who are planning to change their lives this summer. Perhaps also to young brands under construction, to our 531 shareholder-clients, or to employees looking for a zero bullshit job….Happy reading dear!

•What does “mission-based company” mean?

This is a very recent French legal system. It was introduced by the PACTE law in 2019, which allows companies that put their development at the service of a social and/or environmental mission to publicly affirm their commitments. In June 2022, there are around 650 mission-driven companies in France...out of 3.82 million companies in total#happyfew.

• What does this involve?

Clearly, this adds fortunately useful constraints :) There are 3 legal obligations:

• the purpose of the company must be clearly defined and included in the statutes,

• associate objectives in terms of environmental and/or social impact

• set up a mission committee to ensure that they are always a priority.

At Patine, our reason for being“make possible and propose a new brand model that reconciles fashion desires, humans and nature”is therefore officially included in our company statutes alongside the four environmental and social objectives associated with this mission. Our mission committee meets twice a year to 1/ determine the annual objectives in line with our mission and define the indicators to follow and 2/ evaluate the achievement of these objectives. This committee is made up of 5 members external to Patine and one employee (Lucie, our finance, operations and CSR manager).

• How to define your mission?

We don't have any magic instructions, however we advise you to take several weeks for this step. We have formalized 5 principles by learning from our own experience.

• Take several days to write down, even in a haphazard way, why we do things, what makes you tick, how we want to be useful. This will serve as the basis for a more organized workshop afterwards to build the mission.

• The founder(s) of a committed brand carry out the mission organically. But by working on the formal mission with the whole team, we take it further

• List all the environmental and social actions already accomplished, then isolate those that had the most impact and meaning for the team members. If you have already done a carbon assessment, this will also help you prioritize and give an objective value to your actions.

• Once the mission has been written, pass “quality tests” on it. A reason for being must be robust, we explain this point just below.

• Do not hesitate to be accompanied. We collaborated with our friend Thibaut Ledunois from Studio d'impact ethiwork, impact studio. He knew us well, pushed us to our limits.

• What does a Robust mission mean?

It is a mission that will last over time. From year to year the objectives may evolve, but the mission does not change.
It is a mission as important as the company's growth and profitability objectives.

• What are Patine’s environmental and social objectives?

Our first mission committee just took place in April 2022 and notably highlighted the importance of having targeted and achievable objectives. Here they are, as well as each time an associated example of concrete action, the idea being to be as concrete as possible:

Encourage our customers to love and wear their clothes for a long time: for example, we implement a repair service. Please note that we have finalized a pilot test on jeans repair and are in the process of working together to develop this service on a larger scale and in a profitable manner. If you have any suggestions on this subject, we listen to you!
Reduce our carbon impact: for example, we continue to improve our material sourcing for the essential bestsellers in the catalog to reduce our overall impact in CO2 emissions, water pollution and water consumption. We have just increased the percentage of recycled cotton in the composition of our bestsellers (50% recycled cotton rather than 40%) to weave our Willie material (jersey for our t-shirts) and Marty (fleece for our sweatshirts).
Reduce our waste upstream: establishment of a chain for the recovery of our textile waste (fabric scraps from cutting have been recovered since 2020 and rewoven).
Share our good practices and encourage more initiatives and responsible brands: continue to intervene in different media and events, setting up a section dedicated to our CSR innovations on the new Patine site, more regular posts on LinkedIn on these subjects.

• Who is on our mission committee?

Our G5 Patina is made up of figures from various professional backgrounds. This committee is therefore made up of plural, interdisciplinary skills bringing all their expertise: ready-to-wear, eco-responsibility, food, logistics, impact, and sustainable development. Among them we count our queen of eating well Delphine Plisson fromMaison Plisson, Emmanuel Giraud of the adapted companyASAR Development, Thibaut Ledunois our favorite fashion activist, dear Priscilla JOKHOO who takes care of us, and Marie-Anne Vincent VP atsweep, expert in green finance.

• What is the point of being a mission-driven company?

PATINE Paris was created in 2017 to offer a new brand model: we do not simply want to “take into account” environmental and social objectives, they are intrinsically part of our model. We didn't wait to be a company with a mission to create a company and clothing that respected social and environmental criteria. However, it seemed important to us to formalize this mission using the legal tools at our disposal for 3 reasons:

To grow without ever deviating: the mission provides a framework that allows the entire team to take responsibility, align and be effective. There are 10 of us at PATINE Paris. We found it easier to take this step from business to mission now. If we manage to grow, it will be simpler and on clear foundations.
We have decided to open our capital in 2021. An ethical and responsible fundraising since the majority of our shareholders are the brand's customers, and carried out on the ethical financing platformLITA.co(Poke Eva Sadoun Pierre Schmidtgall Marième Diop Emilie Brosseau) Our shareholders hope one day for added value but know that we will never sacrifice our environmental and social objectives for growth. And our Mission Company status sets a framework, a limit to growth at all costs.
It is also a way of highlighting, at the national level, the need for a new business model, by joining the 650 companies officially Mission Companies.Mission Business Community

We believe this framework is particularly useful for fashion businesses like ours, driven by creativity. Many of us are animated by good feelings. To want to do well. We have a lot of ideas, tend to create long lists of projects. However, in terms of responsibility, we observed that we are on a ratio of 5% creativity 95% effort to have an impact. The Mission-Based Business framework requires us to concentrate our efforts, to avoid dispersion, fragmentation and any risk of greenwashing.

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• Is it similar to a BCorp certification?

No. B CorpB Lab Franceis an international label for which a certain number of criteria must be met before obtaining certification, while “Mission-based company” is a legal system. Besides, after a year of work, we have also completed our B Corp file and are awaiting our accreditation.#fingerscrossed. As with our status as a mission-driven company, we are happy that there are frameworks to advance the environmental and social commitments of companies, but it is far from sufficient. So, we continue to innovate, to be demanding at each stage of the production chain and in each department of our company. We can always do better. If you are an entrepreneur and this article has made you want to become a mission-driven company and you have any questions, write to us, hello@patine.fr!

See you at the end of September to present our CSR report in which you will find, in particular, our Scope 3 carbon footprint with key figures and data. To receive it and follow the Patine project, you cansubscribe to our emailshere, and findour wardrobe of essentials this way:)

ps: to find out more, we made a podcast withFrench Federation of Women's Ready-to-wearAdeline Dargent and Chloé CohenNew modeland of course Thibaut Ledunoisethiwork, impact studioto tell our adventure, you canlisten to it here.

Have a nice summer club Patine, xoxo

Team Patina

good news / Patina is a mission-driven company: mini explanatory guide

Patine has become a “Mission Company”. The result of teamwork that began in April 2021 to formulate our purpose in the most precise way, which we are revealing to you!