Emmaus Norges-France Type of structure: Community Number of residents: 110 companions in the Norges area, 11 paid staff make up the support team, there are 20 assisted CUI contracts (inclusion contracts) and roughly 30 volunteers. Year the group was founded: 1972 Leader(s): Pierre Fernagu (+33380238115) Environmental issues contact person(s): Group activities: Collection / sorting / selling Year when the group started its environmental practices: 15 years ago Environmental initiative leader in the group s day-to-day life: The director Pierre Fernagu and the deputy director for community economic life Misaël Munoz. CONTEXT Number of buildings: 25 houses + work buildings Building structure: Houses for families and accommodation units for couples and singles. Common areas in each district, bar and smoking room. Year in which each building was built: Renovation work got underway in 1990 and is ongoing. Floor space: 8,000m² Number of residents: 110 Is there a garden and / or plot of land? Yes Garden / plot area: 16ha. Means of transport used by the group: A hybrid car and an electric car. Insulation (double glazing, roof insulation etc): Roof insulation and noble materials used on a section. Type of heating: A shared system has been installed and is fired by wood collected from outside the community and pallets. Type of fuel: Wood chips Owner Specific town / region / country context: The community s political will has led to it receiving support from the local authorities. Group-specific context: Strong environmental ethos: the community acts green in its daily life and when doing building work - initiatives include heating (wood chips), hot water (solar panels) and water-saving devices, food (small local producers), fruit trees and an electric car. 1
THE EMMAUS MOVEMENT, A WELL-ESTABLISHED STAKEHOLDER IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL SECTOR: HOW DO YOU FOCUS ON THIS SOCIAL ISSUE? Fair Trade store: RUCCA. Recycling work The work of the Emmaus communities has always centred on giving secondhand items a new lease of life. We have two collection methods: Appointments are made with households to collect their unwanted goods by truck. Waste / unwanted goods are collected at the waste reception centre. Waste reception centre collections started in 2009. The community now has a coordinator at the four Greater Dijon waste reception centres and at the two centres in the Norges Grouping of Districts, and 10 people on subsidised employment contracts working as recyclers. These employees recover wood and plastics which are then processed by 10 companions at the community. A container has also been installed and is used to store a range of items for refurbishment and resale. 3,000t/year of goods are collected and 300,000 people come to the waste reception centre every year. Waste reception centre work The collected goods are separated and sorted and a member assesses whether they should be sent to the waste reception centre or for recycling. - Items that cannot be refurbished for sale are sorted by material type and sent to the various state accredited processing centres or to enterprises that reuse materials (clothing is sent to Le Relais, newspapers to another company). - The others are sorted, stored, cleaned up and refurbished in one of the specialist workshops to give them a new lease of life. The companions focus on recovery work on a daily basis: 2
- Recovering items that can be sold to the public at the community s second-hand store (the store is open on Wednesdays and Sundays 2.30-5.30pm, and all day Saturday). - Recovering materials that can be recycled as raw materials or by specialised industries. Wood and plastic products are recycled rather than being incinerated. - Average distance travelled each month for collections / collection area: 15-25km collection area, taking into consideration the development of communities in the whole département. General public environmental awareness raising work: On 16 October 2008, the companions decided to launch the Les compagnons d Emmaüs, pro du tri (Emmaus companions the sorting professionals) label, symbolising an imaginative and socially responsible economic system. The label first and foremost is meant to be a new point of reference for the département s inhabitants. Via this label, an exhibition is put on every year in secondary schools in the Greater Dijon area and supplements earth and life sciences classes. Two open days are organised every year: the community presents its activities and the partnership and puts on concerts and cultural activities. The community holds a festival every two years. The environment is one of the issues raised at this celebration. The community has a website to publicise its work: http://www.emmaus-dijon.org/ The local press has published several articles about the community and they are available for consultation on the community's website. Political lobbying via a network, petitions etc: The aim is to raise the awareness of elected representatives about these issues. The idea is to professionalise the task of the coordinator and the role of Emmaus in this process, so that Emmaus gains more recognition and is seen as more trustworthy. The community also wants to demonstrate to politicians that jobs need to be created in these areas. The community does not really have a relationship and there is no real move to form a partnership with the other local authorities (apart from the Greater Dijon authority), although this is starting to change over time. Awareness raising in schools: exhibition run by volunteers. General public awareness raising: events. 3
ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY PRACTICES. EVERYDAY ACTIONS AND ATTITUDES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE IDEAL OF LIVING TOGETHER Waste - Each house has separate bins for selective sorting, even though it is not always easy to get people to follow the rules. Good waste management is however one of the community s objectives and is enshrined in the community s rules and regulations. Paper sorting Plastic sorting Glass sorting Water Food - Pressure reducers are fitted on the taps. - Care when using cleaning products. - This is a weakness, as the usage of some products is an ingrained habit and tradition. A complicated issue, but we are gradually making progress. - Collection of rainwater: firefighting water supply. - The community uses short distribution circuits and has built up relationships with small local producers: seasonal produce and meat and dairy products. - A small compost heap has been created. The two companions responsible for outside maintenance work tend to it. - Fair Trade coffee. - Fruit trees have been planted. Housing Transport - As much reclaimed material as possible is used in the house interiors: tiling, wood and paint. - Noble products are used as insulation material in some of the houses. - In the community, bicycles are used frequently for everyday journeys. - A hybrid car and an electric car have been purchased. 4
Energy - A shared system has been installed and is fired by wood collected from outside the community and pallets. - A first batch of 10 solar panels has been fitted, followed by 10 more, until we get to 30 panels which will then be used to heat water. - Install a water saving device. + The solar panels cover roughly 1/3 of the community s hot water needs and in winter the water is heated by the wood-fired boiler. Electric heating is just used as a backup. GROUP ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS RAISING Different sessions are run in the community during which environmental issues are raised and, in particular, there are discussions about energy and recovery work. An assembly of all the companions is regularly held at which the focus is placed on a given theme. The stress is placed on making changes to the accommodation and improving its quality. A different sort of meeting in which the companions take part, known as the community council, is also held. In addition, district council meetings are held three to four times a year. NETWORKS AND PARTNERSHIPS Since early 2009, the community has been working in partnership with the Greater Dijon Grouping of Districts to manage five waste reception centres (Marsannay la Côte, Chenöve, Longvic, Dijon Toison d Or and Quetigny) in order to recover waste. This partnership has enabled six subsidised jobs to be created. A steering committee bringing together Greater Dijon, the General Council and ADEME (French Environment and Energy Management Agency) was formed to conduct a study of what is being done in the Greater Dijon waste reception centres. The report concluded that these activities have improved sorting (particularly of wood and plastics) and consequently provides additional arguments in favour of continuing this programme and the idea of creating permanent jobs. DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS AND PLANNED ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES For your environmental practices Considering the possibility of fitting solar panels. Plan to build small wooden chalets using nobler materials for the insulation (hemp or métisse). 5
SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCE (interview with Pierre Fernagu, community leader, 2 April 2010) What would you like to share with the other groups? Our experience. What practical advice can you offer? Environmental considerations must be placed at the heart of building work. When our community was rebuilt, the environment was definitely not a key priority. Our awareness only grew as the construction work progressed. Only the heating was designed with the aim of being relatively environmentally friendly. It costs more and is more difficult to incorporate all this later on. What have been the benefits of these environmental practices / activities for your group? "Guidance, as Emmaus makes its living from recovering raw materials. Emmaus is also acknowledged to be a key player in this area. The companions are quite proud about being at the cutting edge for these issues. Do you think that Emmaus has an environmental role to play? Emmaus needs to get more involved in these issues. It is key because it is our bread and butter. Some communities have restricted themselves to being antique dealers. As a result, more work is needed on recovering materials which is less profitable but is very important." Do you think that Emmaus has a role to play in galvanising society about this issue? Emmaus France does not provide the resources needed to lobby politicians. The groups are left too much to their own devices and one day we will kick ourselves. The groups need support so that they can open themselves to these issues." 6