Translations

CASTORAMA’s involved in the local communities around solidarity projects

7. Community involvement

Community development

Sector Business / Distribution

Year 2014

Country France

Transmitter

Context

Castorama belongs to the group Kingfisher Europe’s largest home improvement retailer. Castorama employs 12,600 persons who contribute everyday to its success on its market and help to achieve, through a network of 102 stores in France.

Kingfisher’s vision: « better home, better live » expresses a more global responsibility beyond the economic one. The sustainability programme “Net Positive “has been built on this idea. One of the priority is to reinforce the link with local communities through solidarity actions that contribute to the improvement of housing for everyone around stores.

Objectives

Offer the possibility for our teams to get involved in solidarity project serving the improvement of housing.
Share our passion and our DIY
Realise at least one action per store and per year

APPROACH

Collaborators and managers propose projects they want to carry out with a local partner. The final choice is made regarding the impact of the project on the housing improvement and the possibility for collaborators to transfer their skills (1 or 2 projects are chosen for the year). When the choice is made, material and skills are provided by the store to carry out the action. In this way, teams can directly contribute to improvement in the local communities near their stores (refurbishments of premises, painting, and creation of pedagogic gardens…)

Then some actions are internally promoted for example through the internal TV channel (Casto TV) to share the best practices and ideas and highlight the teams’ commitment. Sometimes, partners share the result of the action in local newspapers.

The projects are the occasion to federate the team through a strong emotional experience. Collaborators are proud of their contribution. These actions maintain good relationships with local stakeholders.

Started in 2012, these social initiatives became really significant in 2013 with more than 165 projects realised.

Best Practice spotted by the World Forum Lille in 2013 and upadated in 2014.