Renault launches social business

French carmaker Renault has recently unveiled a social business initiative -- Renault MOBILIZ -- to provide automobile services to people with low incomes.
Renault MOBILIZ has been set up to meet an unanswered need with a business model adapted to the purchasing power of people living under the poverty line in France, Yunus Centre said in a statement yesterday.
Services include carpooling, micro-community transport, €5-a-day car hire, and support in obtaining a driver's permit.
The programme is based on three main components: real-life mobility service solutions; the creation of an investment company to finance mobility projects; and a partnership with the Enterprise and Poverty Chair at HEC Paris.
The HEC Paris Chair seeks to promote social business through teaching, research and action research.
More than eight million people living under the poverty line in France are barred from fully entering society and the professional world through their inability to get around or acquire and maintain a vehicle, according to the statement.
The programme is rooted in the DNA and history of Renault, which aims to make mobility accessible to all, it said.
"The objective of Renault MOBILIZ is to bring people in precarious situations the resources to become autonomous and thereby help them to reintegrate the social and professional world," said Carlos Ghosn, chairman and chief executive officer of Renault and chairman of MOBILIZ.
"The programme will enable Renault to strengthen its local presence and open the way to new economical and innovative mobility solutions."
As per the statement, Renault MOBILIZ aims to support the development of new mobility platforms run by the Voiture & co organisation.
Since 2007, seven Voiture & co mobility platforms have helped 52 percent of beneficiaries to find a job again, it said.
The programme will also propose car repair prices adapted to people with low incomes at volunteer Renault garages (agents, dealerships) called "Socially Responsible Renault Garages".
The idea is to bring the service and reception quality of the Renault network to beneficiary customers as identified by the social services, according to the statement.
"This original offering is the result of joint efforts by Renault and participating Renault garages."
As per the statement, finance organisations and companies developing innovative mobility solutions for people in social and financial difficulty through the creation of an investment company called MOBILIZ Invest.
"Launched with an investment budget of €5 million provided by Renault, MOBILIZ could be opened to external investors in line with identified synergies.
Based on the social business principle, aimed at maximising social impact, any profits will be reinvested in other projects on community-minded mobility rather than being paid out as dividends, it said.
The Renault's initiative also aims to foster knowledge sharing and dialogue on social business projects with players from civil society, public authorities and other companies committed to this approach, with Renault becoming the third partner of the "Enterprise and Poverty" Social Business Chair at HEC Paris, alongside Danone and Schneider Electric.
The partnership will also enable the group to benefit from advice from experts in the field, including Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner for micro-credit, and Martin Hirsch, chairman of the French Civic Service Agency and former high commissioner of active solidarity.
"We have been working on this programme since 2010 to share a new vision of the role of private business with all our stakeholders," said Claire Martin, director of corporate social responsibility at Renault and managing director of MOBILIZ.