The Rexel Foundation at the heart of social entrepreneurship

This 8th edition was organized by ESSEC Business School and featured two prestigious contests on the topic of innovation and social entrepreneurship: the French-speaking portion of the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC), whose winners would go on to the social business plan competition at the University of California, Berkeley on April 10, 2015, and the ESSEC competition, which rewards more local social initiatives.
 
Over the course of a day filled with ideas, interaction and dynamism, the projects presented by the finalists of the GSCV (11 of the 140 candidates) and the ESSEC competition (10 of the 140 candidates) were judged based on the criteria of economic viability, social and environmental impact, developmental ambition, and feasibility.
 
Congratulations to the three candidates chosen at the GSCV: Ecoco (ecological coffering), Y Generation (quality vocational education and personalized coaching to help underprivileged youth in developing countries to find employment), and GOLD  of Bengal (which promotes the use of technical jute reinforcements for composite applications), who went on to defend their projects at Berkeley a few days later.
 
At the ESSEC competition, the winners of the 2015 edition were the projects Biophyto Collines (1st place) and Sen Women Up (2nd place).
 
This event also provided the opportunity to present the very first Rexel Foundation award in recognition of energy-related social initiatives. A special mention goes to the GSVC finalist, the Solar Smile team, who received the Foundation’s award. Their dental kit, a veritable mobile dental office powered by solar batteries, provides access to dental care for communities living in remote rural regions.