❔ Can permaculture principles be applied to any business? According to norsys (digital services, 750 employees), the answer is yes — a company that its CEO Sylvain Breuzard set on the path of the “perma-enterprise” in 2021.
♻️ This new development model draws its three ethical principles from permaculture:
1️⃣ Care for people
2️⃣ Care for the planet
3️⃣ Set limits and redistribute surpluses
While an environmental revolution in agriculture is still pending, one might be tempted to dismiss this neologism as yet another hollow “buzzword,” alongside the “perma-industry” championed by another business collective.
Admittedly, transforming a manufacturing process, a business model, or farming practices is rarely straightforward. Yet the “perma” methodology has already been piloted by more than 200 companies, with compelling results.
The CERDD (Hauts-de-France Sustainability resource center) article on the “Climatour — Businesses and Climate” event, held last September around the case of Bastien Tissages Techniques, demonstrates that significant changes are achievable while preserving — or even strengthening — the long-term economic viability of the organisation.
A specialist in technical industrial fabrics for the food processing sector since 1950, Bastien is now transitioning toward a functionality and cooperation economy, notably through:
✅ Building a commercial offering around fabric rental and maintenance services
✅ Upcycling selected used fabrics in partnership with an agri-food sector client
✅ The recent launch of a reusable packaging range (l’Artisan Tisserin) targeting individual consumers
R&D efforts are underway to shift production predominantly toward natural fibres, supported by EuraMaterials, a regional competitiveness cluster. Bastien is part of a collective committed to reviving the hemp supply chain in northern France, from cultivation through to yarn production.
This multi-purpose fibre — whose seeds have applications in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals, while its fibres are used in textiles and technical materials, notably in aerospace, automotive, and construction — has a significantly lower environmental footprint than cotton. Six hectares of hemp were sown in 2023. Worth clarifying: the varieties grown for these purposes contain no psychoactive substances! 🤪
Without turning this post into a full endorsement, it is also worth mentioning the bioclimatic building — renovated and extended — the prominent place given to green spaces, and an HR scorecard whose key 2023 figures speak for themselves:
☑️ Employee satisfaction: 91%
☑️ Workplace accidents: 0
☑️ Absenteeism: 1.4%
Since the devil is in the details, it is worth highlighting that the company avoids two common communication pitfalls:
- Regarding its greenhouse gas footprint, Bastien does not claim to have achieved carbon neutrality (a concept that carries little meaning at the organisational level), but states that “the contribution effort toward carbon neutrality can be considered as met or even exceeded, as the carbon sequestration generated by relocated agricultural production outweighs the carbon impact of its operations.”
- Its activity target is described not as “regenerative” outright — as is sometimes seen elsewhere (neither realistic nor demonstrable) — but as “regenerative-oriented.” An important distinction.
