NOMA Editions

Project

267496

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Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS AWARDS : existing completed examples

Project title

NOMA Editions

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Description

NOMA manufactures high-quality furniture and everyday objects, conceived by today’s influential designers. At the heart of our approach is purely ecological design, from A to Z . In its first collection, NOMA wanted above all to promote the use of recycled materials through their design. Creation was totally free and their focus on an ecological conception sought to minimize the environmental impact of the products created by their designers.

Where was your project implemented in the EU?

When was your project implemented?

Has your project benefited from EU programmes or funds?

Which programme(s) or fund(s)? Provide the name of the programme(s)/fund(s), the strand/action line as relevant and the year.

Please provide a summary of your project

NOMA manufactures high-quality furniture and everyday objects, conceived by today’s influential designers. At the heart of our approach ispurely ecological design, from A to Z . In our first collection, we wanted above all to promote the use of recycled materials through the design. Creation was totally free and the focus on an ecological conception sought to minimize the environmental impact of the pr oducts created by our designers. NOMA means “noble materials.” we come from the luxury and green-design sectors, and intend to change our outlook on recycled materials, which are a veritable treasure-trove for contemporary interiors. We believe elegance means surrounding oneself with objects that are beautiful, virtuous and responsible. We are convinced that beaut y is a powerful vector of change, that today ’s economic models must be circular, and that each one of us has the right to know where and how every article has been made.    

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met

The first thing is probably the environmental context we live in. We simply cannot ignore it. When we made the decision to start a company, it was clear this was going to be part of the equation. And we decided to put this question at the core of our business. The second thing is to decide on the answers we would give: do we design and produce “another” chair ? what is the purpose ? After some discussions, we decided our furniture should be beautiful (of course every one will have a say), durable, and would be only the “current life” of the materials we use: we would use as much existing/recycled material as possible, and that our furniture could be considered in some years (as late as possible) as raw material for something else.  So we create high-end furniture, made in France, made from more than 75% recycled materials. NOMA is the French contemporary furniture publishing company, which works mainly from recycled materials. We focus on eco-conception. This means we take into account the impact of the whole life cycle at the very first stage of the design : how will we use our products for and how can we reduce the environmental impact through the whole life. Our approach penetrates the entire life-cycle : from conception to production, distribution, use – and re-use! – as their end-of-life.This means long lasting products (they will have a long life and they need to be “loved" for a long time). All the material we use for our products are recycled (and of course, most of them are already recyclable). On top, we have paid a lot of attention to the way they are assembled so that they can be easily dismantled and maintained. This is a must if we want the materials to be recycled. For instance, the armchair LAIME is assembled without any screw or glue. Whenever you need to maintain it, or at the very end of its life, you can very quickly and easily separate all the materials.        

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these have been met

We want to change the outlook on waste / recycled materials. In our mission we associate high quality with recycled materials, two concepts that are still often seen as opposites. In fact, recycled materials are commonly associated with poorly-made DIYs, hence low quality. We would rather focus on a more positive side. We have been through an intense sourcing phase, and we found beautiful materials. These are the ones we have shared with the designers. These are the most NOble MAterials. They do not look like anything we know and have their own identity. And this opens a new range of possibilities for designers.      

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion and how these have been met

We work essentially with local producers , more than 70% of our production is in France and so local. We collaborate now with contractors (Atelier Emmaus for example) who are workshops with integration projects. We push more and more these collaborations.   We are also B Corp pending certified and we will be Bcorp certified in 2021 We have the status of "Entreprise à mission" which indicate in our status our purpose and our mission  Purpose Use design to inspire and encourage sustainable behavior (eco-responsible and social) NOMA Editions also intends to generate a positive and significant social, societal and environmental impact in the exercise of its activities.   Mission Edit responsible furniture and objects: Support designers and manufacturers towards eco-responsible design and production.   Our Commitments 1- Design the best products with the lowest possible environmental impact 2- Be a transparent company that is committed to a process of continuous improvement in its operations 3- positively influence all stakeholders  

Please give information on the results/impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for

Our ART 77.5 (77,5% recycled materials) armchair, for example, is made of a plastic shell that contains 100% yoghurt pot waste, but also recycled steel, recycled foam, recycled wood and recycled plastic fabrics.   Our first collection is designed by talented designers like Charlotte Julliard, Sam Baron, Martino Gamper, RDAI or A + A Coreen. We are using more than 83% of recycled materials on our first collection. We make for every products a life cycle analysis with an eco design neutral company in Paris. We measure all our impacts during the design and we improve the design and processes in order to reduce as max as possible our impacts. There is indeed a lot to be done. We try to remain focused on our mission We have several goals we want to pursue: Working on decreasing the impacts of our existing products by improving our designs, process, material selection, partners education, … Developing a full range of furniture (we still miss quite some archetypes) On a different direction, we are putting quite some efforts in making sure our products will be recycled. One of the drivers is for instance the ability to disassemble, another one is to ensure the information (about the exact composition of the materials) will always be VERY easily available.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project

We believe and we want to show that it is possible to consume better and not necessary consume less. Beauty is the best vector of change and so by producing timeless and high quality products we show that you could get durable, a nice product  withfor a long time !    

Please highlight the innovative character of the project

We focus on how to transform waste / trash in an elegant design, we want to find a way to transform so many trashes in a positive use. We want to change the outlook on waste / recycled materials.

Please explain how the project led to results or learnings which could be transferred to other interested parties

Our collection is our answer, we know that every kind of products category could do the same , this is possible    Merci  Bruce and Guillaume Noma, Co founders

Is an evaluation report or any relevant independent evaluation source available?

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the Awards more than once under the same category and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.