Social entrepreneurship: why our luminaires are assembled at social workplaces

Social entrepreneurship is one of Atomis’s five core values. Unlike the other four, at first glance it has little to do with technology or light quality. Yet it is not a loose add-on: it is woven into the way we produce and collaborate.

Work with meaning

Behind every luminaire we deliver lies human craftsmanship. A significant part of that assembly is carried out together with social workplaces: organisations that offer people with a distance to the labour market a full and meaningful job. With the right guidance, they deliver high-quality work with pride.

For us this is not a favour and not charity. It is a partnership that makes both sides better off: we receive carefully assembled luminaires, and work is created that would otherwise not exist. We call this Social Return on Investment (SROI) — investing in people yields social returns.

Only possible because we produce in the Netherlands

This value does not stand on its own. Assembly at a social workplace in the Netherlands is only possible because we design and produce in the Netherlands. Were our production on the other side of the world, social entrepreneurship would simply not exist — however sincere the intention.

This is how our core values hold each other up. Made in The Netherlands is not only a matter of short lines and supply security; it also makes the social side of our enterprise achievable. Producing locally and producing socially are, at Atomis, two sides of the same choice.

It comes at a cost — and that is exactly the point

You recognise a core value not by fine words, but by what you are willing to give up for it. Assembling at a social workplace requires different guidance, more coordination and more time than a fully automated production line. It is the more demanding route.

We choose it deliberately, because the return reaches further than the luminaire itself. Making good lighting while contributing to work with dignity is, to us, not a contradiction but part of good entrepreneurship.

Light with a story

So when you choose an Atomis luminaire, you choose more than light quality, circularity and customisation. You also choose a production chain that gives people opportunities. The light in your project comes from somewhere — and at Atomis you are welcome to know where, and by whose hands.