“Making sustainable development part of our daily lives”

Three questions for Alexandra Palt, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer of the L’Oréal group.

What are your consumers’ and employees’ expectations in terms of social and environmental responsibility?

Our consumers’ expectations and indeed also our employees’ expectations are continuously evolving towards more purpose health and naturality. We are witnessing a real environmental consciousness take hold and we are seeing sustainable behaviours become more established. This is changing the way people consume and work.
L’Oréal shares and supports this profound shift in mentalities by transforming itself from the inside out to develop more responsible and sustainable production and consumption practices. Since 2013 through our “Sharing Beauty With All” commitments, the Group has set ambitious objectives for 2020.
2017 brought significant progress in each of the programme’s four focus areas: innovating sustainably, producing and living sustainably, and developing sustainably.

How has L’Oréal been recognised for its sustainability achievements?

For the second year running, CDP x recognised our progress giving L’Oréal an “A” rating in each of its three rankings: on climate leadership, forest preservation and managing water sustainably. Only two companies globally achieved this recognition, and L’Oréal was the only French company who has done that. This recognition not only demonstrates L’Oréal’s strong commitment, but also the progress we have made on our journey towards sustainable transformation. At L’Oréal, we want to contribute actively to addressing the major environmental challenges facing our world.
Additionally, we have undertaken a series of new commitments towards 2030 as part of our Science Based Targets x. Science Based Targets is an initiative that was established by the CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and the WWF, and it encourages companies to commit to objectives in terms of keeping climate change under a 2°C trajectory.
By 2030, we are therefore going to reduce all our greenhouse gas emissions by 25% in absolute terms compared to 2016. This goal relates not only to the emissions produced by L’Oréal directly but also those produced indirectly, for example, through our suppliers’ activities or the way consumers use our products. By 2025, all our plants, distribution centres, research centres and office buildings will have achieved carbon neutrality.
We have also made another commitment that is part of the Science Based Targets initiatives. By 2025, 100% of our plastic packaging will be refillable, reusable, recyclable or compostable. This step will have a direct effect on our use of fossil fuels and will help to stimulate the circular economy.

What’s next for “Sharing Beauty With All”?

We have accomplished many things across every stage of our value chain. For example, we are improving our products and by 2020 every consumer of a L’Oréal product across the world will be sure that each new or renovated product that he or she buys will have an improved impact on the environment and society. We are transforming our manufacturing sites: in 2017, 24 of L’Oréal’s sites had achieved carbon neutrality, and one became our first “dry” factory in Burgos, Spain. We have implemented an innovative tool in all our brands called SPOT (Sustainable Product Optimisation Tool) which allows us to assess the social and environmental impact of every product, identify potential opportunities for improvement and therefore direct our marketing teams towards materials and choices that enable them to develop the most sustainable products possible. At the same time, we are continuing to develop our solidarity sourcing programmes for raw materials, which contribute to improve the lives of our local communities of producers. Our brands are implementing campaigns to raise awareness among consumers and encourage them towards the path of sustainable consumption. And these are just a few of the projects we are undertaking!

This transformation towards a more responsible and sustainable L’Oréal is now one of the pillars of our Group’s business strategy. It is contributing to our employees’ pride and will serve consumers, beauty and future generations.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.