Creating value and investing in a more sustainable future

L’Oréal works in the interests of all stakeholders—including employees, consumers, shareholders, customers and suppliers—by developing a long-term, profitable growth strategy. It is an approach that places the Group’s financial and non-financial performance at the heart of value creation.

The role of business has changed profoundly over the past 20 years, with the acceleration of environmental and societal issues prompting many companies to commit to sustainable development policies that better address the environmental and social impacts of their activities.

This overarching approach is nothing new for L’Oréal, which has implemented a sustainable, profitable growth model for many years. The products it designs to meet consumer expectations in terms of quality and safety are both highly effective and environmentally friendly. Internal and external stakeholders all share the fruits of the Group’s growth. 

With the L’Oréal for the Future programme and its new sustainability commitments, the Group has signalled its desire to further accelerate its efforts and show that businesses can offer solutions to major global challenges. Finance, which is tasked with measuring performance from every angle, including non-financial performance, plays an essential role in this programme, particularly through impact investing, in conjunction with the Group’s Corporate and Social Responsibility teams. Impact investing is a term for all investments that aim to create a positive social or environmental impact while also providing a financial return. It is an investment category that combines generating profit with securing measurable environmental or social benefits.

The L’Oréal for the Future programme will use 50 million euros to regenerate damaged natural ecosystems. Through the fund, the Group plans to invest directly in close to a dozen projects dedicated to restoring and protecting forests, oceans and coastal areas, based on a balanced choice of geographical areas. L’Oréal has set up a dedicated governance structure to implement these investments, track their deployment and assess their impact over time. By 2030, the fund will enable the Group to restore one million hectares of damaged ecosystems, capture 15 to 20 million tonnes of CO₂ and create several hundred jobs. An additional 50 million euros will be earmarked to fund projects linked to the circular economy, to help identify solutions and create new business models, particularly in the areas of recycling and managing plastic waste.

The Finance department has once again proven its scope for innovation by appointing its first Director of Sustainable Finance. Her mission is to coordinate all financial activities, from expertise in impact investing to factoring carbon costs into the economic equation, enabling all managers to take informed decisions. The goal is to pool our efforts to ensure the Group achieves the sustainable development targets it has set for 2030.