This chapter reports on the Group’s corporate social responsibility policies and progress, and presents the 2023 year-end assessment of the L’Oréal for the Future sustainability programme. It is the Group’s Non-Financial Performance Statement.
L’Oréal’s ambition is to combine financial performance with social and environmental performance, which are now more inextricably linked than ever. This ambition forms the backbone of the Group’s strategy.
For many years now, L’Oréal has been working hard to reduce its impact on the environment and make a positive contribution to society. Sustainability is a key pillar of the Group’s transformation and a strategic priority. Therefore Management as a whole and all its teams implement an ambitious CSR policy.
In 2013, the Group launched its first comprehensive sustainability programme, Sharing Beauty With All. Through this programme, the Group underwent a thorough transformation to reduce its impact on its value chain, by re-inventing the way it designs and manufactures its products, with sustainability as its fundamental requirement.
In 2015, the Group started defining Science-Based Targets (SBT), set according to the +1.5°C pathway, to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions over its value chain and over the long term, following the Paris Agreement on climate change. In December 2017, the SBT initiative (SBTi) approved the Group’s commitment to reduce its Scope 1, 2, and 3 compared with 2016. The Group decided to adopt a similar scientific approach to define its objectives in terms of water management, biodiversity protection and natural resources preservation.
Thus, in 2020, the Group formalised its commitments in its second, even more ambitious, sustainability programme for 2030, L’Oréal for the Future. This programme addresses all impacts of the Group associated with its value chain: from research on ingredients to sourcing of raw materials, from packaging conception to production, from manufacturing to transportation of products, as well as consumption, and end of life.
L’Oréal for the Future, which is subject to public reporting every year, is based on three pillars:
This programme guides both the internal transformation of the Group and that of its external stakeholders, as well as its contribution to the most pressing global challenges.
In october 2023, in accordance with the new SBTi Net-Zero framework, the Group has updated its decarbonization trajectories for 2030 and 2050. At the time of approval of the Management Report kby the Board of Directors, the Group was still awaiting SBTi’s approval of these trajectories. These will be published in the 2024 Universal Registration Document.
To support this process, the Group has developed a strong governance structure.
The Board of Directors determines L’Oréal’s strategic orientations annually. These orientations account for climate change and sustainability matters more generally, as well as the Group’s purpose to “Create the beauty that moves the world”. To monitor how these strategic orientations are defined and successfully implemented, the Board of Directors relies on its four Board Committees to investigate matters within their area of expertise for determining and monitoring the non-financial strategy (see subsection 2.3.4.). Every year, the Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer reports on the Group’s activities to the Board of Directors and attends Strategy and Sustainability Committee meetings. Before each meeting, the members of the Board of Directors receivea status update detailing specific advances in the L’Oréal for the Future programme. In October 2022, the Directors took a specific CSR learning course. The Directors are well informed about strategic challenges, including those linked to CSR (see subsection 2.3.2.).
The comprehensive transformation plan affects all Divisions, Zones and support functions. To implement it, the Chief Executive Officer relies on the commitment of every member of the Executive Committee in their field of responsibility. He works with the Executive Committee to implement non-financial strategic orientations. There are regular updates on sustainability matters so that the necessary action plans can be defined and implemented. A network of sustainability leaders, members of the Management Committees, administers L’Oréal for the Future in each Division, Zone and entity.
