L’Oréal recognized for its leadership in Sustainability by the UN Global Compact
L’Oréal has been confirmed today, for the 7th year, as a United Nations Global Compact LEAD company, for its ongoing commitment to the Ten Principles for responsible business and for placing the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the core of its growth strategy.
Through this recognition, L’Oréal was identified as being among the most highly engaged participants in the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), a call to companies to align strategies and operations with principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption and take actions that advance societal goals. L’Oréal has been a member of the UNGC since 2003.
“Businesses can and should be a force for good. Increasingly, companies are understanding that it will not be possible to thrive in a society that is not inclusive or sustainable”, Alexandra Palt, Executive Vice President, L’Oréal Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer and Executive Vice-President of the Fondation L’Oréal, said. “The UN Global Compact’s recognition confirms L’Oréal’s longstanding commitments and efforts to help protect human rights, provide decent working conditions throughout its value chain and tackle urgent environmental challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. We have made significant progress, but we won’t stop here. We have just ten years before us to show that change is possible.”
Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact, said, “LEAD companies represent the highest level of engagement with the UN Global Compact. More than ever before, the world needs businesses of all sizes - like the ones announced as LEAD today - that continuously work to improve their sustainability performance and take action to build a better world.”
Through its sustainability program, its strong commitment to ethics, its policy of promoting diversity and inclusion, and its philanthropic activities (conducted with the support of the Fondation L’Oréal and by its brands), L’Oréal contributes to 16 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations in 2015.
Its vision for the upcoming decade is one of a company whose activities are respectful of the Planetary Boundaries, and which takes on greater responsibility to help address some of today’s most pressing environmental and social challenges.
Amongst other commitments, the Group has pledged for 2030:
- to align with the 1.5°C scenario, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions of all scopes by 50% per finished product (25% in absolute terms). The Group is reiterating this commitment today, as a partner of the New York Climate Week.
- to help restore one million hectares of degraded ecosystems thanks to the L’Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration, a 50 million euro impact investing fund.
- to help 100,0000 people from disadvantaged communities gain access to employment.
- to pay at least a living wage to 100% of its strategic suppliers’ employees, covering their basic needs and those of their dependents. The Group is a member of Business for Inclusive Growth as well as the UN Global Compact Decent Work in Global Supply chains Action Platform. It is working with a number of other companies to cascade the living wage approach throughout worldwide value chains and help raise living standards for as many people as possible.
It is L’Oréal’s conviction that it will not be possible to have a strong, functioning business in a world facing climate change and environmental degradation, nor social unrest.
About L’Oréal
L’Oréal has devoted itself to beauty for over 100 years. With its unique international portfolio of 35 diverse and complementary brands, the Group generated sales amounting to 27.99 billion euros in 2020 and employs 85,400 people worldwide. As the world’s leading beauty company, L’Oréal is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, pharmacies and drugstores, hair salons, travel retail, branded retail and e-commerce.
Research and innovation, and a dedicated research team of 4,000 people, are at the core of L’Oréal’s strategy, working to meet beauty aspirations all over the world. L’Oréal sets out ambitious sustainable development goals across the Group for 2030 and aims to empower its ecosystem for a more inclusive and sustainable society.
More information: www.loreal.com/en/mediaroom/
About L'Oréal for the Future
L’Oréal’s second sustainability program, L’Oréal for the Future, was launched in June 2020. Building on tangible results, the Group is committing to operate within the limits of the planet and to adapt to what it can withstand, as defined by environmental science. L’Oréal is implementing a new internal transformation program, with quantifiable objectives, to limit the impact of all its activities on climate, water, biodiversity and natural resources. These new targets will not only focus on the Group’s direct impact but also tackle its extended impact, related to the activity of its suppliers and the use of products by its consumers.
On climate, L’Oréal’s overarching 2030 objective is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions of all scopes by 50% per finished product. As a member of the ‘Business Ambition for 1.5°C’ initiative, the Group has also committed to net zero emissions by 2050. By 2025, all its sites will have achieved carbon neutrality. Among other strategic commitments, L’Oréal has also committed to recycling and reusing in a loop 100% of the water used in its industrial processes by 2030, and 100% of biobased ingredients for formulas and materials for packaging will be traceable and will come from sustainable sources by the end of the decade, none will be linked to deforestation.
To address some of the most pressing environmental and social challenges facing the world, L’Oréal is also allocating 100 million euros to impact investing dedicated to the regeneration of nature and the development of the circular economy, and 50 million euros to a charitable endowment fund to support highly vulnerable women.
Find out more about L’Oréal for the Future: www.loreal.com/en/commitments-and-responsibilities/for-the-planet/
“This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy L’Oréal shares. If you wish to obtain more comprehensive information about L’Oréal, please refer to the public documents registered in France with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, also available in English on our Internet site www.loreal-finance.com.
This news release may contain some forward-looking statements. Although the Company considers that these statements are based on reasonable hypotheses at the date of publication of this release, they are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or projected in these statements.”
CONTACTS AT L'ORÉAL
Individual shareholders and market authorities
Christian MUNICH
Tel.: +33 1 47 56 72 06
[email protected]
Financial analysts and Institutional investors
Françoise LAUVIN
Tel: +33 1 47 56 86 82
[email protected]
Journalists
Domitille FAFIN
+33 (0)1 47 56 76 71
[email protected]
Switchboard: +33 1 47 56 70 00
For further information, please contact your bank, stockbroker of financial institution (I.S.I.N. code: FR000012031), and consult your usual newspapers or magazines or the Internet site for shareholders and investors, www.loreal-finance.com, the L’Oréal Finance app or call the toll-free number from France: 0 800 66 66 66.
