L’Oréal has just made a major statement regarding environmental sustainability. They have revealed that they plan to be fully sustainable by the year 2030.
How does the largest cosmetics company in the world plan to do this, you may be wondering? Through L’Oréal For the Future, the brand’s all-new sustainability programme. L’Oréal says that L’Oréal For the Future will be an integral part of the eco-friendly transformation they hope to go through in the next decade. (It is worth noting that this new pledge applies to all brands currently owned by the L’Oréal Group, including Garnier, Lancome, and Armani.)
According to the official press release, L’Oréal For the Future is rooted in the idea of “planetary boundaries,” meaning they aim to have the entire business operating within the limits of the planet’s resources. Accordingly, a key part of the brand’s new sustainability programme is to reduce water and waste, and there are specific targets they have set out to reach. But in addition to the company’s own transformation, L’Oréal has confirmed that their programme also aims to help its suppliers and even their customers reduce their impact on the environment.
“L’Oréal’s sustainable revolution is entering a new era. The challenges the planet is facing are unprecedented, and it is essential to accelerate our efforts to preserve a safe operating space for humanity. We do so in our own business operations and in our contribution to the society at large. We know that the biggest challenges remain to come and L’Oréal will stay faithful to its ambition: to operate within the limits of the planet,” explains the chairman and CEO of L’Oréal, Jean-Paul Agon.
L’Oréal’s chief corporate responsibility officer, Alexandra Palt, added, “With our new commitments, we are entering a new phase of acceleration of that [environmental] transformation: going beyond our direct environmental impact, helping consumers to make more sustainable choices, as well as generating positive social and environmental contributions. As an industry leader, we consider that it is our role to contribute to building an inclusive and sustainable society.”
Based on the press release, L’Oréal plans to “contribute to building an inclusive and sustainable society” in a few different ways. First, reducing plastic waste is going to be a major focus of L’Oréal For the Future. The company pledged that by 2025, all products that are part of the Consumer Products Division haircare lines (these brands include L’Oréal Paris, Garnier, and Maybelline) will be made from 100% recycled plastic. This amounts to 18,000 tonnes of virgin plastic that do not end up in a landfill each year. They are also pledging to change their in-salon products, by replacing plastic hygiene kits with bamboo alternatives and offering refillable Source Essentielle shampoo bottles.
The next item on the agenda? Product labelling. L’Oréal wants to make it as easy as possible for consumers to shop for sustainable products. That is why they are launching the Product Environmental & Social Impact Labelling scheme that will be available on all of their brand’s websites. This new scheme will rate each and every product available (on a scale of A to E, A being world-class for sustainability) based on its environmental impact, taking into account factors like the carbon footprint and the manufacturing process.
Moving on to water use. L’Oréal was a bit vague when it comes to their own water use reduction goals. However, they did state that they are focusing on how to not only limit water use themselves but also how they can enable customers to use less water.
Regarding recycling, the company has set the following goal for themselves: to replace 100 percent of plastic packaging with packaging made from recycled or bio-based sources. In line with this, they also hope to introduce recycling programmes into their stores, starting with the UK this fall.
When it comes to the manufacturing process, there is much work that needs to be done but luckily, L’Oréal has already made some headway in this area. That is why they claim that they only need five years (until 2025) to achieve their goal of L’Oréal’s production sites being carbon neutral. They plan to do this by switching to 100% renewable energy. By 2030, they hope that their greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by at least 50 percent compared to 2016.
The final element of L’Oréal For the Future involves their contributions to charities that help fight environmental issues. For example, in May of this year, the L’Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration was established, with $100 million assigned to protect marine and forest ecosystems.
Overall, it appears L’Oréal is finally taking climate change seriously. We can’t wait to see what strides they make through the L’Oréal For the Future sustainability programme and how this might influence the rest of the beauty industry to follow in their footsteps.
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