The double materiality assessment highlighted the importance of resources for creating L'Oréal's beauty products, whether ingredients or packaging materials. The Group sources raw materials from suppliers and transforms them into finished cosmetics, making the responsible management of these resources a central tenet of its sustainability strategy.
L'Oréal is also going a step further by moving towards responsible production methods, driven by the policies set out hereafter.
L'Oréal has an eco-design policy for its packaging, which is overseen by the Sustainable Packaging Department and is approved by General Management. The Group applies the "reduce, replace and recycle" principle (the 3Rs) for each product launch:
The Group systematically uses the SPOT eco-design process when developing new products (see section 4.4.3.3). The packaging policy aims to:
L'Oréal is aiming to increase the proportion of ingredients that are biobased, derived from abundant minerals or from circular processes. Use of these types of ingredients and processes, as well as the development of formulas with biodegradable materials, are a priority. This ambition is in line with the R&I policy described in section 4.3.2.
As part of its EHS policy, L'Oréal is striving to ensure that its sites reduce and recycle waste (see section 4.3.2.1). The sites operated by L'Oréal produce various types of waste, ranging from packaging waste (cardboard, plastic and metal) to waste generated during the manufacturing and packaging processes, including sludge from wastewater treatment plants. In addition to this industrial waste, they also generate waste from office activities and, to a lesser extent, specific waste from laboratory activities. Each site is aiming to recycle or reuse 100% of the waste it generates and reduce waste production by 30% compared to 2019, within the broader ambition of zero waste to landfill.
The Group has four different aspects to its action plan aimed at reducing the environmental impact of its packaging: reducing intensity, using recycled materials, promoting circular formats and developing collection and recycling channels.
L'Oréal is working on reducing the weight and volume of packaging so as to diminish its impact. Every year, new initiatives are launched to optimise the use of materials in existing products by making them lighter.
L'Oréal is also speeding up the development of refillable formats: it encourages innovation to offer more refill systems, whereby consumers can reduce the use of resources.
L'Oréal is striving to gradually eliminate the use of fossil-based virgin plastics in its packaging. To achieve this, the Group is working with its packaging and recycled plastics suppliers, ensuring that the supply chain complies with its social and environmental standards:
L'Oréal is also working to replace some fossil-based virgin plastics with sustainable alternatives, such as composite and biobased materials. Many of the Group's brands now use packaging that contains a significant proportion of recycled materials, including plastic, glass, paper and aluminium.
In addition, the Group is also a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's The New Plastics Economy, which aims to apply circular economy principles to plastic packaging flows, so that they are reused or recovered rather than thrown away.
