Our Product Environmental and Social Impact

Improving sustainability throughout the whole supply chain

SPOT: Putting eco-friendly design at the heart of our business model

Sustainability is at the heart of the Group’s strategy and reflects the vocation of L’Oréal. Nearly 15 years ago, we adopted an approach that focuses on eco-friendly design in everything we do. It means that we work continuously to reduce the environmental footprint of our products and to improve their social impact. To take this approach even further, between 2014 and 2016 our Sustainability, Packaging and Research teams created an eco-friendly design tool called SPOT -- Sustainable Product Optimization Tool. A unique development, it measures the environmental and social impact of the Group’s products, adding social criteria for the first time to the use of environmental indicators. The tool is based on a methodology devised with the help of international experts.

Deployed by the Group’s brands since 2017, it is fully integrated into the design and launch process for new products and enables us to:

  • simulate different design options and evaluate their impact on both the environment and society, and to identify the measures for improvement;
  • quantify the reduction in impact made by a product and to monitor its progress in several different areas of improvement, such as the environmental footprint of the packaging and the formula. This would include the proportion of sustainably-sourced ingredients, those produced by ‘green’ chemistry, along with the social benefits of the product. 

As a result, 100% of the products we have either introduced or updated in 2019 – a total of 2,180 – have been evaluated using SPOT. Our teams are now working to make the environmental and social impacts of our products freely accessible, thanks an environmental and social labeling system that helps consumers and reflects European recommendations in this area. This labeling is verified by independent auditors, Bureau Veritas Certification, and will be adopted progressively by the Group’s brands from 2020 onward.

“By improving the impact of our products and by giving consumers the power to choose the best ones, we can take a sustainable approach together.”

Alexandra Palt
Executive Vice President - Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer and Executive Vice President of the Fondation L’Oréal

Focus on Formulas and Packaging, Even More Sustainable

Every day, we work on optimizing the formulas and packaging of our products to reduce their environmental footprint and to improve their social impact.

Life cycle analysis of our products

To improve the environmental and social profile of a cosmetic product means having a comprehensive, accurate view of all its different impacts. To do that requires the methodology of ‘life cycle analysis.’ This brings together a wide range of factors for each stage in the life cycle of a cosmetic product: sourcing the formula ingredients and the packaging materials from our suppliers, production at our plants, the distribution network, usage of the product by the consumer, and the subsequewnt recycling of the packaging. Today, thanks to this approach, we can prove that growth can go hand in hand with a reduction in our environmental impact.


Highlight Practical examples of our actions

All the Group’s brands have incorporated the SPOT tool in the design process for their products. Our teams are innovating every day, so that consumers can make sustainable choices.

 

100%

of the products we have created since 2019, a total of 2,180, have been evaluated using the SPOT tool.

85%

of the new or updated products in 2019 had an improved environmental or social profile.

90%

The shampoos and shower gels we sold in 2018 have formulas that are more than 90% biodegradable, on average.

59%

of the ingredients we use are from renewable sources, i.e. they are mainly plant-based.

68%

of these renewable ingredients are certified as being from sustainable sources.