Sustainable Development, a major pillar of the Supply Chain at L’Oréal

Expert opinion

François-Régis Le Tourneau - Corporate Supply Chain Standards and Prospective Director L’Oreal
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For several years, we have initiated a profound transformation of the company in all areas to adapt L'Oréal to the major changes in the world. Sharing Beauty With All, our sustainable development program, is a major pillar of our transformation and a strategic priority for all of our teams.

As part of this Sharing Beauty With All program, launched in 2013, L'Oréal has set concrete commitments for 2020, which cover all of its impacts and its entire value chain, from product design to their distribution, through the production process or even the sourcing of ingredients. These commitments are organized according to four pillars: sustainable innovation, sustainable production, sustainable consumption and sharing growth with employees, suppliers and the communities with which L'Oréal interacts.

The Supply Chain's contribution focuses on 2 major subjects: the reduction of CO2 emissions linked to the transport of its products as well as Solidarity Sourcing, the Group's social inclusion program.

Reduce emissions linked to product transport

L'Oréal is committed to reducing emissions generated by the transport of its products from factories to retail customers. The Group's objective is to reduce CO2 emissions generated by the transport of products by 20 % (in grams of CO2 per sales unit and per km), compared to 2011. We have already covered a good part of the way in reaching -18% at the end of 2017.

In 2017, this sustainable transport strategy was reinforced by the global deployment of Transportation Labs. Organized in six global regions, they brought together more than 510 participants, including more than 200 carriers, but also experts and innovative project leaders. Thanks to raising awareness of the entire ecosystem about Sustainable Transport issues, multiple actions have been taken all over the world. A Sustainable Transport strategy based on the principles of Sharing Beauty With All has been developed with an approach by mode of transport, by region and with a particular focus on urban transport.

This innovative way of initiating the transformation of Transport positions the Supply Chain as one of the essential contributors to the Group's Sharing Beauty With All program and gives a completely new share of voice to transport.

Indeed, the reduction of CO2 emissions must accelerate. With the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), we have published our new objectives (Science Based Targets) for 2030, aligned with the COP21 commitments. They are targeting, on a 2016 basis, a reduction of 50% in emissions per product sold. This corresponds to much faster reductions in emissions than those we have been able to initiate until now. A real challenge that the Group's teams are ready to take on, particularly in urban logistics. As such, the Supply Chain is developing a specific collaborative program, aiming not only to limit CO2 emissions but also those of particles, which are particularly harmful in the short term to the health of urban populations.

Supply Chain purchasing, a lever for social inclusion

The Solidarity Sourcing program dedicates part of the Group's overall purchasing volume to suppliers who provide access to long-term work and income for people generally excluded from the labor market: companies employing people from economically vulnerable communities , others who may have difficulty accessing large international calls for tender, or even very small companies.

In 2017, excluding raw materials, Supply Chain was the 2nd largest contributor to this Group program. With 2,190 beneficiaries, a significant increase vs. 2016, the Physical Distribution and Transport teams were able to find opportunities to help their local communities. In 2019, they want to reach 1 beneficiary per L'Oréal employee in these 2 sectors, and have the ambitious objective of doubling this figure for 2021.

Today, we manage our sustainable development objectives with the same entrepreneurial spirit and ambition as our business goals.

We are delighted that the Group's efforts are increasingly recognized. In December 2017, the extra-financial rating agency Vigeo Eiris included L'Oréal in several Euronext Vigeo indices. The Group is ranked No. 1 in all sectors combined. And for the second year in a row, L'Oréal was one of only two companies in the world to obtain an "A" in each of the three rankings produced by the Carbon Disclosure Project, for its efforts in climate protection, sustainable water management and the fight against deforestation. The CDP is an independent international organization that evaluates the environmental performance of companies.

The Sharing Beauty With All program is characterized by a high level of requirements: real ambition, tangible, quantifiable impacts on the environment and on communities. The Supply Chain is part of this approach and has become one of the main vectors, integrating not only all the Supply Chain teams of each of our entities in the countries, but also suppliers and service providers.

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