Sustainability remains the #1 priority

Amidst the changes occurring within our individual lives and across many businesses and industries, L’Oréal Australia remains dedicated to sustainable practices, ensuring that we adapt and sustainably grow our business to safeguard the environment and create positive social impact.

This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. Earth Day is the largest environmental movement to drive transformative change to benefit both people and our planet. Today, it is clearer than ever that our world needs transformational change. Earth Day’s vision for change states, it’s time for the world to hold sectors accountable for their role in our environmental crisis while also calling for bold, creative, and innovative solutions.

We echo this vision. Globally, we address our impact on the environment across our entire value chain, from product design to distribution, including the production process and the sourcing of raw materials. Locally, we also have many initiatives that contribute to more sustainable outcomes for the business, including how we manage our Distribution Centre and office sites, how we manage our waste and excess stock, to the suppliers we invest in and our partner organisations.

“This year we saw first-hand the importance of protecting our environment, following the devastation caused from the Australian bushfires. We are currently adjusting to a new life as we navigate through COVID-19, but we cannot become complacent on sustainability. These issues will exist when we return to our normal lives, and the need for environmental action will still be as pressing as before. In a time when I am encouraging my team to think differently to meet the changed demands during COVID-19, I also ensure that as a business we consider sustainability and our environmental footprint in everything we do.”

Rodrigo Pizarro, Managing Director, L’Oréal Australia & New Zealand

This Earth Day we wanted to share with you some of these local initiatives:

100% renewable energy

In 2019, L’Oréal Australia achieved 100% renewable energy across all its sites. In partnership with energy provider, ENGIE we gain access to renewable energy generated from pure wind power. The move to renewables allows us to continue to grow our productivity whilst eliminating greenhouse gas emissions.

Zero-waste-to-landfill

For the past three years, we have maintained zero-waste-to-landfill at our Distribution Centre. This means that all of our materials are sorted and recycled on-site, it also involves working with suppliers to create sustainable solutions. For instance we partnered with global manufacturing company, Avery Dennison Corporation, and leading waste management company, Wasteflex, to co-design a sustainable label backing. Each year, this diverts 6 tonnes of glassine paper liner from landfills, into recycled paper for use in the recycled paper industry. We are currently working to achieve zero-waste-to-landfill across our remaining sites, including our head office and satellite offices by the end of 2020. With a strong focus on sorting into waste streams, any remaining waste that cannot be recycled or composted is sent to a treatment plant which converts waste-to-energy.

Eco-design for point-of-sale

We are working to make sure all of our point-of-sale, including things such as display units that hold our products in-store follow a strict Eco-design. This means they are optimised for weight, use only Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified materials, are recyclable and don’t contain unnecessary hazardous features such as battery, electronics or magnets. We have set Eco-design of all of our temporary point-of-sale as a new standard, and pledged that 100% will meet these sustainability criteria by 2022.

Solidarity Sourcing

We partner with a number of different organisations to provide employment opportunities within our business. Since 2011, we have worked with Waverley Industries and Hoban Recruitment to recruit talent living with a disability to perform co-packing tasks or work directly in our Distribution Centre. In 2019, we also partnered with SheWorks, a non-for-profit organisation that provides female talent who are looking to rejoin the workforce after a time of hardship. We currently have over 50 beneficiaries employed through these partner programs.

New life for excess product

Across L’Oreal Australia’s diverse group of brands we ensure that any extra product is donated to provide a meaningful contribution to people in need. Therefore, we work with a number of charities and non-for-profit organisations. In 2018, we partnered with Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre to pack 40,000 care packs for women and children fleeing family or domestic violence. In 2019, we donated over $10M worth of products to Good360 who redistributed these to over 800 charities across Australia. Earlier this year, we provided essential products such as haircare, skin care and hygiene products to those affected by the devastating bushfires.

For further media information, please contact:

Christine Burke

Communications Director, L’Oréal Australia

[email protected]

Kiera Flynn

Corporate Communications Manager, L’Oréal Australia

[email protected]

About L’Oréal

L’Oréal Australia is part of the L’Oréal Group. L’Oréal has devoted itself to beauty for over 110 years. With its unique international portfolio of 36 diverse and complementary brands, the Group generated sales amounting to 29.9 billion euros in 2019 and employs 86,000 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 and branded retail. 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 Australia has 30 brands available across all channels nationwide. The business employs over 900 people who work in all states and territories.