Three months before the COP 21, L’Oréal confirmed its ambition to become a "carbon balanced" company by 2020. The group aims to generate carbon gains corresponding to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions linked to its activities, through its sustainable sourcing projects.
Cooperation with its raw material suppliers
Since 2005, L’Oréal has managed to reduce the CO2 emissions of its operations by 50% in absolute terms, while increasing its production by 22% over the same period. By 2020, L’Oréal intends to continue its programme of reducing CO2 emissions, with an objective of a 60% reduction, and has decided to accompany this programme with an innovative plan for delivering carbon gains in cooperation with its raw material suppliers.
Several projects have already been launched to transform the Group’s sourcing programmes into lowcarbon models: improving energy efficiency in the supply chains, promoting productive low-carbon agricultural practices and forest management projects.
In the villages of Burkina Faso where almost 22,000 women harvest the nuts used to produce shea butter, L’Oréal will help them adopt improved cook stoves which require less wood consumption. According to L’Oréal, this initiative will help reduce the activity’s carbon footprint, contribute to fighting deforestation and result in economic savings for producers. It will be carried out in partnership with the Olvéa group, L’Oréal’s historical sustainable supplier of shea butter.
In the Jambi province of Indonesia, where L’Oréal sources the patchouli used in the composition of perfumes, a partnership has been developed with Firmenich to create a unique and certified sustainable model, whereby patchouli and cinnamon plants are grown together. The aim is to optimise the use of agricultural land, by providing the producers with an additional regular source of income, therefore avoiding the extension of farmland and consequently limiting deforestation.
A new accounting methodology
To assess this new process, which will be progressively extended to all the Group’s sustainable sourcing programmes, L’Oréal has drawn inspiration from international standards for carbon offsetting. To ensure that the programmes are effective, and to guide the teams in the development of this project, L’Oréal has put together an expert committee of international carbon specialists chaired by Christian de Perthuis, Professor at the Paris Dauphine University and Founder of the Climate Economics Chair.
This committee will meet once a year to monitor the ad hoc scientific methodology used and evaluate the results which will be published annually.
