SENSE OF PURPOSE
GREEN SCIENCES
L’Oréal Groupe believes that nature is the future of beauty. Its Green Sciences approach draws inspiration from nature to accelerate innovation and works towards more natural products.
L’Oréal Groupe’s transition to Green Sciences is a significant one, as it profoundly changes how the beauty giant conceptualises and manufactures products. Green Sciences allows for the sustainable cultivation of ingredients, allowing L’Oréal to use the best that nature has to offer through cutting-edge technological processes.
Today, L’Oréal Groupe has transitioned 59% of all ingredients to plant-based formulations, while 80% of all ingredients used are biodegradable. 32% of all ingredients are natural origin, while 29% are obtained through green chemistry.
By 2030, L’Oréal Groupe has pledged to transition to 100% bio-based formulas, housed in traceable and sustainable packaging materials.
L’Oréal Groupe’s Green Sciences revolution covers four pillars: sourcing and cultivating natural ingredients in a sustainable way; extracting the best from nature through sustainable processes; reinventing formulas for more responsible beauty and inventing new beauty routines to save water.
Responsible formulas
L’Oréal Groupe is committed to creating more natural formulas with smaller environmental footprints. Recently, the company developed a 99% natural-origin mascara alternative that delivers equivalent performances to a standard formula in terms of volume and definition.
Preserving water
L’Oréal is pushing the boundaries of innovation to offer formulas that change traditional beauty routines. The beauty giant recently launched its first leave-in conditioner — made with 98% natural ingredients — which saves 100 litres of hot water per product.
Biotechnology
L’Oréal has adopted biotechnology practices, which use living organisms, such as plants or bacterium, as a ‘micro-factory’ to create new ingredients, while preserving natural resources.
Natural ingredients, sourced sustainably
Centella Asiatica is a key ingredient for skincare. Since 2016, this wild plant from Asia and Oceania has been at the heart of one of L’Oréal’s major sustainable sourcing projects in Madagascar. The project is based on respect for biodiversity and fair compensation for pickers.
The project is deployed in two different areas of Madagascar: the first is the Fierenana region in the district of Moramanga. The second is the region of Ambatondrazaka in the northeast of Madagascar, which is the historical harvesting site of the Centella.
In partnership with local NGOs Indfrag, Ravina and Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT), L’Oréal has mobilised local suppliers and partner to boost economic development and promote responsible farming in the region. The project helps local Malagasy women earn a sustainable livelihood, while respecting the rich biodiversity of Madagascar. In 2020, 3,006 women have benefited from this initiative, which ensures fair remuneration and trains them in good harvesting practices.
