L’Oréal Adopts a ‘Green Science’ Approach
PARIS – L’Oréal is expanding its mandate to develop eco-friendly products by adopting a a “green sciences” approach to research and innovation.
The world’s largest beauty company on Thursday announced that by 2030, 95 percent of the ingredients it uses in products are to come from renewable plant sources, minerals or circular processes. All of the formulas will be conceived to respect aquatic environments by then, too.
L’Oréal said the further shift toward renewable alternatives to petroleum-based ingredients is taking place when protecting the planet is paramount and the coronavirus pandemic is stoking demand for products that are both beneficial to health and safe for the environment.
“With green sciences we are entering a new chapter for L’Oréal research and innovation, which has been a key driving force behind the company since its creation,” Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal chief executive officer, in charge of divisions, said in a statement.
The group will use green sciences for sustainable cultivation of its product ingredients and the latest technology to extract the natural raw materials.
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“We need to consider innovative and sustainable agricultural practices at the very beginning [of the production process], to produce the basic ingredients,” Laurent Gilbert, sustainable innovation director at L’Oréal, told WWD.
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Then, most of the basic ingredients will need to be transformed through eco-extractions, fermentation or green chemistry, to be more performant with the least negative impact to the environment.
Developing new expertise in green sciences comes with some new challenges in regard to formulation.
“The one big challenge for us is to meet consumer expectations,” said Gilbert. “Moving to green sciences and more plant-based ingredients really has to be fully consistent with the type of performance qualities that our consumers are used to having. And even to add more performance.
“There is a lot of progress in biotech, but we need also to work quite a lot with our suppliers, the many startups in that field and our internal research in a very open way to be able to do that,” he continued.
“This virtuous, circular economy-based approach will allow us to achieve new levels of performance and discover unprecedented cosmetic benefits without compromising on quality or safety, in the service of beauty that is respectful of the planet,” said Barbara Lavernos, L’Oréal chief research, innovation and technology officer.
By last year, 80 percent of the company’s raw materials are easily biodegradable, 59 percent are renewable, 34 percent are natural or of natural origin, and 29 percent of formula ingredients were made following the principles of green chemistry.
L’Oréal is on a drive to be ever more transparent about its products so that people can make responsible purchases.
As part of this, in March 2019, the group launched the website Inside Our Products to answer questions from the public about ingredients in its formulations and products’ composition. Now accessible in 45 countries, in eight languages, it encompasses about 1,000 listed ingredients.
The site’s content is being rolled out across the websites of some of L’Oréal’s brands, and this month there will be activations on social media platforms in 20 countries so that consumers can dialog with researchers.
In 2013, L’Oréal launched its worldwide sustainability program dubbed Sharing Beauty With All, with goals set for 2020. Those included increasing the use of sustainably sourced and manufactured ingredients.
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