Introduction: L’OCCITANE Group recently announced that it has become a certified B Corporation. The announcement followed a two-year rigorous assessment process by the B Lab certifying authority. In this Q&A, L’OCCITANE Group Sustainability Director Raphaëlle Archambeaud discusses this exciting milestone and what B Corp Certification means to the premium sustainability and wellness business.
As Sustainability Director of L’OCCITANE Group, what are your key objectives and priorities?
Our mission is to have a positive impact on people and nature. Happily, with the outstanding engagement and commitment of all our employees, we are making this happen.
We see value creation in a broad way – we want to offer long-term value that embraces economic performance, social equity and environmental benefit, thus creating a virtuous cycle. Our three sustainability pillars are: the protection and restoration of biodiversity, the mitigation of the climate crisis, and the development of social equity and inclusion.
L’OCCITANE Group has just achieved B Corp Certification. What does this mean to the business?
I am very proud to quote the words of B Lab: “The level of engagement of all the employees is outstanding.” This is a key milestone on our sustainability journey. Over the years, we’ve established a strong track record of championing causes such as empowering the communities we are invested in, preserving biodiversity and reducing waste.
We believe being B Corp certified will take our commitment to the next level, further increase our transparency regarding our processes for sourcing, designing, manufacturing and selling our products, so we can help our customers make more sustainable choices.
Achieving this type of certification is a public recognition of leadership when it comes to a company’s social and environmental performance.
What challenges did L’OCCITANE face during the certification process and how long did it take?
We started the journey in 2021. B Corp Certification is a time and resource-intensive process particularly for us, as we are a group with multiple entities worldwide, including manufacturing and retail operations.
To achieve this goal, we created a dedicated B Corp team and worked closely with the entire leadership group to integrate sustainability everywhere, beyond the certification requirements.
Some of the challenges included aligning practices across business units, setting aside time to explain the B Corp assessment and giving a systemic vision of sustainability to different teams all over the world.
Over two-and-a-half years, we also swiftly implemented new practices while ensuring that they would endure over time. Nothing would have been possible without the continuous effort of our B Corp team!
Elemis, one of the brands of L’OCCITANE Group, has already achieved B Corp status. How did that come about?
We see our Group as being a sustainability catalyst for all of its brands while providing as much autonomy as possible for each to form its own action plans. As an operationally independent subsidiary of the Group, ELEMIS, our innovative British skincare brand, completed its own B Impact Assessment.
After two years of implementing changes across the business in close collaboration with the Group’s B Corp team, ELEMIS achieved an impressive, verified score of 93 points. Now we’re thrilled to add the parent company, L’OCCITANE Group, to the B Corp community as well.
Has pursuing B Corp status influenced the Group’s current business strategies and practices?
Having a positive impact on people and nature, in a structured and ambitious way, has always been a guiding principle at L’OCCITANE Group. While we’re incredibly excited to be joining a group of like-minded B Corp businesses, gaining certification is just the next step in our sustainability journey. We believe that being B Corp certified puts us in a good position for long-term success.
B Corp requires companies to meet rigorous standards regarding environmental and social performance. Did you implement any specific sustainable initiatives in order to achieve these standards?
Over the past two years we have used the B Corp framework to rigorously evaluate our company’s impact on all our stakeholders – our employees, communities, suppliers, customers, shareholders, and the environment. Doing that helped us identify and put in place best practices to improve our sustainability.
In terms of governance, our company’s mission – which is integrated into the articles of association – now embeds social and environmental impact into the Board’s responsibilities. This is reinforced by the creation of a Sustainability Committee at Board level and a compensation model that includes sustainability performance for all leadership and managers worldwide.
We ensure that our employees can access our local benefits programmes for mental and physical health, which offer an external live support service in most countries. We have launched DE&I ambassadors worldwide and successfully rolled out a global parental leave policy that gives primary caregivers 20 weeks’ and secondary caregivers 12 weeks’ paid leave.
When it comes to the environment, we support carbon reduction through the transition to renewable energies in more than 90% of our facilities and in-store recycling partnerships worldwide, as well as extensive efforts to develop eco-design packaging and product refill programmes. We also have our Group biodiversity strategy to minimise our negative impacts and maximise the positive ones, along with our climate strategy, which is aligned with the Net-Zero Standard.
Our quality product process and local customer services, which embraces our customer feedback, inspire us to keep improving product design.
Do you think that achieving B Corp Certification will positively impact the reputation of L’OCCITANE Group and its relationships with customers, investors and other stakeholders?
This is a huge milestone for us – a collection of premium cosmetics brands, each with a strong purpose and a genuine desire to make a difference. It not only builds on our strong track record of championing important causes but positions us for long-term success in the premium beauty space. Our consumers and business partners are always eager to see new initiatives from us and in general they have high expectations from the brands they buy from. They want to know more, and they demand that beauty be good for both people and the planet.
B Corp Certification incorporates ethical sourcing and responsible supply chains. How does L’OCCITANE Group ensure that it benefits the local communities and environments from which it sources its raw ingredients?
While we’re delighted with this new status, it’s worth noting that this isn’t a new space for us. Investing in people and nature, and sourcing and managing our supply chain responsibly, is built into our mission.
There are numerous examples highlighting our commitment to sustainability such as in 1980, when Olivier Baussan, the founder of L’OCCITANE en Provence, met Shea butter producers in Burkina Faso.
In 2004 we launched the organic Immortelle farming programme with Corsican producers, and in 2008 created the Sustainable Sourcing department to manage producer relations and the supply of iconic ingredients.
B Lab encourages B Corp-certified companies to commit to ongoing improvement and positive change. Do you see any areas for further improvement within the Group?
With B Corp Certification, we reinforce our commitment to constantly improving the way we operate as a business. We keep working to reduce our carbon footprint and strengthen our collaboration with suppliers to ensure responsible social and environmental impact management in our value chain. We have integrated sustainability into everything we do.
Does L’OCCITANE hope to collaborate with other B Corp businesses in sharing sustainable initiatives and best practices?
Achieving B Corp Certification introduces us to a community of businesses who share our ethos. We very much look forward to engaging with like-minded brands both in the beauty and wellness space and beyond to share best practices.
But right now, we’re focused on celebrating this milestone with our employees and partners and recognising each and every one of them for the part they played in our journey towards becoming B Corp certified.
As Sustainability Director for L’OCCITANE Group, do you believe business plays a crucial role in the transition to a more sustainable world?
Today, companies face the triple challenge of serving people, planet and profit. If they want to continue to thrive while respecting the Earth’s ecological limits and ensuring access to life’s essentials for all, they will have to redesign their business models and adopt a regenerative mindset.
Such a challenge calls on us to step up our ambition to go beyond simply mitigating our negative impacts and imagine how we can contribute to the planet’s regeneration. To achieve that, we must redesign our business models, act collectively and measure our environmental and social impacts more precisely.
Does B Corp Certification give businesses like L’OCCITANE Group a competitive edge within their particular industry?
Being sustainable is good for business and our employees, customers, partners and investors expect it of us. We believe being B Corp certified makes L’OCCITANE Group a stronger organisation for all its stakeholders. It is positioning us for long-term success as a committed, sustainable Group in the premium beauty sector.
In terms of travel retail, do you think that the growing B Corp global movement will help increase awareness among consumers about the importance of sustainability?
While B Corp is not yet a household name, it is garnering brand awareness and momentum. With almost 7,000 B Corp companies worldwide, the movement is finding its way into public consciousness, all the while maintaining high brand equity and credibility.
Collective action by the B Corp community in travel retail, can help increase public awareness. Of course, it is key to demonstrate purpose – backed by credible action – which is critical to winning over customers in-store. At L’OCCITANE, this is one of our main priorities and demonstrates our commitment to both people and the planet.
How does L’OCCITANE Group plan to maintain and reinforce its B Corp status?
Each B Corp must recertify every three years. With that, we reinforce our commitment to constantly improving the way we operate – working to enhance our scores in all areas. We also want to be an active member of the worldwide B Corp community and collaborate with peers across our movement to amplify our impact.
And we are committed to ensuring that our other Group brands, LimeLife by Alcone, Sol de Janeiro and Grown Alchemist, achieve B Corp Certification by 2026. ✈
