L’Oréal Group has launched a €150 million social and environmental solidarity programme in response to COVID-19.
€50 million will be allocated to fund organisations that support at-risk women, while €100 million will help regenerate damaged ecosystems and prevent climate change.
According to the company, women have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 crisis, particularly in terms of job and income loss. Women make up a large percentage of single-parent families. They also face a higher risk of suffering from domestic and sexual violence, which have spiked worldwide because of prolonged lockdown measures.
The €50 million fund will help support these women fight poverty, achieve social and professional integration, provide emergency assistance to female refugees, prevent violence against women and support domestic abuse victims.
For L’Oréal Group Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer Alexandra Palt, the COVID-19 is not just a public health crisis but also a social one.
She said: “The Covid-19 crisis spares no one, but it also exacerbates existing inequalities, with particularly devastating effects on people who were already struggling socially or economically or are victims of abuse, especially women. It is essential that we take action to support the most vulnerable women.”
She added, “This social crisis has not eclipsed the need for a strong commitment to the environment. If we are to find a sustainable and inclusive way to move past this crisis, we must also focus on preventing climate change and the erosion of biodiversity, which now threaten to even more profoundly and violently shake our lives, our societies, and our economies, once again with women as the first victims.”
L’Oréal Group has put significant long-term efforts to reducing its impact on the environment as part of its ‘Sharing Beauty with All’ sustainable development programme. To address the immediate environmental impact of the pandemic, the group has dedicated €100 million to environment impact investing.
€50 million will be allocated through the ‘L’Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration’ to fund marine and forest regeneration projects that also create economic opportunities for local communities. This includes the development of sustainable agriculture and fishing industries, eco-tourism, and the sale of carbon credits. The fund aims to restore one million hectares of degraded ecosystems, capture 15-20 million tonnes of carbon emissions and create significant job opportunities by 2030.
The remaining €50 million will fund projects linked with the circular economy. Through this, L’Oréal Group aims to find solutions and business models — particularly in recycling and plastic waste management — that promote sustainable consumerism.
More details of the L’Oréal for the Future programme will be announced in late June.
“Over the coming months, our societies will face social crises giving rise to situations of great human suffering, particularly for the most vulnerable,” said L’Oréal Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Agon. “At the same time, we are fully aware that environmental challenges are increasingly pressing.”
He added, “It is essential not to step back from the sustainable transformation that the world needs. We therefore wish to reaffirm our commitment to the environment and to the preservation of biodiversity, and to help mitigate the social crisis for women. These two causes reflect the values and the historic commitment of L’Oréal.”
Sharing Beauty with All: The L’Oréal Sustainability Development Programme Since its launch in 2013, L’Oréal Group’s ‘Sharing Beauty with All’ sustainability development programme has made significant progress in reaching its sustainable, social and environmental goals for 2020. By the end of 2019, L’Oréal Group was able to reduce its CO2 emissions by 78% compared to 2005 figures, with a 37% decrease in production volume during the same period. It has also improved the social and environmental profile of 85% of all products launched that year, using the eco-design tool SPOT. Through its Solidarity Sourcing Programme, the group also helped 90,635 people from at-risk communities find employment opportunities. The company also received top ranks from the Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) ratings on climate protection, sustainable water management, and forests. It is the only company globally to earn three CDP A ratings for four years straight. Overall, The L’Oréal Group contributes to 15 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), set by the United Nations in 2015. |