“Over the course of fiscal 2023, our employees have created and nurtured programmes that drive our shared commitments to sustainability and social impact. I am deeply proud of these achievements.”
The words of The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) Executive Chairman William P. Lauder underline the importance the US beauty powerhouse attaches to its annual Social Impact and Sustainability Report (SI&S Report), the Fiscal Year 2023 edition of which has just been released.
The report offers updates on the company’s climate, energy, packaging, sourcing, green chemistry, transparency, diversity, equality & inclusion (DE&I), employee health and safety and social investments.
ELC also released its second Climate Transition Plan which exhibits its efforts towards transparency regarding its climate change and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction projects.
ELC President and Chief Executive Officer Fabrizio Freda commented: “Throughout fiscal 2023, our passionate and engaged employees continued to drive our company and business forward, delivering benefits for our consumers, our communities and partners, and ourselves.”
ELC Chief Sustainability Officer Nancy Mahon added: “I am proud of the collective efforts across our company that drove progress against our environmental and social impact goals and commitments in fiscal 2023. This includes our continued carbon neutrality in Scope 1 and 2 emissions, our progress in product packaging and the expansion of our employee giving and volunteerism programme. We look forward to continuing to drive innovation and collaboration to build a more sustainable future.”
Some of the key achievements from the FY2023 SI&S Report include
- Achieved ELC’s global gender pay equity target across Research & Development and Supply Chain as well as other functions, brands and regions.
- Achieved supplier diversity commitments and increased spend commitment with women-owned businesses to US$150 million by the end of FY2025. ELC also doubled the spend with Black-owned businesses in 2023.
- Committed to donating US$15 million over five years to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) through The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation (ELCCF).
- Transitioned 71% of ELC’s packaging to recyclable, refillable reusable, recycled or recoverable materials in line with the company’s target of 75%-100% by the end of 2025.
- Reduced water withdrawal by -18% from direct manufacturing sites in line with the goal of reducing by -20% by 2025.
- Generated more than 4,729 megawatts of solar energy from ELC’s global network of solar arrays.
- Launched ELC’s Responsible Store Design programme for evaluating both new and existing stores and visual merchandising.
- Achieved Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emission carbon neutrality and sourced 100% renewable energy for ELC’s direct operations.
- Produced zero industrial waste-to-landfill for all global manufacturing, distribution and innovation sites for the fourth consecutive year. ✈
