The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) has revealed a travel retail-specific sustainability framework as part of its commitment to ‘embed citizenship and sustainability’ across every aspect of its business.
The sustainability roadmap covers The Estée Lauder Companies’ entire travel retail network including airports, downtown duty free stores, airlines, cruise and border shops. Travel retail has historically been one of the company’s most important growth channels, reaching over 1 billion consumers annually.
“The Estée Lauder Companies and its brands have made great strides to ensure we continue to be a company rooted in values and it is important that we do our part in travel retail to uphold this vision” — The Estée Lauder Companies Global President Travel Retail and Retail Development Olivier Bottrie
The Estée Lauder Companies Travel Retail division identified emissions, waste and energy as the key sustainability targets based on industry need and potential impact.
It has committed to achieving Net Zero carbon emissions in transportation to travel retail customers and for all corporate travel retail worldwide business air travel by end of fiscal year 2023.
In terms of packaging, it has committed to transition all travel retail-exclusive paper cartons to responsibly-sourced FSC-certified board by 2025. The company has also announced that it will be removing plastic film-wrap for all travel retail-exclusive products by 2023.
According to the company, eliminating plastic film-wrap from travel retail-exclusive sets will avoid 54,000 kilograms of plastic waste, which is the equivalent of removing 5.4 million plastic water bottles.
The Estée Lauder Companies Travel Retail Division will also be incorporating sustainability practices in new store design and visual merchandising across all brands, beginning in fiscal 2021.
In addition, it will deploy sustainable building operation practices across all travel retail locations by the end of fiscal year 2023.
“The Estée Lauder Companies and its brands have made great strides to ensure we continue to be a company rooted in values and it is important that we do our part in travel retail to uphold this vision,” commented The Estée Lauder Companies Global President Travel Retail and Retail Development Olivier Bottrie.
“By implementing sustainability goals for travel retail, we are furthering the company’s commitment to the environment and demonstrating to travellers how we are making a positive impact in this space.
“We look forward to continuing the necessary work to lead in this space and sharing our progress with our employees and consumers.”
Based on the Tax Free World Association’s (TFWA) 2020 Sustainability in Travel Retail Study, more than 70% of travellers said that they would be influenced by sustainability credentials when purchasing items in a travel retail environment.
The Estée Lauder Companies says that substantial progress has been made in both packaging and store design since the launch of the sustainability initiatives.
As of fiscal year 2020, 83% of travel retail-exclusive paper cartons have already been shifted to FSC-certified board.
In terms of store design, the newly opened travel retail locations for Estée Lauder, La Mer and MAC at Hyundai COEX in Seoul, South Korea were built with an average of 80% recycled display fixtures.
“We recognise that this is the first step for the Travel Retail division in what will be an ongoing journey,” Bottrie added. “We look forward to being a part of the solution and feel that by taking these critical steps, The Estée Lauder Companies Travel Retail is recommitting to its values to bring the best to everyone we touch.”
“The Estée Lauder Companies’ commitment to citizenship and sustainability reflects our belief that our long-term business success depends on our ability to make conscious decisions to embed sustainable practices across our entire value chain,” commented The Estée Lauder Companies Senior Vice President Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability Nancy Mahon.
“We feel confident that the ambitious steps our Travel Retail team is taking will not only accelerate progress towards our company’s sustainability goals, but will also make a tangible impact on the Travel Retail industry, enabling consumers to make more environmental choices.”
