Driving Circular Economy and Tech Innovation: L'Oréal's Sustainable Beauty Revolution
Tomas Hruska
Managing Director
L’Oréal Singapore
How does L'Oréal actively incorporate circular economy principles within its operations and product development?
Since 2013, L’Oréal reinvented its way of doing business, transitioning to a more sustainable business model, mitigating our environmental impact and maximising our positive contribution to society at large.
In 2020, we launched the new phase of our sustainability journey; L’Oréal for the Future. As our programme enters its second, our new commitments will not just focus on our direct impact. We will also tackle our indirect, extended impact, related, for example, to the activity of our suppliers and the use of our products by consumers.
Part of our commitment is by respecting planetary boundaries through circular economy model; in every step of our value chain.
Reducing the intensity of packaging particularly plastic packaging. By 2030, 100% of the plastic used in our packaging will be either from recycled or biobased sources.
Replacing towards circular eco-design of free-standing stores such as Kiehl’s and YSL in which stores are designed in accordance with eco-design principles.
Reuse of product packaging through product refill. Brands such as Kiehl’s, YSL and Lancôme offers a range of skincare and fragrance products allowing customers to refill their existing products, promoting circularity and reducing waste
Recycle programme initiated by Kiehl’s Singapore to encourage customers to return empty Kiehl’s bottles to their stores for recycling.
How does L'Oréal leverage advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) to drive positive environmental and social impact, particularly in the Southeast Asia region?
With unprecedented speed and scale, tech has revolutionised lives and social interactions, opening new business opportunities to seize. To face this new paradigm, L’Oréal pioneered Beauty Tech, championing ultra-personalised beauty at scale with the motto: “Beauty for Each, powered by Beauty Tech".
At L’Oréal, we believe that Beauty Tech is essential not just to astonish consumers with trailblazing innovations, but also contribute to a more sustainable future.
One example of L’Oréal Beauty Tech driving positive environmental factor is our commitment to reduce water consumption. We collaborated with Swiss sustainable tech start-up Gjosa to create the L’Oréal Professionnel Water Saver. This is a showerhead with a new patented waterfragmentation technology that saves up to 69% water usage at salons’ backbar and it helps to conserve energy too. The Water Saver has to-date helped to save over 270 million litres of water globally – this translates to 108 Olympic-sized swimming pools! We even have a global tracker to note our milestones: https://watersaver.loreal.com/en
Another Beauty Tech innovation that we’re proud of is the Lancôme HAPTA. HAPTA is the world’s first handheld, ultra-precise, smart makeup device for people with limited arm mobility, helping them to apply lipstick or mascara at home. It’s estimated that more than 50 million people around the world have limited fine motor skills and 15% of the world’s population live with some form of disability. L’Oréal created HAPTA which has more than 100 patents because we believe that real beauty is beauty for all.
