L’Oréal, the world’s biggest beauty firm, has long prided itself on making the world look good, but as Alexis Perakis-Valat, president of the group’s Consumer Products division, tells SustainabilityOnline, this shouldn’t come at the expense of the planet.
We have to find the sweet spot between sustainability and desirability, because if you want people to buy something, they’ve got to desire it,” he says. “I think there are some very great ways to find this sweet spot.”
L’Oréal for the Future
The home of brands such as Lancôme, Kérastase, La Roche Posay and L’Oréal Paris, L’Oréal reported sales of €43.48 billion last year, with all divisions seeing like-for-like gains. The group is stepping up efforts under its ‘L’Oréal for the Future’ programme, which has led its sustainable agenda since 2020, building on the previous ‘Sharing Beauty with All’ programme, which launched in 2013.
Earlier this year, L’Oréal announced that 97% of its sites now use renewable energy; more than half (53%) of the water used in its industrial processes comes from recycled sources; two thirds (66%) of formula ingredients are now bio-based, mineral-derived, or from circular processes; and three quarters (76%) of its industrial waste is recycled or reused. Last year, for the ninth year in a row, it received a triple A rating from the CDP.
But as a company that thrives itself on prestige beauty, ensuring that the customer buys into L’Oréal’s sustainability efforts is another challenge entirely. After all, for its loyal customers, there should be no compromise.
Perakis-Valat cites the rollout of hair care products in pouch format – using 60% less plastic – as an example of how L’Oréal is seeking to maintain its high standards while also embracing sustainability.
“Everybody was telling us it’s not possible,” he says. “If you look at the market today, the share of pouches – apart from hand wash – is very low.
“We took on that challenge – just because it hasn’t worked so far doesn’t mean that it will never work. We also took the learnings from what we had learned with other product experiments. For example, we worked on the design of our pouches; it reminds you of the shape of the bottle. We worked on size; before, we used to have big, bulky pouches, but now they’re smaller, which is more elegant, but also comes at a lower out-of-pocket cost. And they’re more convenient to use, because you don’t have to keep the pouch open all the time.”
Rather than turn consumers off, the pouches are driving increased adoption; representing as much as 14% of category sales in some markets. Meanwhile, the repackaging of its 400ml L’Oréal Elvive shampoo into bottles using 20% less plastic has also been widely embraced by consumers.
L’Oréal treats sustainable packaging innovations with the same rigour as any product development, backed by impressive marketing clout – in the case of pouches, the company called on actress Eva Longoria to promote the eco-friendly and cost-effective benefits of the new format.
“With every product that we develop, we think ‘How can we promote this innovation?’,” Perakis-Valat adds. “We’re using everything we know how to do, everything we’ve learned, in the service of sustainable consumption.”
The plastic challenge
L’Oréal set itself the target of having 50% of its packaging recycled, recyclable, or reusable by 2025, a goal it looks set to meet, however achieving the planned 100% goal by 2030 comes with its own challenges.
“There are always hurdles in this sustainability journey,” says Perakis-Valat. “With some plastics, it’s very difficult to find feedstock. With some products, we have multi-material packaging, meaning you have different kinds of plastics in the same product, so this is a challenge for the recycling streams.
“That’s why we’re constantly reviewing our goals. But as of today, in our division – the consumer product division, which accounts for around five billion units of the seven billion units sold every year by the group – 50% of all the plastic we use will be recycled. If you take the same number five years ago, in 2020, we were at 16%. As far as we know, there is no other company this size that has reached this kind of goal.”
Join The Refill Movement
In June, L’Oréal unveiled a new global multi-brand, multi-category campaign, ‘Join The Refill Movement’, to encourage consumers to embrace refills as part of their beauty routines. A recent study found that while 78% of consumers are interested in buying more sustainable products, many are unaware of the availability of refill options, and their lower environmental impact.
Allied to this, L’Oréal is also currently trialling in-store refills in Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart in Ottawa, Canada. Perakis-Valat is currently the co-sponsor of The Consumer Goods Forum’s Plastic Waste Coalition of Action, alongside Loblaw’s Galen Weston, an initiative to drive plastic circularity at a global level.
“We’re very passionate about this project because it’s the first time that we have the opportunity to test it at scale,” Perakis-Valat says of the in-store refill initiative. “We were the first major manufacturer to engage in this project, and then P&G and Unilever came along. We’re welcoming more to take part, because the more, the merrier.”
He acknowledges uncertainty around consumer behavior and the economic feasibility of the project – “many people think that it will never work” – but stresses the need to test at scale to learn.
“We’ll see what happens,” he says. “Some other industries are a bit ahead of the game when it comes to refills – like beverages – and one of the learnings is that there has to be an incentive to bring back your bottle in-store. In Ottawa, there is an incentive for consumers to participate. And then we’ll see if the economics work.”
Sustainable Innovation Accelerator
Also in June, L’Oréal opened a call for applications for its new Sustainable Innovation Accelerator initiative, a €100 million scheme that the company hopes will ‘address the critical solution gaps within the industry’, as well as bolster its own sustainability ambitions.
Open to start-ups, SMEs and established firms with innovative solutions, the accelerator will focus on seven key areas: low carbon and climate smart solutions; water-resilience solutions; nature-based solutions; alternative ingredients and materials; eliminating fossil plastic use and plastic waste; circularity and resources management; and sustainable and inclusive business models.
“Innovation is in our DNA,” says Perakis-Valat, adding that Fortune recently named L’Oréal Europe’s most innovative company. “Here, the idea is to foster innovation but directed toward a very important goal, which is sustainability.”
As part of the initiative, L’Oréal is working with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership to help identify global innovations specifically applicable to the cosmetics sector and its transformation.
“We see in our sustainability journey that innovations can really change the game. A lot still needs to be done in areas such as replacing plastic, how we can use water resources more intelligently, and ensuring that ingredients are biobased and efficient. In many fields, there are still so many things to invent. We want to be part of this stream of invention directed toward sustainability, for products and areas that we believe are of interest to our business.”
Also, in keeping with the mutuality mindset fostered by L’Oréal’s participation in the CGF’s Plastic Waste Coalition, the company is set to roll out the Eco Beauty Score, a collaborative initiative across the beauty industry. The rating system, based on 14 environmental impact factors and aligned with the EU’s Product Environmental Footprint methodology, will provide consumers with standardised sustainability scores – ranging from A to E – for skincare products.
“It’s similar to what you see in food, to help consumers make more sustainable choices,” he adds. “We will be able to provide transparent information – across the industry – which marks a major development. It’s the first time the industry has been able to align on a standard like that.”
Making Progress
Looking ahead to 2030, then, the next big sustainability milestone on the horizon, Perakis-Valat says that it is a “sign of maturity” that many previously-stated goals – such as eco-friendly design in product development – have now become standard practice. Challenges remain, of course, particularly in areas such as recycling streams and addressing resource scarcity.
“But between our determination, our investments, and the investments of others in innovation streams around sustainability, we are very optimistic about the future,” he says. “At the end of the day, we’re a beauty company, so striving for a more beautiful world is at the heart of our mission.”
This interview took place at The Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2025, which took place in Amsterdam. Discover more about the L’Oréal for the Future programme here.
