L’Oréal champions CSR with €150 m for women, environment

29 / 05 / 2020

• CSR
• news

L’Oréal has embraced the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with launching a €150 million- program “L’Oréal for the future” which is meant to support vulnerable women and protect the environment

Under such unprecedented social and environmental solidarity program, the company established a €50 million charitable endowment fund  to  support organizations that back highly vulnerable women, the first victims of the social and economic crisis generated by the coronarivrus pandemic.

The company also dedicated €100 million to contribute to the regeneration of damaged natural ecosystems and ongoing efforts to prevent climate change

 Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman and CEO of L’Oréal, says: “Over the coming months, our societies will face social crises giving rise to situations of great human suffering, particularly for the most vulnerable. At the same time, we are fully aware that environmental challenges are increasingly pressing. 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.”

The L’Oréal Group, which has historically been committed to supporting women, is still there for them today, because women are disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 crisis, particularly in terms of job and income loss.

Women make up a large majority of single-parent families, and are increasingly forced to turn to food banks to meet their most basic needs. At the same time, domestic and sexual violence has increased worldwide, including in France (+30%), particularly due to the effects of lockdown measures.

To directly help struggling women, L’Oréal decided to create the  €50 million charitable endowment fund to support field organizations and local charities in their efforts to fight poverty, help women achieve social and professional integration, provide emergency assistance to refugee and disabled women, prevent violence against women, and support victims.

Alexandra Palt, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer of the L’Oréal Group, says: “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. 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.”

Meanwhile, the company’s  ongoing long-term efforts to reduce its environmental impact – as part of its Sharing Beauty with All sustainable development program – was crowned by allocating €100 million for addressing two key environmental challenges.

Half of the money will go to regenerating damaged natural ecosystems, particularly marine and forests. The remaining  €50 million will be directed to preventing climate change through financing projects linked to the circular economy.

With this fund, the L’Oréal Group aims to contribute to the quest for solutions and the creation of business models that support the development of a circular economy, particularly in terms of recycling and management of plastic waste.

The L’Oréal Group plans to present its new sustainability program for 2030 in late June, which will complete the L’Oréal for the future plan  and will ensure that all of L’Oréal’s activities are respectful of the planetary boundaries.