L'Oreal Group Launches a New Circular Innovation Fund Supporting Sustainability
- Chaileedo Press
- Apr 26, 2022
- 3 min read
Beauty giant L'Oréal Group established Circular Innovation Fund to develop its concept of sustainable development. Moreover, Lancome, owned by L'Oreal, also adheres the same concept and launched campaign Empty Bottle Recycling Program in China.
To make the World Earth Day, beauty giant L'Oréal Group announced the creation of the Circular Innovation Fund (CIF). The fund aims to expand circular economy solutions by supporting sustainable-minded start-ups in North America, Europe and Asia.
The Circular Innovation Fund will be run by two cleantech-focused capital management firms, Demeter and Cycle Capital, and will also benefit from a range of impact investors. As part of the sustainability program L'Oréal for the Future, L'Oréal has contributed $53.405 million to this $160 million-level fund.
Christophe Babule, Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer of L'Oréal, explains, "L'Oréal is the initiator of the Circular Innovation Fund and its first investor with €50 million. I am convinced that finance can play a decisive role in mitigating the impacts of climate change and can be a vehicle for progress. We believe impact investment is one of the ways we can contribute to spur innovation in the circular economy space as part of the L'Oréal For the Future program. Impact investing is a perfect illustration of sustainable finance, that is to say, the ability to combine financial value creation with environmental and social value creation."
L'Oréal has also implemented the concept of sustainability into the daily operations of its brands.
Lancôme, L'Oréal's premium beauty brand, has announced the purchase of Le Domaine de la Rose, an eco-conscious estate located on 9.8 acres in the Grasse region of France, where Lancôme will launch fragrances made from roses grown at Le Domaine de la Rosa from June this year. Lancôme said the deal is part of the brand's strategic plan to meet its commitment to social and environmental responsibility, with the goal of using 100 percent organic roses expected to be achieved by 2025.
In fact, Lancôme has owned three plantations in France totaling 10 hectares of roses and other plants since 2020.
Founded in 1935, Lancôme has always been committed to the elegance and beauty of women around the world, but also upholds the vision of giving back to society and protecting the earth, insisting on committing to green public welfare and leading by example in practicing environmental protection. As an important part of the brand's core programs, Lancôme has carried out various sustainable environmental activities worldwide, including projects related to the recycling of waste products.
Since its launch, the "Empty Bottle Recycling Program" has covered 100% of Lancôme's offline stores nationwide, setting up empty bottle recycling bins in more than 330 stores and encouraging consumers to put empty bottles of used products into the recycling bins. As of March 31, 2021, Lancôme has collected 73,195.1KG of empty bottles, which is equivalent to 3,324,312 empty bottles, accounting for 17% of the total number of products sold by the brand offline.
With the promotion of the "Empty Bottle Recycling Program", Lancôme not only benefits the environment and society, but also gains more consumers' recognition and favor while achieving the goal of sustainable development, and the points reward mechanism also gives back to consumers, truly achieving a win-win situation for all three parties and realizing common sustainable development.
The "Empty Bottle Recycling Program", as one of the core programs to demonstrate Lancôme's commitment to sustainability and its mission of responsibility, is in line with the brand's core values of care and delivery, and provides customers with more sustainable consumption choices through its own actions. This has also successfully increased the return rate of consumers, thus further boosting sales.
Through the recycling program, empty product bottles are treated in the most appropriate way to minimize energy consumption and reduce the impact on the global environment.
These empty skincare bottles collected from consumers in Lancôme stores are first transported to the Terra Eco warehouse for storage. After accumulating a certain amount of recycling, the empty bottles are sorted, washed and recycled, and then prepared into reusable raw materials, contributing to environmental sustainability.
In 2021, L'Oréal became the first "10 billion" group in the history of Tmall's Double 11(Chinese Shopping Carnival). During the Tmall Double 11, L'Oréal Group broke sales records. In 2019, Lancôme sold 11 billion yuan(about $1.68 billion) in China. By 2020, annual sales will increase by 36.4% to 15 billion yuan(about $2.29 billion).
In Lancôme's official flagship store on the Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall, the top seller is Lancôme Tonique Confort, with total sales of 1 million + and monthly sales of 10,000 +, priced at 435 yuan. It's ranked second in the list of toner repurchases, the first Chinese brand BM Radiant Essential Toner.
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