Beauty giant L’Oréal confirms it is now sourcing 100 percent renewable electricity for its operations globally in order to achieve the company’s new emissions goals. The company announced the milestone and it also confirmed the new science-based emissions reduction targets for its direct operations and value chain, pledging to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030.
In 2019, the L’Oréal Suzhou plant in China became the second carbon-neutral plant within the giant’s APAC zone after the Yichang plant. Suzhou-a city in South China had signed a “Carbon Neutral” agreement with the Group. In 2018, the Suzhou plant started the construction of a CHP (Combined Heat and Power) facility, aiming at producing electricity and heat on-site with high efficiency in order to achieve carbon neutral in June 2019.
Having reached this important milestone, L’Oréal China is L’Oréal’s first market to achieve carbon neutrality for all sites, which is in line with China’s ambition of carbon neutrality by 2060.
Read also: China Skincare Market Guide
L’Oréal’s commitments in China
- On the basis of 2005, under the premise of a 376% increase in output over the same period, L’Oréal China’s carbon dioxide emissions (calculated in absolute terms) have been reduced by 58.7%, which is only 1.3% behind the 2020 target;
- 99% of PET plastic used in packaging bottles for L’Oréal’s shampoo products come from renewable resources;
- Use SPOT (Sustainable Product Optimization Tool) to evaluate all products developed in China;
- In 2018, witnessed by the prime ministers of China and France, L’Oréal China joined hands with Tmall and promised to use more environment- friendly packaging; during the “Double Eleven” shopping festival in 2018, L’Oréal provided 2 million tape-free and non-container recyclable “green packages”.
- Six retail stores under L’Oréal China were awarded LEED certification for their environment-friendly store design.
Tmall, along with Taobao, is China’s largest e-commerce platform created by Alibaba Group. Tmall can help brands to reach more customers, however, not every brand can be accepted by the platform. Only those well-known brands can pay for an online store on Tmall after application and submitted documents.
Advantages of L’Oréal’s green strategies
The green economy is a great opportunity for L’Oréal. Regardless of the benefits for the planet, adopting a green development model can establish a good reputation among users, stimulate consumers’ purchase intentions, attract outstanding employees, and promote the healthy and sustainable development of the business.
The development of innovative environment-friendly products can also optimize the resource efficiency of the product cycle and other strategies to establish the core competitiveness of the enterprise. The commitments and responsibilities of L’Oréal influence consumers’ behaviors as well.
China’s carbon neutrality target
XU CONGJUN/IMAGINECHINA VIA AP IMAGES
In September 2020, China’s President Xi Jinping made the ambitious pledge that China would become carbon neutral by 2060 during a virtual conference of the UN. The country’s first long-term climate goal will require China to rein in CO2 and probably other greenhouse-gas emissions to net-zero, meaning offsetting gases that are released, for example by planting trees or utilizing green energy.
Over the past decades, China has seen a sky rocking increase in the economy. However, while achieving unprecedented economic and social progress, China is also facing many new challenges, including pollutions.
It is necessary to coordinate the contradiction between sustained economic development and environmental protection. China is facing these problems and taking measures to fight against pollutions in order to create pleasant and healthy living conditions.
Natural and green products are inevitable trends of the Chinese cosmetics industry
The Chinese people have been greatly suffering from pollution and this has a strong impact on the quality of life. Chinese consumers are more and more sensitive to the protection of the planet and tend to choose those environment-friendly products.
Enjoying a healthy and environmentally friendly low-carbon life has become the consensus of more and more consumers in China and the pursuit of nature and green cosmetics products has become an inevitable development trend of the cosmetics industry is not only in China but the whole world.
GMA has worked with L’Oréal because they want to know more about Chinese tourists’ shopping behaviors and the tourist market. We are an expert in the Chinese market and Chinese digital marketing.
If you want to know more about the world’s second-largest economy, feel free to contact us for more insights.
1 comment
Leonard
It makes a lot of sense that green cosmetic works in China. After all China is a country, where traditionnal medicine based on “natural” ingredient is huge and still widely used. This also explained the success of food supplement and homeopathy laboratories there.