DRY FACTORIES
L’OREAL … ONLY 40 LEFT TO GO DRY
Chances are, you used a L'Oréal product today. Its global brands portfolio includes Garnier, Redkin, CeraVe, and Maybelline New York.
Parent companies get a bad rap, but when their sustainability targets are sound and implemented, their wide-reaching influence makes a big difference.
L'Oréal gets a AAA score from CDP, a nonprofit established in 2000 as the Carbon Disclosure Project, seeking transparency in climate change impacts. It eventually broadened its environmental disclosure scope to include deforestation and water security.
CDP describes the beauty purveyor as a global leader in corporate sustainability.
On the flip side, L'Oréal is one of only 12 companies to score an AAA in each category ... out of more than 15,000 companies asked to disclose environmental impact data to CDP each year. Scores range down through D- for effectiveness. An F goes to those who submit insufficient or no information at all.
Try this statistic for size; only 1.3% scored at least an A rating.
L'Oréal’s reported actions include tackling deforestation in its supply chain and water stewardship. Instead of resting on its laurels, it has stated that the rating was encouraging them to go “further and faster” against climate change. Among the initiatives factoring into the top score is dry factories.
OwlVoices had those factories on our radar prior to a recent, chance encounter with an executive in its transformation division. When asked about that single initiative, she responded enthusiastically that they have so much more going on across their operations. So, we’re definitely going to be taking a deeper dive.
For now, let’s look at L'Oréal’s example of shampoo manufacturing. Ingredients, of course, are mixed in large tanks that need to be washed and sterilized after each use. We’re all picturing gallons and gallons of water used to hose it down, and that remains the case. There’s no magic wand to wave here.
This calls for a workaround.
Equipment can be optimized, but there’s only so much that can be done to reduce it. That makes reuse the answer. And really, shouldn’t that always be the case with gray water?
L’Oreal is using technologies like ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and evapoconcentration to use the same water over and over, in a closed loop. One of the challenges is “retrofitting” water recycling; working it into existing equipment and processes. The company notes that treating and recycling industrial wastewater is new in the cosmetics industry, so they are learning as they go.
Factories in Burgos, Spain, Vorsino, Russia, and Settimo Torinese in Italy are now dry. That means only 40 to go. But the transitions are inspiring new ways to implement across distinct locations. That should ramp up the speed of a complete transformation – and hopefully, knowledge to share – as they pioneer the way.
The goal is to eventually level up to further reduce impact by completely reimagining water cycles. Two years ago, L’Oreal launched a strategy for areas that include biodiversity, plastics, and oceans, and “recognizing the interconnectedness of nature and earth’s systems”
