L’Oréal committed, Driving social progress · L’Oréal committed, Driving social progress. ... begun this diversification, increasing their profits. L’Oréal, in search of

L’Oréal committed,Driving social progress

ow to play a role to change the world? L’Oréal believes that a

new model for economic development is possible, a model that is

ever more environmentally friendly, more responsible and more

socially conscious.

We can have a real positive impact, supporting people outside L’Oréal as

well as our colleagues all over the world.

This approach is making a difference (social welfare, social integration,

solidarity sourcing, micro-entrepreneurship and access to employment for

those experiencing social or financial difficulty), encouraging us to make

further commitments.

H

We can have a real positive impact all over the world

Jean-Paul AGON

Chairman and CEO of the L’Oréal Group

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L’OréalDriving social progress

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W O R L D

01 EMPLOYEES SHOW SHANTY TOWN SOLIDARITY • p 4

02 SHARE & CARE, A MODEL FOR A WORLDWIDE WELFARE PROGRAMME • p 6

03 THE VIRTUES OF THE MURUMURU HARVEST IN AMAZONIA • p 8

04 HOW YOUNG PEOPLE IN DIFFICULTY CAN FIND THEIR WAY IN HAIRDRESSING • p 10

05 THE BODY SHOP TAKES ACTION IN NEPAL • p 12

06 30 YEARS AGO IN BANGALORE... AT THE ORIGINS OF FAIR TRADE • p 14

07 A MODEL OF SOCIAL INCLUSION EXPORTED FROM SPAIN TO CHINA • p 16

17 WORLDWIDE COMMITMENT TO L’ORÉAL’S SOLIDARITY DAY • p 36

18 HELPING PEOPLE INTO WORK AT THE CHEVILLY-LARUE LABORATORIES • p 38

19 A NEW FUTURE FOR DISADVANTAGED YOUNG WOMEN IN CHINA • p 40

20 QUINOA BRAN FROM BOLIVIA, A WASTE PRODUCT WITH VALUE • p 42

21 HAIRDRESSING, A CAREER WITH A FUTURE FOR YOUNG LEBANESE • p 44

22 BEAUTY AND FEMALE EMANCIPATION IN INDIA • p 46

23 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN L’ORÉAL’S GENES • p 48

08 SUSTAINABLE ECONOMICS AND THE BABAÇU • p 18

09 PURCHASERS FIGHTING EXCLUSION • p 20

10 PACKAGING SOLIDARITY IN SOWETO • p 22

11 SOLIDARITY AND JOBS REBUILDING THE CLICHY HEAD OFFICE • p 24

12 A SCHOOL FOR BEAUTY AND DIGNITY IN VIETNAM • p 26

13 ETHICAL SOURCING OF ARGAN OIL • p 28

14 EMPLOYEES PROTECTED ALL OVER THE WORLD • p 30

15 BRINGING FAIR TRADE TO SHEA BUTTER • p 32

16 REACHING OUT TO THE GUAR FARMERS • p 34

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EMPLOYEES SHOW SHANTY TOWN SOLIDARITY

ARGENTINA

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social progressDriving

In Buenos Aires there’s a hint of Mother Teresa. Every day Margarita Barrientos, a survivor of the streets where she was left in poverty as a child, provides soup for thousands of those in need. She founded Los Piletones, her community centre, nearly 20 year ago in a shanty town called Villa Soldati, to the south of the capital. Since then she has been named “woman of the year” in Argentina and broadened her range of services, from medical care to education for children.

It’s at the heart of this cinder-block jungle, where the dispossessed are crammed into crude shelters, that L’Oréal’s Argentine employees chose to make a difference. More than 60% of the local subsidiary’s 500 employees took part in Citizen Day. This day of solidarity has been running for 6 years now, in 62 of the 65 subsidiaries within the Group’s footprint, and has plenty of converts in Argentina.

This most recent edition did not disappoint. At Los Piletones the volunteer employees ran a pop-up beauty parlour offering hair-styling, makeup and treatments to the most deprived women. Some were inspired to run a cookery workshop for the children.

Others came forward to restore the centre’s nursery school. Nearby, a group of employees went to work outside a squalid low-rise block.

All of these initiatives were focused on combating exclusion. A deliberate choice for the company, determined to take action in this country where poverty affects nearly a quarter of the population.

EMPLOYEES SHOW SHANTY TOWN SOLIDARITY

Citizen Day, when L’Oréal’s Argentine employees take time out of their usual schedule to work on behalf of the disadvantaged.

This day of solidarity has been running for

6 years now, in 62 of the 65 subsidiaries within

the Group’s footprint, and has plenty of converts

in Argentina.

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SHARE & CARE, A MODEL FOR A WORLDWIDE WELFARE PROGRAMME

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SHARE & CARE, A MODEL FOR A WORLDWIDE WELFARE PROGRAMME

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A year ago, L’Oréal employees in Dubai and Malaysia were only granted 8 weeks’ maternity leave, paid at 50% salary.

Today they have the right to 14 weeks, remunerated at 100%. In Italy the Death Benefit has jumped from 12 to 24 months’ salary. In Holland, where previously there was none, 3 days of paternity leave have been introduced. These are just some examples of the many social advances made since the cosmetics company launched its Share & Care programme in 2013, in the 68 countries within its footprint.

The aim: to eradicate inequality by aligning social provisions and working conditions with best practice. It’s an unprecedented initiative for a multinational that is deter-mined to achieve its commitments in record time, by the end of 2015.

The number of countries signed up to one of the flagship measures, where 75% of healthcare costs are reimbursed for the main risks, has more than doubled in two years. It’s a praise-worthy initiative, as only 39% of the world’s population has any sort of medical cover, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The programme’s originator, Jérôme Tixier, L’Oréal’s Human Resources Director, wants to go even further, encouraging L’Oréal “to become a global laboratory for social innovation”.

Some countries are already exceeding the standards. Like the United States, where fathers are granted 10 days of fully paid paternity leave, or Pakistan, where medical cover is being extended to employees’ relatives.

With L’Oréal, everyone now enjoys the same pension, healthcare, parental and working condition guarantees, whether they work in Peru, Ukraine or France.It’s ground-breaking!

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68 COUNTRIES

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In Dubai and Malaysia employees on maternity leave now have the right

to 14 weeks at full pay.

Encouraging the principle of “standing forest”, with respect for species diversity and no deforestation or toxic fertilisers.This is L’Oréal’s approach in Brazil, sourcing natural ingredients while helping smallholders to improve their lives without harming their environment.

In the state of Maranhao, in Brazil, in eastern Amazonia, rural communities who are tempted to clear the forest to grow their crops, have become aware of the benefits of protecting biodiversity. Quite simply because this wonderful nature has become a source of additional revenue for them. It all began in 2011, when L’Oréal, in search of natural ingredients, focused on the murumuru, a sacred tree whose name means “ancestor”.

The white pulp, extracted from the fruit’s nut and transformed into butter, has many benefits for hair and the skin.

THE VIRTUES OF THE MURUMURU HARVEST IN AMAZONIA

BRAZIL

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The cosmetics group, in partnership with Beraca, a Brazilian natural ingredients supplier, and GIZ, a German cooperation agency, persuaded nearly 200 families to gather the fruit from the ground, and often in the water, along the banks of the Amazon.

“We were keen to take a sustainable supply approach, so have gradually profession-alised these communities,” explains Maya Colombani, Director of Market Develop-ment for L’Oréal Brazil.

Trained and provided with ad hoc equip-ment, like a drier to optimise the quality of the harvest, or solar panels to reduce energy costs, these low-income families, working together as a cooperative, are now able to turn the nuts into butter, increasing their margin sevenfold.

And to limit the risks of single-crop depend-ency, the families have recently been encouraged to work with the pracaxi, a tree whose bean-shaped fruits, with a local reputation as a cure for snake-bite, produce an oil that is unrivalled for hair shine. In Bragança and Forodogil, around a hundred smallholders have already begun this diversification, increasing their profits.

L’Oréal, in search of natural

ingredients, focused on the murumuru, a sacred

tree whose name means “ancestor”.

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A unique course launched at a college near Bordeaux, where struggling students are given extra support to train in hairdressing and find a career.

At the Saint Joseph professional college in Blanquefort, in the Médoc region, the excitement is palpable. Finishing their first year, the cohort of the CAP professional hairdressing qualification, which opened its doors in the autumn of 2014, is getting ready to head to Paris for the annual competition organised by L’Oréal. The fifteen students, who have been working hard on the theme of music, are awaited at the prestigious Académie on the Rue Royale, to present their hairstyle ideas. They are starry-eyed, these young people from fragile social and family backgrounds, who have so often been tempted to give up on the school system.

This hairdressing CAP qualification, launched by the Apprentis d’Auteuil organisation in partnership with the L’Oréal Foundation,

HOW YOUNG PEOPLE IN DIFFICULTY CAN FIND THEIR WAY IN HAIRDRESSING

FRANCE

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At Christmas, Nathalie Fouert-Pouret hit on the idea of inviting the families of the young students and the school’s staff to have their hair styled.

It was a first customer experience that delighted the students. The experiment was repeated in the spring, this time with colouring. When you show confidence in them, these young people rise to the challenge.

two years after the one in Thiais in the Val-de-Marne department, puts them back in the saddle, offering the future of a creative career. It’s not an easy ride. “They find it harder than others to concentrate, and want instant results,” notes Nathalie Fouert-Pouret, the hairdressing teacher who lavishes 18 hours of classes on them every week. To capture their attention she works in 45, rather than 55 minute blocks, and alternates practice with theory. The training salon, financed by L’Oréal, makes this flexibility possible.

It is equipped with 16 styling stations and 5 basins for shampooing, as well as work tables and a video screen. “When they hit a difficulty, I move onto something else, or have them work in pairs.”

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This hairdressing CAP qualification, launched by the Apprentis d’Auteuil

organisation in partnership with the L’Oréal Foundation,

puts them back in the saddle, offering the future

of a creative career.

THE BODY SHOP TAKES ACTION IN NEPAL

NEPAL

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There were scenes of devastation in Kath-mandu, following the violent earthquakes of April 2015. In the town that is home to recycled paper company Get Paper Industry, with which The Body Shop estab-lished a Fair Trade partnership over 25 years ago, nearly 20,000 homes were destroyed and 7,000 people died.

In London, the brand created by Anita Roddick, which for 10 years has been part of the L’Oréal Group, was deeply affected by the fate of the employees of their card-board gift-box, paper bag and business card supplier. “We’ve watched the coop-erative grow like a family, from a handful of female workers at the outset, to 200 today and 600 at peak times,” explains Stéphane de Williencourt, director of oper-ations and research. “Faced with this trauma, we wanted to show our commitment to the present and provide guarantees for the future.”

So The Body Shop took action, from top management, which opened up a budget line, to employees and franchise stores, invited to contribute to a fund. Some of the €40,000 raised went into the provisional reconstruction of a school using materials available on site: sheet metal and bamboo.

The rest was distributed to the workers, in amounts weighted according the extent each one had suffered in the disaster, to help them rebuild their house, or a wall, or repair the roof... “It’s urgent that the people have shelter, because the monsoon is coming,” alerted Stéphane de Williencourt, who rushed to the scene.

The tents sent out in the first emergency response were sadly never occupied as they were immediately blown down by the wind.

THE BODY SHOP TAKES ACTION IN NEPAL

With close ties to its Nepalese supplier of recycled paper, Get Paper Industry, The Body Shop mounted a solidarity drive to meet the most urgent needs after the catastrophe of spring 2015.

Faced with this trauma, we wanted

to show our commitment to the present and

provide guarantees for the future.

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30 YEARS AGO IN BANGALORE... AT THE ORIGINS OF FAIR TRADE

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30 YEARS AGO IN BANGALORE... AT THE ORIGINS OF FAIR TRADE

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Teddy Exports, named for Amanda

Murphy’s son, became The Body Shop’s first

fair trade supplier.

Amanda Murphy is a determined woman. Nearly 30 years ago this Irishwoman, married to an Indian, had promised herself she would approach Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop.

It was as Roddick was leaving her car park in London that Murphy persuaded her to set up a partnership with the textile and wooden accessories workshop the Irishwoman had founded in a village in the depths of southern Bangalore.

In 1987 the set-up was basic. Five employees made clothing in mud huts.

But Amanda Murphy’s project had ethical merit, aiming to break down caste barriers by paying the same, decent salary to all, and working to provide schooling for children. Teddy Exports, named for Amanda’s son, became The Body Shop’s first fair trade supplier.

Since then the workshops have prospered. Profits re-invested in the Teddy Trust have built schools and set up a free school bus service to collect children from isolated villages. The 400 or so employees enjoy the services of a canteen and a shop selling affordably priced hygiene products, rare advantages in this part of India.

The Body Shop, which went on to extend its fair trade sourcing to 26 communities around the world, still has close links with Teddy Exports. For the launch of its Spa of the World range, the brand has just placed a major order for acacia wood massage rollers. And here, fair trade and the environment make good bedfellows.

Every tonne of wood used is replanted.

The story of a historic Indian supplier. The first example of The Body Shop’s philosophy of fair trade sourcing.In 2015, Teddy Exports had 400 employees.

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INDIA

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In China, subcontractor Servigest employees 109 workerswith disabilities. Supported by L’Oréal, this packaging company is providing integration through employment for people with disabilities in China, duplicating the model it successfully trialled in Spain.

Travelling from Spain and China, they met on a basketball court to play a match in a European wheelchair basketball compe-tition. Their captain is none other than their boss, Angel Acha Gutiérrez, head of Servigest, a packaging company based in Burgos in the north of the Iberian peninsula. This subcontractor supplies a very large L’Oréal Group shampoo plant nearby.

A supplier with a unique feature, where employees with disabilities specialise in labelling and packaging. And where their integration into working life brings the additional benefit of being able to enjoy sport.

A MODEL OF SOCIAL INCLUSION EXPORTED FROM SPAIN TO CHINA

CHINA

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In 2011, when Servigest began planning to expand into China, with the same intention of providing local people with disabilities an opportunity for social integration through employment, the company naturally turned to L’Oréal.

The Group has a plant in Suzhou, to the west of Shanghai, set up 15 years ago. Attracted by the project, which combines a quality subcontractor with a solidarity initiative, L’Oréal supported its supplier.

Its Asia-Pacific sourcing teams helped to find a plot, to build the buildings and organise production lines, as well as knocking on the right doors for recruiting workers with disabilities. Servigest then persuaded Rock Li, a star of the Chinese bar, to head up its subsidiary baptised Ruo Lin.

Disabled from birth, the lawyer became a local legend through sheer tenacity. L’Oréal, Ruo Lin’s first customer, opened up its supplier address book, encouraging the new company to diversify its customer portfolio, essential to ensure its longevity.

A supplier with a unique feature,

where employees with disabilities specialise

in labelling and packaging.

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SUSTAINABLE ECONOMICS AND THE BABAÇU

BRAZIL

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In these palm-covered lands there is a saying: “nothing is wasted from the babaçu.” Here the economy is frugal and organised around subsistence based on the tree in question, dubbed “the gift of the gods”. The trunk is used for the walls of houses and the palm-fronds for roofs. The flower shaped shells inspire crafts, the husks are used for fuel and the nuts transformed into flour and oil. The nuts, reputed to be the toughest in the world, are the women’s business.

Early in the morning, before the sun is too hot, they set out to gather them, bringing them back to be broken up with hatchets in the shade. Twenty years ago The Body Shop, the champion of fair trade, initiated a partnership with these communities, paying a fair price for the babaçu’s organic vegetable oil, which is used in some of its products.

L’Oréal, now The Body Shop’s parent company, took up the baton. “We want to help the families to live well thanks to this godsend,” explains Maya Colombani at L’Oréal Brazil, which has made babaçu oil the star ingredient of a Matrix hair mask.

This takes the form of investment in training and equipment, especially to make it easier to break the nuts. And even donations when the region has suffered flooding.

L’Oréal has just strengthened its partnership with a local agricultural cooperative, Coppalj.

One of the aims is to help it broaden its customer base, to make the activity sustainable in the long-term. ”Making it too dependent on us is a recipe for insecurity,” emphasises Maya Colombani. This sort of humility is another aspect of sustainable development.

SUSTAINABLE ECONOMICS AND THE BABAÇU

In Lago do Junco, in northern Brazil, 9 communities of 800 people make their living from a palm tree, the babaçu.Specifically from its oil, with a trade that is supported by L’Oréal.

Here the economy is frugal and organised

around subsistence based on the tree

in question, dubbed “the gift of the gods”.

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PURCHASERS FIGHTING EXCLUSION

WORLD

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People imagine purchasing to a be cold world of pitiless negotiation. L’Oréal had another vision, to make this department the fulcrum of its efforts for social inclusion, and turn its teams into committed contrib-utors. Since the launch of its worldwide “Solidarity Sourcing” programme in 2010, the Group’s buyers have been trained and made aware of an alternative approach to choosing suppliers.

“It’s not just about philanthropy,” explains Chea Lun, director of Solidarity Sourcing. “Through our suppliers, we’re aiming to build a new business relationship with disadvantaged communities, based on sustainability and fairness.

Part of the package is helping people in social difficulty to access employment.” The initiative has been extended to cover all types of exclusion: long term unem-ployment, single parents, war veterans, people with disabilities and fair trade operators... It is also aimed at small companies and members of minorities that experience discrimination, which rarely have access to big order makers.

“The idea is that the buyers make this social solidarity approach their own,” explains

Chea Lun. And the challenge is being met. By the end of 2014, some 250 projects had already enabled 27,000 people to access employment, including 25,000 beneficiaries of The Body Shop’s Fair Trade Community.

And the Group intends to encourage the spread of this approach to its suppliers. Every time they tender, they are now required to include a social solidarity element.

L’Oréal hopes to help 100,000 people into employment by 2020, and Solidarity Sourcing will play a key role in meeting that target.

Promoting social inclusion through purchasing. A challenge launched on a global scale in 2010 by the world leader in cosmetics. By 2015 this model, implemented with the support of purchasing directors in the countries, has allowed 34,800 people otherwise excluded from the job market to access work.

By the end of 2015, 208 projects have

already helped 34,800 people find

a job.09

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PACKAGING SOLIDARITY IN SOWETO


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In this disadvantaged Johannesburg suburb, half the workforce at this small packaging workshop is visually impaired. L’Oréal has been their customer since 2013, for its Dark & Lovely and Maybelline brands.

Fifteen kilometres south-west of Johan-nesburg, Soweto is one of the poorest places in South Africa. A township, as these ghettoised suburbs were known under apartheid.

Unemployment affects nearly half of the one million inhabitants. This is where a local team of L’Oréal buyers, with training on social inclusion, learned by word of mouth about the Soweto Workshop, a social integration organisation that employs workers with visual impairments. In this pack-aging workshop, half of the 80 employees live with this sort of disability. In the spring of 2013, L’Oréal signed a Solidarity Sourcing partnership with them, one of its first in the Africa & Middle-East region.

L’Oréal hopes to ensure this new supplier

will have a constant revenue and so

establish a sustainable partnership.

“We made an initial order for packaging for promotional batches of Dark & Lovely products, our afro-specific hair care range,” explained Jérôme Perlikowski, purchasing director for the region. It was a successful trial, renewed the following year with packaging for Maybelline makeup pencils. By diversifying ranges this way, L’Oréal hopes to ensure this new supplier will have a constant revenue and so establish a sustainable partnership.

“I’m struck by the cheerfulness in the workshop,” enthused Jérôme Perlikowski, who visited the site. “The ability of these mixed teams (with or without impairment) to carry out complex tasks together is combined with great flexibility to meet our needs.” It’s a state of mind that encourages us to go further. L’Oréal’s orders are already employing the equivalent of 8 people full-time, double what they were two years ago. And there is room for further development.

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SOUTH AFRICA

PACKAGING SOLIDARITY IN SOWETO

The redevelopment project for L’Oréal’s new head office employed nearly 1900 people, and the Real Estate Department opened up the site to those with difficulty accessing work. With great success.

It required relearning how to get up in the morning, to arrive on time, to follow instructions from team leaders, to work in a team. Not easy when you have been unemployed for nearly 10 years, like this man in his forties, who was recruited for demolishing part of L’Oréal’s head office in Clichy. His tenacity paid off.

At the end of the three year project, the subcontractor specialising in clearance, dismantling, removing and sorting waste, signed him up on a long-term contract. There was the same happy outcome for a young lad with no qualifications, who earned himself a permanent job with the electrical fitter. And yet there was some hesitation from construction industry contractors when L’Oréal’s real estate department first imposed the requirement in 2011, for this ambitious renovation by

SOLIDARITY AND JOBS REBUILDING THE CLICHY HEAD OFFICE

FRANCE

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A partnership was agreed with the

municipality of Clichy, through its Local Plan

for Integration and Employment (PLIE)

teams.

renowned architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte: 5% of the hours worked had to be assigned to people experiencing difficulty accessing employment.

“For this pilot project for inclusive employ-ment in real estate, we mostly played the local proximity card,” explained Rémi Lavaine, who supervised the project for L’Oréal. A partnership was agreed with the municipality of Clichy, through its Local Plan for Integration and Employment (PLIE) teams.In fact, the contractors bought into the initiative to such an extent that targets were exceeded. Inclusive employment accounted for 7.5% of hours worked, more than 21,000 hours over the duration of the project, through some 25 beneficiaries,

long-term unemployed, young people on apprenticeships or with disabilities; all without any negative impact on the project budget.

Since then the real estate department has finalised a charter requiring an element of inclusive employment in all of its projects.

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A SCHOOL FOR BEAUTY AND DIGNITY IN VIETNAM

VIETNAM

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Lan dreamed of having an education. Poverty prevented her from attending her village school in the province of Tay Ninh, one of the poorest in south Vietnam, near the Cambodian border. When her father died, the adolescent was forced to work in the sweet potato fields and coffee plantations, where the 2 dollars she earned a day were not enough to support her family.

At 16 she was sold to be a streetwalker in Cambodia. She spent two years in hell before daring to knock on the door of the Women’s Association. This NGO, a partner in the programme of free training in beauty skills launched by L’Oréal in Vietnam in 2009, changed the course of her life. Lan agreed to take 6 months of hairdressing classes.

Facing up to her educational deficiencies and fear of others, she rebuilt her self-confidence thanks to her trainers and was awarded her diploma. Lan went back to her native village to set up a mini hairdressing salon, where she clears $250 a month. Like her, 180 vulnerable young women every

year are benefiting from this L’Oréal training, provided in five schools across the country. The timetable, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. three days a week, has been designed so students can earn money at the same time from a part time job. Like Lan, they all find new opportunities in hairdressing, increasing their revenue three to eight-fold.

“Like Lan, our students feel as if they’re being reborn,” enthused Trinh Nguyen Ngoc Tuyet, head of corporate communication for L’Oréal in Vietnam. Reintegration through beauty in a country where women are severely disadvantaged in terms of edu-cation and quality of life.

A SCHOOL FOR BEAUTY AND DIGNITY IN VIETNAM

A school for beauty and dignity in Vietnam. It’s in Vietnam that “Beauty for a Better Life”, the L’Oréal Foundation’s international programme for education and training in beauty skills, was born, transforming the lives of several hundred disadvantaged young women. Extended to 20 countries, the ambition is to reach 20,000 beneficiaries by 2020.

Like Lan, 180 vulnerable young women every year are

benefiting from this L’Oréal training, provided

in five schools across the country.

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ETHICAL SOURCING OF ARGAN OIL

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ETHICAL SOURCING OF ARGAN OIL

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In Morocco, villages threatened by depopulation are coming back to life thanks to argan oil, extracted under fair trade conditions with respect for biodiversity.With the support of an action plan, the first of its kind, launched and co-financed by L’Oréal.

In the Souss region, in south western Morocco, argan pickers had never imagined such a bonanza. In less than 10 years the oil extracted from this nut, used in local cooking and Berber beauty rituals, became liquid gold for the cosmetics industry. It was back in 2006, when raw materials supplier BASF used research by scientist Zoubida Charrouf to demonstrate the oil’s numerous benefits for skin and hair, that L’Oréal took up the challenge.

The Group was determined to meet this challenge in exemplary fashion. The endemic forest of argan trees, although protected, is threatened by desertification and plagued by surrounding poverty and biopiracy.

Together they helped professionalise 6 cooperatives totalling over 300 women, united

within an Economic Interest Group (GIE) dubbed Targanine.

Signing for the first time an agreement with local NGO Yamana and BASF, L’Oréal worked hand in hand with its partners. Together they helped professionalise 6 cooperatives totalling over 300 women, united within an Economic Interest Group (GIE) dubbed Targanine. “We were able, for instance, to persuade them to find value in the entire plant, so as to increase their revenue and jointly finance equipment, training and healthcare,” narrates Rachel Barré, who steered the project for L’Oréal. The argan cake, the residue from the oil extraction, used to be discarded, but here is used for its proteins with anti-wrinkle properties, as are the tree’s leaves, which are rich in antioxidants. In these model cooperatives, where every woman partici-pates in communal decisions, priority is also given to working conditions. For the first time they have all had consultations with an ophthalmologist. “Visual acuity is essential, to aim for the exact spot for splitting the argan nut,” explains Rachel Barré. A detail that changes everything!

MOROCCO

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EMPLOYEES PROTECTED ALL OVER THE WORLD

WORLD

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What could be more precious than a new-born child? When Maria, a L’Oréal colleague in Chili, gave birth to her youngest daughter Ignacia in 2013, no accurate diagnosis could identify the serious allergy problems suffered by the new-born. The only option was highly expensive genetic tests that were not covered by the public health system nor private insurance. Maria found help from her employer.

With its new global Share & Care programme, L’Oréal promises to reimburse at least 75% of the cost of treatment for the principle risks, through additional cover. Today little Ignacia is cured. “I couldn’t imagine working for a company without this vital support,” confides the relieved young mother, who was able to return to work with complete peace of mind.

Thousands of kilometres away, in Malaysia, Shereen falls pregnant. For her last pregnancy, the company where she was working granted her 8 weeks of paid maternity leave.

With L’Oréal, where she now works, she will enjoy 14. “I will have recovered enough to be really confident about going back to work,” she enthuses. In Turkey, Midal, father of three, knows that his family’s security depends on him. He thinks about it sometimes, worrying. What if he had a health problem? And what if he died? Midal, a L’Oréal employee, feels reassured now that he knows the Share & Care programme undertakes to pay families a capital sum of at least two years of salary in case of disability or death. For each of these people, the social protection provided by their company is an essential benefit.

EMPLOYEES PROTECTED ALL OVER THE WORLD

Colleagues benefiting from L’Oréal’s Share & Care programme are more relaxed, with maximum protection in terms of health, parental leave, pension provision and quality of life at work. And they show it.

Setting the foundations of worldwide social protection in every

country where L’Oréal works.

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In the savannah surrounding the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in south west Burkina Faso, gathering shea nuts, whose butter is used in making cosmetics, is the main source of income for women.

But this seasonal manna is becoming ever scarcer with forest desertification, and attempts to cultivate the shea tree have not succeeded. How best to optimise the sector sustainably, and protect this lone revenue generator? L’Oréal is involved in the challenge, alongside its supplier, the Shea Olvea group.

To counter the vagaries of lone working, where each woman gathers and stores her nuts to sell as she needs, Olvea sources from rural organisations where purchasing is pooled.

Prepayment contracts for harvests, as well as quality bonuses, guarantee and improve the women’s income.

BRINGING FAIR TRADE TO SHEA BUTTER

62 COUNTRIES

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Trained in the best way to collect, sort, and above all store the harvest, today there are over 30,000 village women capable of meeting the quality requirements for the nuts, crucial for the process of extracting the shea butter.

“We are working with them to come up with new avenues of activity,” adds Rachel Barré, sustainable sourcing expert with L’Oréal.

Already in operation is the recycling of the “cake”, the residue left after butter extraction, which could offer an alternative fuel source, limiting firewood consumption and reducing the felling of these incredibly precious trees.

There are now 30,000 village women able to meet quality

standards for the nuts.

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In north-west India a solidarity sourcing initiative has just been launched to help the farmers who play a key role in cultivating guar to break free of their difficult working conditions and provided a sustainable source of income.

In these arid lands of western Rajasthan, thousands of smallholders cultivate guar, the bean known for its resistance to drought whose gum, a polysaccharide, is used as a gelling agent in foods and an emulsifier in hair products.

Eighty percent of the world’s guar production is in India, mostly grown in this region. The wealth it brings is entirely relative and very vulnerable to the fluctuations of a volatile market. When prices fall, these farmers’ smallholdings are barely able to ensure their subsistence. In partnership with its supplier Solvay, and supported by NGO TechnoServe, L’Oréal plans to help 1,500 farming families working 5,000 hec-tares in the Bikaner region, with the aim of building expertise and in the long term increasing yield, strengthening market conditions and stabilising production.

REACHING OUT TO THE GUAR FARMERS

INDIA

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L’Oréal plans to help 1,500 farming

families working 5,000 hectares in

the Bikaner region…

Having perfected its approach to solidarity sourcing for natural raw materials, like argan in Morocco and murumuru in Brazil, the cosmetics Group is extending its model into agriculture for the first time.

“We train the farming families in agricul-tural techniques that don’t need irrigation and respect the environment, but which will increase quality, yield, and their income,” explains Rachel Barré, who leads the programme for the Innovation Team from L’Oréal’s Research & Innovation division.

In parallel, through an awareness drive for the wives of the smallholders, the project aims to develop activities to generate addi-tional income, while improving household food supply and nutrition, by creating vegetable gardens.

Immeasurable help in a region that is one of the poorest in India.

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Since its launch by Jean-Paul Agon,

CEO of L’Oréal, seven years ago,

Citizen Day just keeps making converts.

WORLDWIDE COMMITMENT TO L’ORÉAL’S SOLIDARITY DAY

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WORLDWIDE COMMITMENT TO L’ORÉAL’S SOLIDARITY DAY

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They share a slogan, “I feel good to do good”, launched by L’Oréal to encourage its colleagues to take part in Citizen Day, all over the world.And these volunteer employees are so enthusiastic about their efforts, they attract more.

They wanted to share their experiences of a day that is truly extraordinary, a day dedicated to other people. From one end of the planet to the other, L’Oréal’s employees took to the Group’s Twitter feed to publish their photos and comments. There’s the snapshot from Melbourne, Australia, where volunteer executives served free meals at the community-oriented Hamadova Cafe. There’s the achievement posted from the US: 18 tonnes of food packed up for those in greatest need. And in every message, the same pride. Since its launch by Jean-Paul Agon, CEO of L’Oréal, seven years ago, Citizen Day just keeps making converts. Last year partici-pation grew by 20%. 25,000 colleagues from 62 countries took part to help 32,000 beneficiaries.

On the agenda, a variety of initiatives targeting five areas: vulnerability, disability, employment, the environment and inter-generation solidarity. In 2015, employees in France could choose from 186 projects! Colleagues from the Paris region were the first to work on a new anti-wastage initiative on behalf of food association “Une chorba pour tous” (A bowl of soup for everyone).

Some 250 participants dedicated their day to making 2,500 meals from unsold fruit and vegetables. They were given out that same evening in Paris, at the Porte de Bagnolet. This year it was China that started the party in the Citizen Day calendar. On 15 May some 1,000 volunteers from all of the country’s subsidiaries, including the plants in Suzhou and Yichang, rolled up their sleeves.

In Shanghai some went to brighten up primary school classes in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Others visited seniors, offering massages, haircuts and games of chess.

An uplifting day for everyone.

62 COUNTRIES

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HELPING PEOPLE INTO WORK AT THE CHEVILLY-LARUE LABORATORIES

FRANCE

38


When she first began washing the lab technicians’ equipment, she didn’t dare put on the protective gloves, in case she wore them out. It’s not easy, and can be intimidating, to go back to work after so long away.

Like her, around twenty other hopefuls - long-term unemployed, former convicts and political refugees - are getting back in the saddle at L’Oréal’s research centre in Chevilly-Larue in the Val-de-Marne department.

This reintegration programme started in 2010, when an internal promotion scheme for the lab technicians led to the need to subcontract their former task of cleaning equipment. Didier Bouche, site director, opened up the tender to ARES, an association specialising in helping people with difficulty accessing employment.

“We were ready to take the risk, on the condition of building a long term partner-ship.” To provide structure for the system, all procedures were adjusted and rede-fined down to the last detail. Instructions in storage areas, for instance, are displayed in pictures, which are easier to under-stand for those with limited literacy skills.

Rotation is factored in, to deal with absences for training and literacy classes, and with the duration of the contracts, which average 14 months. “We have to be sure, every morning, that the lab technicians have clean equipment, without which they simply can’t work,” explains Didier Bouche.

Despite some early nerves, the group has blended into the 7 hectare landscape of the site, mingling with 900 other employees. Just like the staff of any other subcontractor. Except that this a social enterprise, with added soul.

HELPING PEOPLE INTO WORK AT THE CHEVILLY-LARUE LABORATORIES

L’Oréal’s research centre plays host to a cycle of job-seekers on integration contracts.It’s an excellent springboard for getting back into work.

Despite some early nerves, the group has

blended into the 7 hectare landscape of the site,

mingling with 900 other employees.

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A NEW FUTURE FOR DISADVANTAGED YOUNG WOMEN IN CHINA

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A NEW FUTURE FOR DISADVANTAGED YOUNG WOMEN IN CHINA

40

19

And so Xu was directed to one the four

free beauty schools founded by L’Oréal

in China since 2013.

Since launching in China in 2013, the L’Oréal Foundation’s Beauty for a Better Life programme has trained around 200 disadvantaged young women every year in the hairdressing and makeup trade.For these girls from remote rural areas it’s often a fairy tale come true.

Her leg hurts, she misses her family and she struggles with the theory classes, having left school very early. But Xu digs deep and earns her diploma with flying colours. Teaming up with another girl from her training course, she plans to open a make-up studio. She hopes to attract future brides, valuable clients in this country where the business of dressing to the nines to be photographed before the ceremony is all the rage. Xu is so motivated she has just been accepted for further training in management. “My life has changed with Beauty for a Better Life,” she enthuses, when before she did not dare believe in a new future.

“In Qianxi I’ve found friendship with the other students, I improved my self-confidence thanks to the diploma; I’ve found my path, and it’s beauty.”

At 21, Xu Ruiheng could see no other future than the rough building sites where she had been a wall painter for three years already. When she broke her leg, the young woman, from a poor family from a rural province of China, lost her meagre livelihood in one blow. Seeking help, she turned to the local outpost of the Rural Women Foundation. There she spoke for the first time of her dream of working in the beauty industry.

And so Xu was directed to one of the four free beauty schools founded by L’Oréal in China since 2013. To join the programme she had no hesitation in migrating thou-sands of kilometres from her home, to Qianxi in the south of the country.

CHINA

41

QUINOA BRAN FROM BOLIVIA, A WASTE PRODUCT WITH VALUE

42


QUINOA BRAN FROM BOLIVIA, A WASTE PRODUCT WITH VALUE

42

The cereal quinoa, a food sector product, has a new sustainable outlet in cosmetics.From the grain husk, which until recently provided no value, L’Oréal will extract a gentle exfoliant*, for use in skincare products.

A partnership agreement was signed in 2015 with two suppliers, Ecoterra, which imports the quinoa to Europe, and Andean Valley, which sources from the producers and trains them with support from the Proinpa Foundation (the Bolivian agricultural research institute). On the shores of Lake Salar in the Uyuni region near Potosi, in south west Bolivia, nearly 250 farmers will be trained and made aware of organic farming techniques. The extraction process perfected by Chimex, the L’Oréal subsidiary for industrial processes, will reduce the eco-footprint of this ingredient by 42%, acting on CO2 emissions, waste volumes and water consumption.

The programme will also contribute to the struggle against soil erosion, by planting local species of leguminous, shrub or herbaceous vegetation.

A breath of fresh air for quinoa.

They call it the grain of the Incas. Quinoa has been cultivated for 7,000 years on the high plateaus of the Andes, and is now all the rage in our kitchens. To the extent that in Bolivia, the world’s leading exporter, production has intensified and is threat-ening the ecosystem. After 8 years of development, L’Oréal’s Research division, in search of sustainable raw materials, is in a position to create value from an unused residue. Their teams have detected the exfoliating properties of quinoa bran, which will very soon be used in a gentle skin peeling treatment. In keeping with is solidarity sourcing initiative, L’Oréal has orchestrated a sustainable production project to support the development of Bolivia’s “quinoa real” organic sector.

20

BOLIVIA

In south west Bolivia, nearly 250 farmers

will be trained and made aware of organic farming

techniques.

*Exfoliant: used to eliminate dead cells in the epidermis.

43

In partnership with SOS Children’s Villages, L’Oréal is providing a free diploma course in hairdressing in Beirut, with beauty to follow. Six months’ apprenticeship to change a life.

She thinks of them as her children. At least once a week in Beirut, Samira Franjieh, L’Oréal’s head of communication for the Levant (Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine) visits the Academy close to her office where a handful of young people, boys and girls, are being trained in hair-dressing. Each one is eager to offer her a blow-dry or hair-colouring. She strongly encourages the office staff to get their hair done there. Meanwhile, the educator from the Matrix brand is fully committed to the technical training programme.

These young people, orphaned or from families in extreme difficulty, all of them looked after by SOS Children’s Villages, were hand-picked to take part in this free, six month apprenticeship, beginning in spring 2014.

HAIRDRESSING, A CAREER WITH A FUTURE FOR YOUNG LEBANESE

LEBANON

44


Based on the L’Oréal Foundation’s Beauty for a Better Life model, the training here is on a selection basis, to avoid drop-outs and ensure that each young person is fully supported. “They come from painful backgrounds and have often dropped out of school; they need to be looked after,” asserts Samira.

The partner hair salons play their role to the hilt. Among the fifteen graduates of the first cohort, 75% have been employed, and the rest have found internships. “They’re proud to send me pictures of the customers they’ve styled,” she laughs.

In the Lebanon, the homeland of sophisti-cation, hairstyling has so much prestige that these students will have no trouble taking their skills to neighbouring coun-tries. As the third session got under way in September 2015, L’Oréal was planning to introduce training in the beauty trade. “On the condition that we can, as with hairdressing, give full support to each student,” specifies Samira, for whom com-mitment is the key to success.

The best sort of mother!

HAIRDRESSING, A CAREER WITH A FUTURE FOR YOUNG LEBANESE

21

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In the Lebanon, the homeland of

sophistication, hairstyling has so much prestige that these students will have no trouble taking their skills to neighbouring

countries.

BEAUTY AND FEMALE EMANCIPATION IN INDIA

INDIA

46


It’s a sad fact. In 2011, according to the most recent Gender Diversity Benchmark study, India had the lowest rate of women in work in the world. In this very conserva-tive country, education remains a male privilege. Girls have no other vocation than to marry young and keep house. What happens to them when like Preeti, abandoned in her village by her husband after 8 years, they have to survive on their own? It was their vulnerability that led L’Oréal to launch its Beauty for a Better Life training programme in India as early as 2009.

By good fortune, the beauty trades, like fashion, are the exception here. It’s accept-able for women to make a career of them. Further good fortune, the hair care and makeup market is booming, growing 20% annually. The several thousand students trained each year at the 12 hair and make-up schools created by the L’Oréal Foun-dation, in partnership with the Labournet NGO, soon find opportunities. Some set up at home. Others create their own Beauty Parlours, tiny popular establishments that throng every street corner.

Others find positions in the high status salons of the big cities. Preeti, for her part, started out as a free-lance specialising in makeup for young brides. She has since become a trainer at the academy in Pune, south east of Mumbai, one of the L’Oréal schools of which she is a graduate.

She is so proud of being able to pay the rent on her apartment and look after herself!

BEAUTY AND FEMALE EMANCIPATION IN INDIA

Deprived of an education, excluded from the jobs market, women in India have an insecure status.In a country where the beauty industry is booming, free training courses in hairdressing and makeup are a chance for independence.

By good fortune, the beauty trades, like fashion, are

the exception here.It’s acceptable

for women to make a career of them.

22

46 47

Since its foundation, L’Oréal has placed people at the core of its strategy, combining economic performance with social responsibility. The world leader in beauty’s ambition to become a global laboratory for social innovation is the next phase of this long tradition.

There are visionary leaders, and Eugène Schueller was one of them. When he founded L’Oréal at the start of the 20th Century, in a society dominated by produc-tivism, this chemical engineer advocated the value of people, often hammering home his conviction: “A company is not walls and machines, but people, people, people.” He is the inventor of the famous Schueller month, the additional month of maternity leave. In his footsteps, each director of L’Oréal has been determined to pursue a policy of social commitment.

From François Dalle, who in 1968 intro-duced the concept of profit sharing for all and campaigned for improved working conditions, to Jean-Paul Agon, the architect of the Group’s worldwide social perfor-mance drive. For L’Oréal, it is very clear,

SOCIAL PROGRESS IN L’ORÉAL’S GENES

WORLD

48


SOCIAL PROGRESS IN L’ORÉAL’S GENES

23

“A company is not walls and machines, but people, people,

people.”

a company can no longer think of its success and survival solely in terms of financial performance.

Which is why the Group led by Jean-Paul Agon is continuing to perfect its social project by focusing on two priorities.

48 49

The first is a drive for collective progress, aiming to give every colleague access to the best corporate welfare practice all over the world, through the Share & Care programme, while also providing training to 100% of employees.

The second is to help more than 100,000 people from communities suffering social or financial difficulty to obtain work by 2020, so that in the long-term as many people are helped outside the company as colleagues within L’Oréal. With this conviction set in stone: more than ever, the company must drive both economic and social progress.

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L’Oréal committed,Driving social progress

All of these initiatives developed all over the world form part of the commitment made through Sharing Beauty with All, L’Oréal’s sustainable development programme.

This collection of reports has been gathered to illustrate L’Oréal’s actions for social progress, for the Group’s participation in the Monde Festival 2015. They can also be found on the LeMonde.fr website http://www.lemonde.fr/festival/partenaires/l-entreprise-acteur- de-progres-social.html

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Publication Director: Stéphanie Carson Parker

Design: Anne-Laure Richard - Editor: Christine HalaryProduction: - 7176 - June 2016.

Image credits: page 1: ©Yanney Daniel - page 4: ©L’Oréal - page 6: ©L’Oréal - page 9: ©L’Oréal - page 11: ©L’Oréal - page 12: ©The Body Shop / DR - page 14: ©L’Oréal - page 17: ©L’Oréal - page 18: ©L’Oréal - page 20: ©L’Oréal - page 22: ©L’Oréal - page 25: ©L’Oréal - page 26: ©L’Oréal - page 28: ©L’Oréal - page 30: ©L’Oréal - page 33: ©L’Oréal - page 35: ©L’Oréal - page 36: ©L’Oréal - page 38: ©L’Oréal - page 40: ©L’Oréal - page 42: ©L’Oréal - page 45: ©L’Oréal - page 46: ©AvBergerem et JJ Schonjans, L’Oréal R&I - page 49: ©Julien Millet.

L’ORÉAL EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION

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Notes

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L’Oréal committed, Driving social progress · L’Oréal committed, Driving social progress. ... begun this diversification, increasing their profits. L’Oréal, in search of