But how do you teach sustainability to your French students via very concrete, real-world examples?
I was lucky to make contact with Laura Barroso, Sustainability Manager at L’Oréal Australia & New Zealand.
In a very detailed and passionate presentation about the environmental practices followed by L’Oréal, she showed my students that you can follow your passion for nature and for cosmetics at the same time.
Laura’s biggest message was encapsulated in her answer to one of my students’ questions: quelle est la devise qui a guidé votre carrière?
‘Faire ce qu’on considère être juste’ (do what you consider to be right), replied Laura.
For Laura it all started when she realised the importance of the environment while completing her studies in Vancouver, among the forests and pristine Canadian wilderness.
While she discovered this ‘qualité de vie’, she realised that she also wanted to work in the beauty industry.
She chose a company that aligned with her vision for the planet. And this is why Laura is thriving with L’Oréal group, a French company established in 1909 with 37 brands and which employs 1800 people across Australia and New Zealand.
Laura Barroso shared her passion for the environment and sustainability with my students.
I thought that highlighting the example of L’Oréal would resonate with my students on a number of levels.
Firstly, L’Oréal has always been ‘à l’avant-garde’ in the field of sustainability.
In 2012, the company already understood that our environment was going to be a priority for the future generations and decided to focus on it, even when it wasn’t a priority for other companies at that time.
In fact, sustainability only became crucial for companies between 2018 and 2020.
My students were very keen to understand what kind of concrete actions the group takes in Australia and New Zealand on this front, so Laura gave three examples.
First, L'Oréal's commitment to biodiversity is exemplified by its collaboration with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. Through this partnership, L'Oréal actively funds vital research to enhance the resilience of coral reefs against the escalating impacts of climate change.
This way, L'Oréal contributes to coral reef regeneration via the L'Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration, supporting the world's largest living structure, which is a vibrant ecosystem home to 10 per cent of the planet's fish species, 30 species of whales and dolphins, and over 600 types of hard and soft corals.
Furthermore, L'Oréal is dedicated to fostering strong relationships with local communities and supports the regeneration of Aboriginal community lands.
Since 2023, the group has forged a significant three-year partnership with the 'Esperance Tjaltiraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation' on the impactful 'Rejuvenation trees: Healing Country Together' project.
This initiative, benefiting the Traditional Owners of Kepa Kurl, the Wudjari people, involves L'Oréal group's financial support for land and biodiversity restoration, commencing with the planting of an initial 65,000 trees in Kardutiaanup, a degraded cropping property spanning almost 4,000 hectares in Western Australia.
Finally, In New Zealand, L'Oréal extends its support to the association Shine, dedicated to creating safer homes and providing assistance to individuals experiencing family violence.
My students started to understand the four big pillars of the cosmetics group: steward the climate transition, safeguard nature, drive circularity and support communities.
Reuse, recycle, refill
‘Mais quel est le défi principal?’ asked one of my students
‘Le défi principal c’est l’eau’, said Laura.
‘We need water in all our products for moisturisers, shampoos, creams…and we know that the water pollutes the land, so we constantly review the formulas to create more eco-friendly products.”
The group also tries to have the least impact on the soil by reducing the volume of packaging, recycling plastic materials then refill as L’Oréal is part of the refill movement. Customers reportedly love it.
Things started to click in my students’ minds. Sometimes, little actions can be powerful, and you can do your part as a company and as a customer.
L’Oréal was also the first company to stop the testing on animals in 1989. Others followed suit.
Since 1979, L'Oréal has been reconstructing human skin models in laboratories to develop in vitro safety tests as an alternative to animal testing. Researchers have been able to create fake hair and fake skins with skin technology, which avoids animal testing.
As Laura emphasised, ‘L’Oreal est une entreprise avec un ADN de chercheurs’
‘En quoi consiste votre travail?’ asked one of my students.
‘The heart of my work is to create projects, to think in teams, to take a step back to reflect, to have annual objectives and to improve the strategic vision,’ replied Laura.
Finally, L’Oréal has launched the Eco beauty score or ‘le scoring environnemental’, inspired by the information provided on food packaging.
Some cosmetic groups have already implemented on cosmetic products in Europe.
This system should be implemented in Australia in the following years.
My students clearly understood that while any company can’t be perfect, you always can try to be better every day.
Parce que la nature le vaut bien.
