A NEW TOOL TO ASSESS THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND

SOCIAL IMPACT OF OUR PRODUCTS

By 2020, L’Oréal will make information regarding the
environmental and social footprint of every product available
to consumers, in order to help them make informed,
sustainable consumption choices.

04/2016 • Updated 02/04/2019

SPOT : A UNIQUE EVALUATION TOOL

The production, sale and use of a cosmetic product generates an environmental impact
throughout its life cycle and affects also a number of stakeholders throughout the value chain:
communities, suppliers, employees and consumers.

To measure these impacts, improve the footprint of all products and share this information with
consumers in a transparent manner, L’Oréal’s Sustainability, Packaging and Research teams
worked, from 2014 to 2016, to develop an innovative tool that assesses the social and
environmental performance of products. This tool is the first in the industry to take into account
social criteria, in addition to environmental criteria. In 2017, the Group implemented the tool,
known as the Sustainable Product Optimisation Tool (SPOT), across all its brands.
 A MEANS OF IMPROVING PRODUCTS’ SOCIAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL PROFILE
In 2017, all the teams working on product design undertook were trained on SPOT. The tool is
now completely integrated in the design and launch process for new products and allows to:

 simulate diverse design options (ingredients, packaging, sourcing, etc.) in order to assess their impact on the environment
and society, and ultimately identify potential avenues for improvement;
 quantify the impact reduction across every aspect of the product and follow progress on four areas of improvement:
packaging, the footprint of the formula, the proportion of renew able ingredients sourced sustainably or derived from green
chemistry, and the social benefit of the product.

100% of the products created or renovated in 2018, representing more than 2,195 products
were assessed using SPOT.

In April 2018, SPOT was honored by the 2018 World Changing Ideas Awards. This annual
award program organized by the US magazine Fast Company focuses on social good and
fosters initiatives that could contribute to more sustainable lifestyles.

THE NEXT STAGE: INFORMING CONSUMERS

L’Oréal’s teams are now working to make SPOT product assessments accessible, through a
social and environmental display system that is relevant for consumers and in line with
European recommendations on the subject. All of the Group’s brands will adopt this social and
environmental display mechanism.

A ROBUST METHODOLOGY, CO-CREATED WITH EXPERTS

To create the tool, L’Oréal convened a panel of 12 international experts, who contributed to
developing the methodology – in line with European Product Environmental Footprint standards)
– in order to ensure that the final methodology would lead to a relevant and robust assessment
of impacts.

For the social element, L’Oréal worked with a panel of nine renowned experts in social life cycle
analysis to establish the first methodology to calculate the social impact of cosmetics. SPOT
therefore makes it possible to measure, in addition to their environmental impact, the potential
social impact that the Group’s products may have on its stakeholders (our suppliers, L’Oréal’s
employees and the communities with which we interact).

As for the environmental side, the SPOT tool integrates lifecycle analysis methodologies as well
as the concept of “planetary boundaries” developed by Professor Johan Rockström’s team a t
the Stockholm Resilience Centre. These were used within SPOT to consider the diverse
environmental impacts of a product in terms of the environmental challenges facing the world.