L'Oréal Hong Kong scoops prestigious HKAEE Award

Recognized as a sustainability leader in 'Green Office' and 'Green Retail'

HONG KONG, March 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- L'Oréal Hong Kong has been named the Bronze Award winner of the Shops and Retailers Sector at the 2021 Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence (HKAEE), a prestigious annual environmental award led by the Environmental Campaign Committee alongside the Environmental Protection Department and major chambers of commerce in Hong Kong. The Company was commended for its excellent performance on environmental management across "Green Office" and "Green Retail," which are the Company's local programs in support of the L'Oréal Group's global sustainability commitment "L'Oréal for the Future."

"The award profoundly illustrate how we continue to be the driving force for sustainability and fostering business operation focused on a strong sense of purpose," Eva Yu, President and Managing Director of L'Oréal Hong Kong, said. "As we celebrate L'Oréal Hong Kong's 40^th anniversary, it is essential that we continue to work towards an increasingly sustainable business model and collaborate with more business partners to help solve the challenges facing the community where we operate."

L'Oréal Hong Kong makes strides in its sustainability mission

Launched in 2020, "L'Oréal for the Future" marks a new phase of the Company's sustainability journey to build on its accomplishments but also to strive to make significant leaps forward.

In Hong Kong, the Company echoes United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals to implement green initiatives in the office. The L'Oréal Hong Kong office has been using 100% green electricity since 2020, enabling the Company to achieve carbon neutrality as part of the L'Oréal Group's North Asia Zone. The Company's annual Sustainability Week plays a key role in promoting environmental awareness among colleagues. Through learning and practices, employees are encouraged to go green with a wide range of sustainability initiatives carried out in the office, such as recycling and waste reduction.

To mitigate the impact on the environment during day-to-day operations, L'Oréal Hong Kong has been taking important steps to drive green retail best practices by reducing carbon emissions and plastic usage in its retail stores. Besides all new stores being 100% eco-designed, all plastic fillings, tape and wrappings used in local delivery to stores and direct-to-consumer deliveries have been replaced by non-plastic eco materials or paper. L'Oréal's LUXE brand, Valentino Beauty, for example, is one of the best practices that embrace a variety of green elements into its products such as eco-friendly wrapping, refillable product design, and leveraging QR codes to provide customers instant, full transparency about products' composition, safety, and social and environmental impacts. The sustainable philosophy also applies to retail shop design by incorporating removable terrazzo walls and buildable modules for product display.

As a leader in the beauty industry, L'Oréal Hong Kong collaborates with partners along the value chain to drive sustainability and take action with consumers to preserve the environment together. In 2021, The Company's citywide cross-brand recycling programme allowed customers to recycle used plastic containers with a dozen beauty brands. Last year, the Company partnered with Watsons and recycling social enterprise V Cycle to expand the "Beauty for the Future" program, enabling local beauty consumers to recycle their empty cosmetics and skincare containers at around 170 Watsons stores.

Thanks to its commitment and progress made in sustainability, L'Oréal Hong Kong earned remarkable recognition from a range of local sustainability awards, including the Sustainable Business Award 2021, Hong Kong Sustainability Award 2022, The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Achievement Awards 2022 Hong Kong (Bronze Organization Award and Merit Project Award), and Hong Kong Green Shop Alliance 2021.

About L'Oréal

For over 100 years, L'Oréal the world's leading beauty player, has devoted itself to one thing only: fulfilling the beauty aspirations of consumers around the world.  Our purpose - to create the beauty that moves the world - defines our approach to beauty as inclusive, ethical, generous and committed to social and environmental sustainability.  With our broad portfolio of 35 international brands and ambitious sustainability commitments in our L'Oréal For The Future programme, we offer each and every person around the world the best in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility, while celebrating beauty in its infinite plurality.

With 85 400 committed employees, a balanced geographical footprint and sales across all distribution networks (e-commerce, mass market, department stores, pharmacies, hair salons, branded and travel retail) in 2021 the Group generated sales amounting to 32.28 billion euros.  With 20 research centers across 11 countries around the world, a dedicated Research and Innovation team of 4 000 scientists and over 3,000 tech professionals, L'Oréal is focused on inventing the future of beauty and becoming a Beauty Tech powerhouse.

L'Oréal Hong Kong was established in 1983 as a subsidiary of the L'Oréal Group, and it offers around 20 brands to local customers. L'Oréal Hong Kong has been active in giving back to the local community and recognized as a "Caring Company" since 2003. More information: https://www.loreal.com/en/hong-kong-sar/ 

About L'Oréal for the Future

L'Oréal's second sustainability programme, L'Oréal for the Future, was launched in June 2020. Building on tangible results, the Group is committing to operate within the limits of the planet and to adapt to what it can withstand, as defined by environmental science. L'Oréal is implementing a new internal transformation program, with quantifiable objectives, to limit the impact of all its activities on climate, water, biodiversity and natural resources. These new targets will not only focus on the Group's direct impact but also tackle its extended impact, related to the activity of its suppliers and the use of products by its consumers.

On climate, L'Oréal's overarching 2030 objective is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions of all scopes by 50% per finished product. As a member of the 'Business Ambition for 1.5°C' initiative, the Group has also committed to net zero emissions by 2050. By 2025, all its sites will have achieved carbon neutrality. Among other strategic commitments, L'Oréal has also committed to recycling and reusing in a loop 100% of the water used in its industrial processes by 2030, and 100% of biobased ingredients for formulas and materials for packaging will be traceable and will come from sustainable sources by the end of the decade, none will be linked to deforestation.

To address some of the most pressing environmental and social challenges facing the world, L'Oréal is also allocating 100 million euros to impact investing dedicated to the regeneration of nature and the development of the circular economy, and 50 million euros to a charitable endowment fund to support highly vulnerable women.

Find out more about L'Oréal for the Future:
www.loreal.com/en/commitments-and-responsibilities/for-the-planet/