L’Oréal has launched its first-ever Sustainability Innovation Accelerator - and it's promising to shake up the beauty industry

In exciting industry news, L’Oréal Groupe has launched it's first ever Sustainable Innovation Accelerator.

With an investment pool of €100 million over five years, the aim of the accelerator is simple: to address the critical solution and innovation gaps within the industry and accelerate the delivery of L’Oréal’s sustainability ambitions.

The world's leading beauty company is currently calling for applications for the program, with the hopes of funding industry-changing innovations that'll shape the sustainability of the future.

The programme will be particularly focused on low-carbon and climate-smart solutions, water-resilience solutions, nature-based solutions, alternative ingredients and materials, eliminating fossil plastic use and plastic waste, circularity and resources management, and sustainable and inclusive business models.

In partnership with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), the brand's aim is to scout, identify, pilot, and scale disruptive solutions within the beauty industry. And they'll use CISL’s extensive network of over 40,000 people, driving impact and deep expertise in sustainable business development, to do just that, utilising their wealth of knowledge and unique skillset to provide support to the selected applicants.

Paving the way to a more sustainable future

Speaking exclusively to Marie Claire UK, Ezgi Barcenas, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer of the L'Oréal Groupe, called the accelerator programme an ecosystem to pave the way for a more sustainable future, with the hopes of playing "a big role in identifying the new solutions out there."

She goes on: "The question for me is, how can we be really, really intentional and focused on our challenges and look for, identify and be more inclusive in the partners that we select?".

"I'm an engineer by training. I like to think of sustainability as the ultimate brief for design. At L'Oreal, we have organised our sustainability ambitions across four pillars - climate, nature, circularity, and communities. Underneath all of those, there are goals and public commitments towards 2030. While we've established our road maps towards them, we still know we have to tap into the collective wisdom and identify where the solutions are. I believe innovation is out there - it may just be a matter of, how can we put it to a different use, or how we bring in those nonlinear learnings from one industry to another?"

"Ultimately, we're looking to inform the entrepreneurs, the technology developers, the SME's, about the needs of a big company like L'Oreal. We can lead, we can send the demand signal, and then we can test pilot and set the industry standard. We're really excited about the intentionality and the transparency, and to tap into those networks worldwide."

Problem solving and bringing sustainable, desirable solutions to market

Speaking of her recent appointment - she was announced as Chief Executive Officer of Fondation L’Oréal in January and holds this position alongside her prior Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer role - and her key hopes and goals for the role, Barcenas shares: "I feel incredibly humbled and privileged to be working alongside such fantastic leaders in an incredible industry, and to be tackling the same shared challenges, every day."

"It's all driven from the values and convictions that we have - we're looking to problem solve, to bring sustainable, desirable solutions to market, and to help serve diverse consumers and communities worldwide. That's our pursuit of excellence, and you see that at L'Oreal - the pursuit of excellence and the pursuit of innovation."

"This is where we are at the moment - how can we lean in even more to be more intentional, more inclusive in the way we're looking for solutions? And in the way we're bringing them to life? And in the way we're identifying new ways of working, and to fund and finance the scaling of those solutions, as well?"

The move comes as part of L’Oréal’s longer-term sustainability strategy, L’Oréal for the Future. The brand has punchy targets for 2030, including a 57% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, a 28% reduction in certain Scope 3 emissions, and a commitment to cut virgin plastic use by 50%.

For more information on the Sustainability Innovation Accelerator, head to the University of Cambridge website.