October 19, 2020. The collective Pour un réveil écologique publishes the results of a survey on the ecological commitments of four major French luxury and cosmetics groups: L'Oréal, LVMH, Kering and Rocher.

At a time when more and more students and young graduates want to work for an employer whose activities are ecologically useful, the collective Pour un réveil écologique publishes the results of a survey on the environmental policies implemented by the major French luxury and cosmetics groups. Their actions are evaluated in view of the seriousness of climate change, the collapse of biodiversity, the scarcity of resources and the increase in pollution, which urgently require profound transformations of our society.

Four main lessons emerge from a review of the environmental strategies of the L'Oréal, LVMH, Kering and Rocher groups:

• While it is essential to reduce the ecological impact of companies independently of any economic considerations in order to preserve our environment, these major groups only carry out transformations when it is in their financial interest to do so. Among the companies studied, none of them have yet managed to question the social utility of their products before even trying to reduce their impacts.
• Certain groups stand out in the development of innovative and interesting impact assessment tools: Kering's Environmental Profit & Loss and L'Oréal's Sustainable Product Optimization Tool. However, their scope is limited: for example, these companies are simultaneously increasing the use of air transport for freight, which greatly increases greenhouse gas emissions. They prefer low-cost but inefficient carbon offsetting rather than transforming their models and adopting sobriety measures.
• The companies surveyed do not make enough effort to train their employees and managers on environmental issues, a step that is nonetheless essential if significant transformations are to be carried out.
• Yet, in a society that must change its behavior and production methods to avoid ecological disasters, the luxury and cosmetics sector has several assets: regional craftsmanship, the use of responsible raw materials and a high reparability of products. The sector also has an unparalleled power of influence through its communication and marketing. It is up to the management of these companies to use these strong levers in favor of a real ecological bifurcation.

To carry out this survey, the collective Pour un réveil écologique sent a questionnaire to a hundred major French groups to take stock of the ecological policies in place and compare them sector by sector. It was based on public documents (reference documents, CSR reports and others) and exchanges with professionals in the sector. In the luxury and cosmetics sector, L'Oréal, LVMH, Kering and Rocher were transparent and provided detailed answers to our questions. The group deplores the fact that some of their competitors, such as Cartier or Chanel, preferred not to respond, thus demonstrating a lack of transparency that can only make us doubt their environmental ambitions.

Consult the note "Are the major luxury and cosmetics groups up to the ecological emergency?".

Media contact: Collectif Pour un réveil écologique - contact@pour-un-reveil-ecologique.fr

ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE FOR AN ECOLOGICAL AWAKENING

The collective Pour un réveil écologique is at the origin of the eponymous Manifesto, launched in September 2018 by students from grandes écoles (Ecole Polytechnique, HEC Paris, AgroParisTech, ENS Ulm, Sciences Po, CentraleSupélec) and signed by more than 30,000 students from over 400 higher education institutions.

They provide students and young graduates with tools for :

• work for employers whose environmental strategy is equal to the ecological emergency
• transforming higher education by putting the ecological transition at the heart of training.

More information onpour-un-reveil-ecologique.org