In an effort to reduce the environmental impacts of its beauty product packaging, L’Oréal USA, the subsidiary of the world’s largest beauty company, has introduced two important new assessment tools into the package design process.
Recognizing that packaging contributes significant environmental impacts within the overall lifecycle of a personal care product, the company is determined to make meaningful improvements in its packaging design and adhere to a packaging policy based on the principles of Respect, Reduce and Replace.
L’Oréal’s Sustainable Packaging Scorecard (SPS) is a new proprietary assessment tool that the company developed and piloted last year. The purpose of the SPS is to evaluate the environmental sustainability of the company’s product packaging and to have each new product assessed using seven criteria including: the use of bio-plastics, use of recycled materials, PVC-free, use of certified paperboard, packaging volume relative to the fill weight and primary packaging size, use of light-weighting techniques and the use of the new eco-conception tool called PIQET (Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool).
Upon completion of the packaging assessment each product is rated on a point scale with a corresponding color code from green to yellow to red. The system will not only be used to create more sustainable packaging but also to track improvements over time.
Available by subscription through the Sustainable Packaging Alliance, PIQET is an online tool that identifies and reviews actions to reduce the environmental impact of packaging, particularly at the design development stage. PIQET enables packaging specifications, manufacturing and distribution data to be quickly entered and assessed. Users of PIQET are able to explore improvement options by quickly re-running evaluations with changed packaging system specifications.
“Although we have made significant inroads in reducing the environmental impacts of our product packaging, there is still much more to do,” said Philippe Bonningue, Vice President Packaging & Development Corporate Operations. “In addition to testing new materials from renewable sources like green-PE, bio-PET and PLA, and identifying opportunities for refillables, light weighting, recycled content and the use of cardboard from only certified wood sources, we are committed to offering consumers more sustainable product choices.”
L’Oréal is a member of the Global Packaging Project, which is a major initiative of the Consumer Goods Forum, a member of The Sustainability Consortium and has been recognized by Corporate Knights for being among the 100 most sustainable corporations in the world and by Climate Counts, for its leadership in addressing climate change. Since the early 1990s the company has engaged in a proactive policy of “source reduction” and material-vigilance to guide its packaging development. In 2003 L’Oréal joined the UN Global Compact and since 2004 has published a sustainable development report to communicate its goals and achievements across its business operations.
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