The Role of Operations & Supply Chain in Advancing Sustainability With L’Oréal

L'Oreal's commitment to sustainability has been evident for over a decade, and in 2020 they furthered their efforts through the launch of "L'Oreal for the future," a program developed in collaboration with scientific experts using the planet boundary approach. Their goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 while also protecting natural resources and biodiversity. 

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The role of operations and supply chain in achieving these sustainability objectives and how to foster team engagement and empowerment are critical considerations. In a recent episode of "Unpacking E-commerce logistics"series, Caroline Troit, Senior Vice President Operations at L'Oreal Luxe Americas, shared insights based on her 20 years of experience with L'Oreal. She delved into the importance of addressing these questions and more to drive the sustainability agenda collaboratively.

Key highlights of this episode:

• The role of operations and supply chain teams in the way we do business

• Caroline’s career accomplishments and expertise

• The biggest challenges or opportunities to drive sustainability 

• E-commerce product returns from a sustainability point of view

• Supply chain sustainability amidst the current economic downturns

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about significant changes in the roles of operation and supply chain teams, making them more challenging, crucial, and strategic. Using a program called SPOT, L'Oreal's development team ensures eco-conscious product development by evaluating the product's environmental impact throughout its lifecycle. Meanwhile, the manufacturing team's primary objective is to increase energy efficiency to achieve L'Oreal's goal of being carbon neutral by 2025. 

During the session, Caroline acknowledges that sustainability is a complex and challenging project, primarily due to two underlying issues. The first is the need to inform and influence consumers, who want to buy sustainable products but are unwilling to pay more or sacrifice quality or appearance. The second issue is reliance, as achieving sustainability alone is impossible, and cooperation with suppliers, partners, vendors, 3PLs, carriers, and the business community is essential. To address these issues, L'Oreal is a co-founder of SPICE, an organization that focuses on making packaging for the beauty industry more sustainable. The company has also introduced a tool called Product Impact Labeling, which provides consumers with sustainability and social ratings for each product to aid them in making informed decisions.

For the full discussion, check out the video here. You wouldn’t want to miss it!

About Caroline Troit

Caroline Troit leads Operations for the Luxe division of L’Oréal North America. She is in charge of all operational aspects for a variety of American brands, including Ralph Lauren, IT Cosmetics, Kiehl's, Urban Decay, and Youth To The People. She is also in charge of managing the supply chain for all of L'Oréal's luxury brands in the United States and Canada, including Lancôme, Armani, Yves Saint-Laurent, and a number of fragrance companies.

Since beginning her career at L'Oréal 23 years ago, Caroline has successfully completed numerous large-scale projects, like the formation of an organization devoted to the manufacturing of beauty devices for L'Oréal or the comprehensive portfolio simplification for Maybelline. She has implemented environmental initiatives, oversaw the successful tripling of e-commerce sales volumes, and completely redesigned the operations and sourcing of Urban Decay and IT Cosmetics.

About Unpacking E-Commerce Logistics Series

Unpacking E-Commerce Logistics brings together some of the best experts in the e-commerce logistics and supply chain space to unpack key concepts from a variety of trending topics, ranging the use of Artificial Intelligence in the industry to embracing hyperlocal delivery in the e-commerce world. An integral part of this series are Ask Me Anything sessions where the audience can ask our thought leaders questions about their career paths, challenges, personal growth and even their plans for the future. No question is off-topic during these interactive 30-minute sessions!

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