2020 ‘L’OCCITANE Group Cares’ report is published online

The L’OCCITANE Group today issues its FY2020 Environmental, Social and Governance Report online. The report outlines the Group’s global best practices and overall progress in three priority areas: protecting and restoring natural and cultivated biodiversity; making dramatic changes to help mitigate the climate crisis; and creating opportunities and empowering all people in the communities in which the Group is invested, with a focus on women’s empowerment. The report also outlines the L’OCCITANE Group’s philanthropic actions as well as its contribution to the global fight against COVID-19.

As a company that relies on natural resources and on the expertise of local communities to process these resources, the L’OCCITANE Group has, in 2020, set itself the ambitious objective of being B CORP certified by the end of 2023. This label will energise and strengthen the deployment of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy across all of the Group’s entities and regions. 

The L’OCCITANE Group’s three key CSR priorities are:

1. protecting and regenerating biodiversity, both natural and cultivated, within and outside its value chain;
2. making dramatic changes to help mitigate the climate crisis and anticipate its impacts on the Group’s activities;
3. creating opportunities and empowering all people in the communities in which it is engaged, with a focus on women’s empowerment.

Efforts to reduce the L’OCCITANE Group’s footprint across the supply chain will be crucial. The first tangible objective towards this goal is to contribute to global carbon neutrality by achieving net zero emissions across the Group by 2030 and on its two French production plants by 2025. The Group will continue to roll out its roadmap across its brands and throughout their respective value chains, with the aspiration to closely monitor and constantly improve the Group’s sustainability.

A positive societal impact beyond the Group’s core activity

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the L’OCCITANE Group’s brands and subsidiaries have delivered many initiatives around the world to support healthcare workers, along with partners and local communities. To date, the Group has donated over one million bottles of hand sanitiser and other hygiene products. Furthermore, L’OCCITANE took action within its supply chain to help partners and suppliers make it through the resulting economic crisis. Multi-year quantitative contracts and the pre-funding of pre-harvest costs by 50 to 80% have been particularly useful for farmers in this period. The Group also distributed protective equipment and hygiene products to its female shea butter partners in Burkina Faso to help their communities curb the spread of the virus. Thanks to the Group’s strong links with its partners, it quickly established solidarity networks within local ecosystems.