In this compelling interview, we hear from Alexandra Palt, one of the foremost voices in sustainability today and widely recognised as the top keynote speaker on sustainable supply chains and the future of ethical supply chains. As the Executive Vice President of the L’Oréal Foundation and Chief Sustainability Officer at L’Oréal, Alexandra has been instrumental in leading the company’s ambitious transformation – redefining what corporate responsibility looks like in the 21st century. Her deep expertise, spanning sustainability leadership, gender equality, and inclusive innovation, places her at the heart of some of the most important conversations shaping global business today.
In this interview, Alexandra reflects on her dual roles at L’Oréal, from driving internal transformation to spearheading the company’s societal contributions. She offers insights into the genesis and impact of L’Oréal’s pioneering “Sharing Beauty with All” programme, the evolution towards “L’Oréal for the Future,” and why businesses must rethink innovation through a sustainability lens.
Q: From a business leadership perspective, how did your dual roles at L’Oréal – including your work as CEO of the Foundation – contribute to the company’s transformation and external impact strategy?
Alexandra Palt: “I had two roles at L’Oréal. The first was leading the transition to a new business model alongside my colleagues and internal partners. This was our internal transformation. My second role was leading L’Oréal’s contribution to society externally.
Historically, the Anglo-Saxon world, particularly the United States, has engaged in philanthropy with significant financial contributions, but less focus on internal transformation. In contrast, European companies have tended to focus on internal transformation, leaving social challenges to the welfare state. Today, we need both approaches. We cannot continue business as usual. We need internal transformation, but we also have the capacity and resources – financial and otherwise – to contribute to solving the world’s most pressing challenges.
As head of L’Oréal’s philanthropic efforts, I oversaw the Foundation’s work, and a charitable endowment fund dedicated to supporting women.”
Q: What strategic business goals and market foresight led to the development of the Sharing Beauty with All initiative in 2012?
Alexandra Palt: “Sharing Beauty with All was the first generation of L’Oréal’s sustainability commitments. The CEO at that time, Jean-Paul Agon, had the ambition to create a transformative strategy for the company. He always said the two major challenges of this century would be digital and sustainability. Already in 2012, we were ahead of the time. We decided to build a strategy of ecological transition that tackled our entire value chain. At that time, we did not just look at the easy picks or say, ‘We’ll do this now and that later.’ No, we analysed our impact across the whole value chain and worked on each area to reduce our environmental footprint and improve our social footprint.
This was our first-generation commitment. Through the achievements and maturity, we gained, we were able to launch the second wave of commitments, called L’Oréal for the Future. This allowed us to be very ambitious and mature in our sustainability policies.”
Q: From a business outcomes perspective, what measurable impact did the Sharing Beauty with All programmes have on L’Oréal’s operations and market positioning?
Alexandra Palt: “We achieved most of our targets. We even outperformed on some of them, such as our carbon footprint. We reduced the carbon footprint of our industrial activity by 80%, which was a huge achievement. Some other goals were more challenging, but environmental science is always evolving. At times, we realised we had to reformulate and redefine our targets to ensure we were tackling issues in the right way.
Overall, the programme was very successful. In 2020, we announced the next generation of sustainability targets: our L’Oréal for the Future strategy. What makes this different is that we no longer ask, ‘What is our impact, and how much can we reduce it?’ Instead, we ask, ‘What does the world need from us?’
We based our next strategy on scientific principles, specifically the planetary boundaries. We asked, ‘What do we need to do so that by 2030, L’Oréal operates within the planetary boundaries?’ – meaning we do not take more from the planet than it can sustain. This led to very ambitious targets, such as 100% recycled plastic and 95% of our ingredients being bio-based or from biotechnology. A complete transformation began at the organisation.”
Q: What role will sustainability-driven innovation play for companies like L’Oréal in maintaining relevance and competitiveness?
Alexandra Palt: “I think every brand—not just L’Oréal brand—but the future of brands is, of course, it is. Sustainability is not going to be on the side; sustainability is going to be central to everything companies and brands will do. That means we feel – we change as a cosmetic company – it is no-waste conditions, it is solid shampoos, it is a lot of different things. We have to bring this innovation; we have to raise awareness why these innovations are good for sustainability. And then, as a last step, we need to do choice editing.
We will have to stop bringing to the market products that are not having an improved environmental footprint. With that choice editing – that there is just a way that available, more sustainable products, more sustainable offers, is really the next level of maturity that companies will have to reach in the next years. If we choose to survive as a human species.”
Q: Why is gender equality a critical component of a company’s sustainability and long-term business success strategy?
Alexandra: “How can a company think of not placing gender equality at the top of their priorities? I thought that this is a given now.
But if we have to repeat it – it is that, of course, we need half of the talents of the world, half of the competences of the world. It is impossible to not use the competences and talents of women. It is not possible to design a world – the future world that we have to design together in the moment, the future business we have to design – without the contribution of women. Because the world has to work for them too. Otherwise, we do not create societies which are functioning correctly.
Gender inequality – we know it is bad for economy. Economies that have a better rate of gender equality are better functioning. So, there are a lot of business interests, economies interest. And, of course, it is just a moral imperative.”
This interview with Alexandra Palt was conducted by Jack Hayes.