Since its founding in 1976, L’OCCITANE Group has striven to preserve and promote biodiversity in France and the Mediterranean region, home to some of the world’s richest natural ecosystems. Following its participation at the recent International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Congress in Marseille, where it outlined its sustainability goals, L’OCCITANE Group said it is more committed than ever to becoming a catalyst for positive change.
In this interview, Biodiversity and Sustainable Ingredients Director Jean-Charles Lhommet explains the importance of biodiversity and how travel retail can promote sustainability.
How would you describe the concept of biodiversity?
Biodiversity encompasses all known life forms – animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms – which work in tandem through evolutionary, ecological and cultural processes to maintain and support life.
In what concrete ways has L’OCCITANE Travel Retail embraced a more eco-friendly business approach?
I’m truly delighted that L’OCCITANE Travel Retail has reached a new milestone with the wider deployment of eco-conscious packaging and eco-refills worldwide. New product ranges and travel kits, such as the award-winning L’OCCITANE en Provence Almond Shower Gel Oil Duo and Almond Milk Concentrate Duo, clearly underline this commitment.
In fact, our global travel retail team collaborates closely with travel partners and stakeholders in imparting this vital message to our consumers. With our ‘Clean Charter’ ethos promoting sustainable sourcing that guarantees 95% natural and 95% biodegradable ingredients in leave-on and rinse-off products respectively, the travel retail portfolio can offer ‘nature positive’ alternatives that minimise our environmental impact.
In your view, what is the role that travel retail can play in protecting biodiversity and more globally, promoting sustainability?
Travel retail undeniably plays a key role in the conservation of biodiversity and promotion of sustainability. We are deeply committed to nurturing biodiversity by working with high-quality local supply chains, supporting regenerative farming methods and ensuring that our ingredients are traceable.
In travel retail terms, we want to demonstrate our eco-journey and credentials to our customers by captivating them with true stories about our amazing organic producers. Everyone in travel retail can encourage customers to help protect the planet by, for example, recycling and reducing waste.
What has been the catalyst for travel retail’s enhanced focus on sustainability?
To some extent, the industry had a wakeup call thanks to the consumer. Here at L’OCCITANE, our own research showed that 71% of our travel retail and duty free clients actively sought eco-friendly and sustainable products. Customer eco-consciousness is growing, and forward-thinking, enlightened companies are taking heed.
Do you think that the industry is sharing this sustainability message effectively?
It’s evident that many in travel retail are already taking great strides towards proving their commitment to sustainability, whether it be recycling, reducing their carbon footprint and packaging, or creating biodegradable products.
For example, L’OCCITANE en Provence now offers solid shampoos that are silicone and sulphate-free and packaged in 100% recycled and recyclable paper. I’m particularly pleased to share that our travel retail roadmap has ensured that all TREX paper cartons are FSC-certified and that we are closer than ever to eliminating single-use plastics. On-going collaboration on this theme within the industry will prove a key driver in educating and enlightening the consumer and making our message even stronger and clearer.
How does the portfolio of brands respect and protect biodiversity?
Biodiversity lies at the heart of L’OCCITANE and is reflected in everything we do. We ensure traceability and ethical sourcing of our ingredients and preserve the natural heritage of the Mediterranean by protecting several species and varieties of plants. Our aim by 2025 is to protect 1,000 plant varieties species, but this year alone we have succeeded in promoting and protecting 1,149 varieties and 513 species of plant. Our sustainable, long-term partnerships with our organic producers are also vital to the safe-guarding of biodiversity.
In what ways is L’OCCITANE Group a ‘Cultivator of Change’?
We appreciate that our actions impact the whole value chain within its own ecosystem and beyond. We ‘cultivate change’ by respecting biodiversity, recycling, reducing waste and supporting our local producers, in many cases, family-farmers.
Tell us about agro-ecology and why it is a fitting solution for today’s sustainability challenges?
Agro-ecology, or regenerative agriculture, offers a vision of farming that is both productive and respectful to the environment. L’OCCITANE Group’s team of agronomists work in partnership with local suppliers from Provence, Corsica to Burkina Faso, to improve the health, fertility and moisture retention of the soil, and to improve crop resilience while reducing the need for synthetic treatments.
What are your guiding principles when developing supply chains with local producers?
We take a holistic approach, based on mutual trust and longstanding relationships with our suppliers.
We work with many different plants, cultivating them in their natural environment and working with local experts to help them thrive. It’s vital to help local producers maintain and develop their livelihoods, feed their families and get value from their land. Since 1980, L’OCCITANE Group has been working in Burkina Faso to empower entrepreneurial women who produce shea butter for the L’OCCITANE en Provence Shea range.
Our relationship with them underpins our guiding principles, namely, to guarantee fair prices, reduce waste and to protect trees from urban development, deforestation and from pesticides. For two decades, we have enjoyed a similarly healthy relationship with our producers in Corsica who cultivate the pretty yellow immortelle flowers for L’OCCITANE en Provence’s best-selling Immortelle skincare range. We provide our producers with financial aid packages and the specialist assistance of our global team of eight agronomists to help develop the most sustainable ecosystems.
Tell us about your role at the recent IUCN conference in Marseille.
Since 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has been a tour de force, guiding L’OCCITANE Group with its biodiversity road map. Following this year’s event, our Group has pledged to develop a ‘nature-positive’ programme of key actions that will impact the whole value chain. In essence they are: Avoid (negative impacts); reduce; restore and regenerate; and transform.
What is your role as a brand in the OP2B (One Planet Business for Biodiversity) coalition?
At OPB2, we are one of 27 companies from different sectors working collaboratively to reduce the environmental footprint of agricultural production within our supply chains and product portfolios.
What are the key sustainability objectives for the Group over the next decade?
The Group’s ‘nature-positive’ ambition includes the goal to be B Corp certified by 2023 and to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. We will continue to act on our guiding principles of respecting biodiversity, fighting pollution, supporting local producers and reducing waste. At the end of the day, don’t we all want to create a better and more sustainable world?
Note: The Moodie Davitt Report has launched an e-newsletter, Sustainability Curated, in association with L’OCCITANE. It offers a curated selection of key sustainability stories in travel retail and beyond.
To subscribe free of charge please email Sinead@MoodieDavittReport.com headed ‘Curated Sustainability’. All stories are permanently archived on this website.