Green Chemistry’s Role in L’Oréal’s Sustainable Formulations

L’Oréal Groupe says it is at the forefront of leveraging regenerative agricultural practices and working with suppliers to build them in the sourcing process.

At the 17th North American edition of the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit, organized by Ecovia Intelligence last month in New York, the Happi International Top 30 Company explained how the firm is creating sustainable formulations using green science.

The Summit began in 2009 covering sustainability issues in the cosmetics and personal care industry. The two-day summit unites key stakeholders from cosmetic brand owners and manufacturers to raw material and ingredient and packaging companies, retailers and distributers and more to debate major industry issues in a high-level forum. This year’s key themes included sustainability impacts, green ingredients and ethical sourcing and biodiversity. Its Gold Sponsor was AAK with Silver Sponsors including Croda Beauty, Inolex, Lubrizol and Biotara.

Four sessions over two days covered addressing sustainability impacts; green ingredients; ethical sourcing and biodiversity; and marketing insights.

Key speakers included Ruth Calvo Rubial, sustainability director, North America, L’Occitane en Provence; Chris Kilham, author and educator, Medicine Hunter; Brandon Frank, CEO, Pacific Packaging Components; and Erin Zoller, sustainability director North America, L’Oréal USA.

L’Oréal Groupe has a robust ingredient portfolio inclusive of more than 7 billion products distributed in more than 150 countries; utilizing over 1,500 raw materials; with 345 botanical species grown in more than 100 countries.

Erin Zoller, sustainability and green sciences lead, L’Oréal USA, said the company ensures every formulation goes through a rigorous lifecycle assessment measuring distinct environmental factors including water scarcity, biodiversity impact and carbon footprint.

The company has several thousand scientists around the world. To empower these formulators while keeping an eco-friendly design at the heart of its business model, a decade ago, L’Oréal’s sustainability, packaging and research teams co-developed its Sustainable Product Optimization Tool (SPOT). The goal was to measure the environmental impact of the Group’s products based on a methodology devised with the guidance of international experts. Integrated into the design and launch process for new products, SPOT enables the company to simulate various design options and evaluate their impact on the environment and society and identifying the measures for improvement.

“Whole SPOT may provide the scientists an opportunity to show where formulas can be optimized from a footprint perspective, our formulas need the tools to have the access solutions to make those changes,” said Zoller. “That’s where the green sciences program comes in.”

Three-Pillar Green Sciences Program

L’Oréal’s green sciences program is comprised of three core pillars: eco-extraction, green chemistry and biotechnology. Through eco-extraction, the company uses cleaner, energy-efficient solvents to extract the best out of plants without degrading the environment.

“We’re really committed at L’Oréal Groupe to revolutionizing the fine fragrance industry with partners for instance, Cosmo International Fragrances. They have a patent-pending waterless and low-energy technology that can capture the true scent of natural ingredients without petro chemical solvents and producing energy consumption while preserving biodiversity.”

Lancôme’s Absolue Oud Bouquet, for example, extracts the fresh scent of garden roses, which yield an enhancement to the consumer experience while respecting the planet, Zoller said.

Green chemistry is another pillar. It involves the synthesis of high-performance molecules using principles that eliminate hazardous substances while reducing waste and leveraging biomimicry. This process involves mimicking nature processes within its green chemistry programs. An example is Pro-Xylane, Lancôme’s patented anti-aging molecule derived from sustainable European beech and birch wood sugars. Pro-Xylane boosts the skin’s synthesis of glycosaminoglycans to plump and firm skin while reducing fine lines. Pro-Xylane is featured in the brand’s Absolue Skincare Collection. In the formula it accelerates cellular renewal while enhancing skin’s elasticity.

The third pillar of L’Oréal’s green sciences program is biotechnology. This sector dissects how the company harnesses living organisms like microalgae or bacteria to ferment and produce active ingredients in the lab. The goal is to preserve agricultural land as well as biodiversity. One brand that leverages biotechnology in the making of its products is CeraVe. The brand’s Balancing Air Foam Facial Cleanser utilizes Glycolysine technology, which incorporates a unique blend of a glycolipid biosurfactant with polylysine to enhance the deposition of ingredients on the skin.

Through its partnership with Microphyt, L’Oréal plans to unlock cosmetic potential within microalgae using a sustainable and low carbon bioproduction process. This provides an opportunity to fast-track disruptive and natural alternatives to traditional synthetic chemicals, Zoller said.

“When you start to multiply this type of innovation across all of our brands and our full scale, we can really start to see tangible progress that we’re making,” she said.

Scaling Green Technologies

As of last year, 67% of the ingredients in L’Oréal’s formulas were sourced from nature or recycled materials; 800 of the ingredients in its formulas are derived from green chemistry and eco-extraction; and there are currently 120 biotech ingredients in its growing portfolio. But there’s still work to be done.

“It’s not enough to discover these biotech ingredients,” said Zoller. “The biggest challenge that we’re facing in the industry is to scale them from the startup flat bench to global production that L’Oréal may require. In order to solve this type of challenge, we built a comprehensive ecosystem that will support and fund these innovators at every stage of their journey.”

Through its green sciences incubator and its venture capital fund, Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development (BOLD), the company identifies and invests in “disruptive” startups. Its newest engine, L’Accelerator, provides startups with its expertise in formulation, regulatory knowledge and “industrial might” to ensure sustainable innovations advance from concepts to products reaching the hands of millions of consumers at scale.

To scale green technologies, L’Oréal continues to co-innovate with its current strategic partners and suppliers. The company works to pair these innovators with industry manufacturers to scale new technologies. L’Oréal collaborates with Plantible to explore sustainable cultivation solutions around plant-based proteins. Through its accelerator, L’Oréal can help green chemistry leaders like Oberton and P2 Science with their challenges and bringing them to scale.

“We really believe that the future of personal care formulations lies at the interaction of nature as well as advanced science, through our green sciences program, our rigorous life cycle assessments, as well as our collaborative open innovation,” said Zoller. “L’Oréal has committed to creating the beauty that moves that world forward and more sustainably.”

Panel Discussions

Throughout the two-day event, four panel discussions were held. Ecovia Intelligence, Innersense, 1% for the Planet and B Lab presented on tackling economic impacts and how operators can create greater economic value.
Custom Essence, Responsible Sourcing Partnership, KKT Innovation Labs and Prima Fleur Botanicals discussed the sustainable supply of natural raw materials and the approaches being used to mitigate the effects of trade uncertainty and rising costs.
Medicine Hunter, Made Safe, Oh Oh Organic and Union for Ethical Biotrade discussed the role sustainability schemes and standards play in the coming years.

Amare Global’s The Rootist, Bansk Beauty’s Amika, MSLK Design and Fig or Out discussed how AI can help brands and ingredient suppliers achieve their sustainability objectives and how AI can help the beauty industry become more sustainable.

The European Sustainable Cosmetics Summit will held in Paris on Oct. 27 and 28, 2026. Register here.

For more on the latest industry-wide sustainability efforts, go here.