For several years, the issue of corporate social responsibility in the cosmetics industry has been one of the hot topics. The majority of the actors in the sector are active and tend to inform their consumers. However, environmental and social commitment is not always easy to grasp. This is why Karen Lemasson, CSR Director of Laboratoires Expanscience, presented the measures taken by her group at the Perfumes & Cosmetics 2019 conference.
Laboratoires Expanscience, founded in 1950, is one of the world’s leading cosmetics companies with more than 1100 employees, 260 million euros in sales and brands such as Mustela.
For this family company, CSR is not a new concept.
“It all started 15 years ago. Expanscience joined the United Nations Global Compact in 2004. This project, which aimed to engage companies in a sustainable development approach, spoke to our president,” says Karen Lemasson. “We then signed the Advertisers’ Charter for responsible communication, joined the Union for Ethical Bio-Trade, and became certified’Gold’ by Ecovadis.”
One plan, several points
The group’s CSR program is divided into three main axes:
• Innovate responsibly in order to reconcile ethics and evolution
• Progress with internal employees and the various stakeholders
• Caring for consumers by offering them products that are healthy for their health and nature
“We are studying the eco-design of our ranges. Even before launching a cosmetic, we think about its entire life cycle. In this way, we try to anticipate all its effects and minimize as much as possible its negative impacts on the environment,” explains the CSR director. “This work includes the sourcing of raw materials, the substitution of disparaged …
