In its latest sustainability report, France-headquartered global chief sustainability officer Raphaëlle Archambeaud-Sicot conceded that the company – which is considered among the more progressive performers for circularity – was not on track to meet its targets for plastic and packaging. Achieving its ambitions may take a further two years to complete, she said.
In 2019, the B Corp-certified multinational maker of brands including Elemis, Melvita and Erborian, committed to make of its plastic bottles from recycled materials, for all of its plastic packaging to be recyclable, reusable or compostable, and for all of its own stores to offer a recycling service by 2025 – targets that have proven tricky to achieve.
Most packaged good firms have struggled to meet targets to use more recycled plastic, as low virgin plastic prices have made recycled material even more expensive this year. L’Occitane’s use of recyclable or reusable plastic packaging fell from 37 per cent in 2024 to 27 per cent this year, according to its sustainability report.
In the latest episode of the On the frontlines series, which profiles change-makers on the hard edge of sustainable business, Chu tells the Eco-Business Podast that its in-store refill fountains – which would do away with the need for packaging altogether – have not lived up to expectations.
“From our analysis of the uptake – not just in Asia by globally – the refill fountains are not as effective as we had hoped,” she said.
Refill fountains may not actually be environmentally beneficial, as the product stored in the fountains may expire before it is dispensed – because consumers aren’t using them. This creates more waste than would have been created with standard packaging, Chu said.
But L’Occitane is keeping faith with refill, and is also deploying refill pouches made from recycled material. It hasn’t removed the fountains just yet, she said.
Another big challenge for Chu is decarbonisation – the company has committed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, with targets approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative – and the hardest thing is convincing the firm’s vast network of suppliers to get on board.
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Sustainability is a core function that you can’t simply get rid of.
Venisa Chu, Asia Pacific sustainability director, L’Occitane
The backlash against environmental, social and governance (ESG) in business, instigated in the United States, has not affected her sustainability department at L’Occitane, said Chu, acknowledging that her team is fortunate to have survived the upheaval that has blighted many firms’ sustainability ambitions.
“I don’t feel like there is a huge backlash [that affects our business], though I do see this playing out in other industries if sustainability is less linked to their business model,” she said. “I’ve seen some teams being reduced. However, I believe that it’s still a core function that you can’t simply get rid of.”
Venisa Chu, Asia Pacific director sustainability, L’Occitane. Image: LinkedIn
Tune in as we discuss:
- How Venisa Chu started out in sustainability
- The hardest sustainability target to achieve
- How to persuade suppliers to get on board with sustainability
- Is being a B Corp an advantage in Asia?
- The impact of the ESG backlash
- Where sustainability sits in the corporate structure
- Is re-fill working?
- Advice for aspiring sustainability practitioners
- Managing burnout
The transcript in full:
What brought you into the sustainability sector?
I’ve had an interesting career jumping from my first degree in engineering and then into business, and ultimately into sustainability. There is a commonality, even though they may sound very different – that is, I always enjoy the process of looking into evidence-based problem solving.
Kodak was my first role during a year-long internship when I was still at university. That was my first taste of the corporate world. Without knowing the details of sustainability back then, I was interested in it. The Kodak plant that I worked in it was a plant to make photo film paper. There were very strict controls to ensure quality and make sure that there was not a lot of waste. I’m sure the motivation back then was more on business metrics. it helped on sustainability front as well.
Fast forward to my sustainability role in real estate [at New World Developments]. I think I was looking for sustainability roles even before that one. That was seven years ago, but there weren’t very many sustainability roles then, especially in Hong Kong. These jobs were in corporate social responsbility [CSR] or maybe jobs parked under another department.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your job now? What’s the one target that is proving the hardest to move the needle on?
That’s a big question. I’ll try to dissect it. I think as with other companies doing sustainability, you have to do the mapping and see in your value chain which geographical areas or departments are responsible for what.
For L’Occitane, it’s relatively simple, actually. We produce our products in France. So all of the decarbonisation efforts relate more to Scope 1 and a bit of Scope 2. In Europe, we do the raw material sourcing, packaging design – that is where energy and water is consumed, particularly at the factories.
Asia Pacific is a hub for distribution, retail and procurement. So it’s mainly Scope 2 and Scope 3 – and the end-of-life treatment of our products.
The toughest part to move the needle on in Asia is probably to do with our vast network of suppliers, especially in the smaller markets. In Asia Pacific, we have markets ranging from Korea to India. You can just imagine the differences in terms of the sustainability appetite and knowledge of the topic.
So, [the biggest challenges are] to get them ready to understand the data requirements for basic ESG reporting, why it’s important and the purpose behind it. Also, what are the opportunities or technologies ready in their markets?
It’s the differences between markets that make it challenging.
What have you found is the most effective way to encourage suppliers to comply with L’Occitane’ sustainability requirements?
Having a region that encompasses nine markets, the beginning is always a little bit more top-down. We say that we are a B Corp-certified company, and as part of that exercise, we don’t just want to look inwards. We also have a responsibility to look outwards at the partners we work with.
We explain that we are also improving internally first. So from our learnings we can also help them to accelerate in their own ESG performance.
For the second tier of suppliers that might not have as advanced ESG knowledge, we really have to start with the basics – to educate them first. To say, why are we measuring, energy, waste and water? And what will move the needle for you? What will the potential outcome look like?
Is B Corp certification an advantage in Asia, where awareness is low?
It maybe not be as direct an advantage as in the West where consumers are more aware of the B Corp logo and what it stands for.
But it’s a very good framework to explain the areas of the B Corp assessment that can be worked on, and help people, particularly suppliers, understand sustainability. Sometimes, B Corp might feel too big and hard for people that are not familiar with it to understand.
I leverage the assessment to start the conversation with our own employees on sustainability as well, since when we got certified in 2023, some of us are still not really sure what it stands for.
But the process of different teams working on different topics, like human resources working on getting our living wage certification, our procurement team working on getting our suppliers Ecovadis-assessed – they understand the outcomes and there are some suppliers that were inspired to become B Corp themselves.
So it’s helping, but of course the beginning is always difficult. And in Asia, the B Corp movement is in its early stages.
Has the ESG backlash in the West made your job leading a corporate sustainability function any more difficult?
It depends on how sustainability is positioned in a company. L’Occitane is about to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Since the beginning, our products have relied on farms. Responsible sourcing and biodiversity have always been a core consideration for us. Since we embarked on our journey of being a B Corp-certified company, we had it baked into our governance structure to have a component of our staff bonuses linked to sustainability.
Every year, we work to raise the bar higher and higher. I don’t feel like there is a huge backlash [that affects our business], though I do see this playing out in other industries if sustainability is less linked to their business model. And I’ve seen some teams being reduced. However, I believe that it’s still a core function that you can’t simply get rid of.
Where does sustainability sit in the corporate structure at L’Occitane?
Our CSO reports directly to our CEO [at the company’s headquarters in France], so there’s a direct reporting line there. For us in different regions, we have dual reporting. I report to the Asia Pacific managing director and also to the global CSO [in France].
Looking to the rest of the year, what are the key objectives that you hope to meet?
There are two big goals that are very clear in my key performance indicators. We’re up for B Corp recertification in 2026, so we’re busy preparing for that. There are a new set of standards, so we are trying to ramp up to understand what that entails and what our re-certification will look like.
The second one is related to circularity. We’re really making a huge focus on circularity in various aspects. This year, we’re really pushing to accelerate our refill format products, because from our analysis we see that that’s the biggest opportunity.
There have been numerous attempts in Asia to do refill at the retail level, but few have succeeded. How is L’Occitane’s refill programme working?
We do two types of refill. One refill format has less packaging compared to our standard format, but the product still comes in a recycled material pouch. We also have refill fountains. From our analysis of the uptake – not just in Asia by globally – the refill fountains are not as effective as we had hoped.
Within a refill fountain, you can only have a limited amount of SKUs [stock keeping units, which track inventory movement] placed in it. It takes up a lot of retail space and the speed of uptake is not the same for each product. So there might actually be a lot more waste created if your product has expired.
We are not removing the fountains as of yet, but the analysis is that the environmental benefits of having the fountains with a small uptake doesn’t help us accelerate our circularity strategy as quickly as we’d want.
What advice would you give to people who want to get into the sustainability sector now?
My resume is full of different roles in various functions. I think that is an advantage. Back in my day, there were no degrees focused on sustainability. Now young people can major in sustainability.
Some of the key elements that would help people getting into sustainability would be: being analytical and having a strong stakeholder management mindset.
It’s important for sustainability people to figure out the facts from the noise, as the regulations and requirements change a lot.
You also still have to stay on top of your targets, impacts and materiality for your company.
And I’m sure with AI coming in, leveraging those analytical skills and using AI to propel sustainability will be very helpful.
On the stakeholder management piece, sustainability is the one function that works with all the departments in the company. You cannot run sustainability within the sustainability department if you want to make progress. Each conversation is not meant to be an easy conversation, because you’re always trying to change their way of working, or else we would’ve met our sustainability targets already.
You just have to be very agile and knowledgeable, but also explain sustainability in a way that makes sense for each department. Sustainability knowledge – what I call the hard knowledge – is important, but the soft skills are equally important.
Your job can be exhausting, as sustainability is an ever-expanding function. How do you manage burn out?
As with other management roles, you have to choose your battles. In sustainability, there is some work that is short term, and other work that is longer term. I always try to frame our sustainability plans according to their timeline. Some are for the current year, others are for three years. Then I link them to the business objectives for either the current year or a three-year time horizon. This makes our sustainability plans more palatable to other departments in the business.
On burnout, I think it’s true for all sustainability professionals. On the one hand, you get fed with all the news globally about the things you need to accelerate. On the other, there’s still so much that needs to be done.
I think talking to other industry professionals helps, as we share the same challenges and we can exchange some of the wins and the solutions that can be applied across the industry.
But I honestly think anyone that works in sustainability has the passion, and has hope for the future. With this attitude, that’s how you can manage the potential burnout.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity
