How L’Oréal built a global sustainability movement with its suppliers

Scope 3 emissions represent the majority of L’Oréal’s environmental impact and yet the levers to act sit largely outside of its direct operational control.
Engaging suppliers at scale was essential but difficult: sustainability maturity levels were uneven, best practices were siloed, and visibility on real action was limited.

The Group needed a way to activate partners, reinforce shared responsibility, and ensure traceability of commitments, while making sustainability concrete, inspiring, and rewarding.

As Véronique Elias stated:

‍“Sustainable development is a collective challenge: no one can achieve it alone anymore… Our role is to engage all stakeholders around a shared culture and the pooling of our expertise.”

L’Oréal launched the “Spread the Best Practices” program to accelerate sustainable change across its supplier ecosystem.

Built with Yumana, the platform centralizes pledges and best practices. It supports actions on decarbonization, water management, and fair wages.
It also drives engagement through challenges, events, and regular training content. Every step is traceable, from evaluation criteria to CSR impact.

The objective is simple: engage suppliers at scale, build a shared sustainability culture, accelerate Scope 3 action, and create a library of proven solutions that partners can easily replicate.

Within months, Spread the Best Practices became a global accelerator for supplier engagement:

And a growing library of best practices across decarbonization, water stewardship, and fair wages.

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A clear, repeatable process structured the entire journey on the Yumana platform:
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1. Activation of Suppliers
   Partners join the platform, discover the program pillars, and access introductory training content.
2. Pledge Collection
   Suppliers submit their sustainability commitments and best practices through guided forms.
3. Evaluation & Selection
   Internal experts, opinion leaders, and CSR directors assess initiatives using a transparent, criteria-based workflow.
   
4. Knowledge Sharing
   Validated practices enrich a growing library of solutions accessible to all 1,900 partners.
5. Upskilling & Engagement
   Monthly webinars, roundtables, and new content accelerate capacity building.
6. Challenge & Recognition
   Every two years, the Spread the Green Vibes challenge spotlights the highest-impact initiatives in a major event attended by senior leaders.
7. Scaling & Adoption
   Partners receive support to replicate best practices, guided by L’Oréal’s experts and example initiatives.