[Session1] L’Oréal: Collaborative Design for Sustainability
Session1
“L’Oréal: Collaborative Design for Sustainability”
Sharon SO / Director of Corporate Affairs, Engagement & Sustainability, L’Oréal Korea
Introduction
Hello, everyone.
My name is Sharon So, and I’m the Director of Corporate Affairs, Engagement, and Sustainability at L’Oréal Korea.
First of all, thank you so much for inviting me to the Seoul Design International Forum. As Mr. Uwe Cremering mentioned earlier, I’m neither a designer nor an architect, so when I first received the invitation, I honestly wondered what kind of story I could share with you today. However, through our ongoing conversations and collaboration with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and by listening to Mayor Oh Se-hoon and Ms. Helle Søholt earlier today, I’ve come to see more clearly the direction that design in Seoul should take moving forward. I believe it is a form of design that harmoniously embraces sustainability, inclusiveness for the vulnerable, and responsiveness to the climate crisis. And in that sense, I now understand a little better why I was invited to be here.
Today, under the theme “Collaborative Design for Sustainability,” I’d like to share the values that L’Oréal cherishes, how we integrate sustainability into our design practices, and how we collaborate with public institutions such as the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
About L’Oréal
Before I begin, let me briefly introduce L’Oréal.
Many people may know L’Oréal as a hair dye brand, but in fact, the L’Oréal Group is the world’s largest beauty company. It all began in 1909, when a chemist named Eugène Schueller developed the first hair dye that was safe to use at home. Since then, over the past 116 years, L’Oréal has maintained its leadership in the global beauty market by constantly striving to become a company ready for the future. As I mentioned earlier, L’Oréal is a company founded on science, but we continue to go beyond that—constantly challenging ourselves and pursuing innovation toward the future.
Currently, L’Oréal operates in 150 countries with about 90,000 employees around the world. Each year, we invest 3% of our total revenue in research and innovation, which results in more than 690 patents registered annually. This reflects our unwavering commitment to science and innovation. The L’Oréal Group owns 37 global brands, including Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Kiehl’s, Biotherm, Kérastase, and La Roche-Posay—brands that many of you may already know or even use.
L’Oréal also has a well-known slogan: “Seize what’s next.” It represents the company’s spirit of curiosity and boldness—our drive to constantly explore and capture what is new. In a rapidly changing world of consumers, markets, and technologies, we continue to create new values and new opportunities every day. Based on this culture of innovation, L’Oréal operates 20 innovation centers worldwide, where about 4,000 researchers work together with external organizations, companies, and startups to broaden the horizon of innovation.
Now, let me share a bit about L’Oréal Korea.
Here in Korea, we have 2,000 employees and operate 17 brands, including 3CE, which we acquired in 2018, and Dr.G, our most recent acquisition. Today, 3CE is the No.1 K-beauty makeup brand worldwide, and Dr.G is the No.1 derma-cosmetic brand in Korea — both with strong potential for further global expansion.
We also operate the Korea Innovation Center, an organization that closely studies K-beauty trends and consumer insights in the Korean market. The center’s role is to quickly reflect these insights into new global products and scale them across markets. Ultimately, the mission of L’Oréal Korea is not only to bring L’Oréal’s innovation to Korea, but also to share Korea’s innovation with the world.
L’Oréal’s design philosophy
Let me now share L’Oréal’s design philosophy.
In fact, this philosophy begins with the very purpose of our company — our reason for being. L’Oréal’s purpose is to ‘Create the beauty that moves the world’. It may sound a little abstract, but for us, beauty that moves the world means beauty that is diverse, innovative, and sustainable.
Today, consumer needs are becoming increasingly personalized. Respect and inclusiveness for different skin types, skin tones, and hair textures are now more important than ever. As a company that does not conduct animal testing, L’Oréal instead uses artificial skin models for product testing. We even develop artificial skin with blemishes or specific conditions, allowing us to test our products safely and precisely across a wide range of skin types.
Consumers today also expect beauty solutions that are more scientific, precise, and effective. Through cutting-edge technology, we not only enhance the efficacy of our products but also reimagine the entire customer journey—how people experience beauty itself. Each year at CES, L’Oréal unveils new beauty tech innovations. Last year, our Global CEO delivered a keynote speech—the first ever by a beauty company CEO—to share the importance of combining beauty and technology and how that fusion shapes the future of our industry.
Lastly, L’Oréal strives to develop sustainable and responsible beauty solutions that respect the limits of our planet. This philosophy is reflected from the very first stage of product development. We apply an Eco-Design principle to every product, evaluating its entire life cycle — from raw material sourcing to packaging, use, and recycling.
Rather than focusing only on carbon emissions, we evaluate 14 environmental factors based on European standards, and use an in-house environmental impact scoring tool to measure and improve every product we create. Through these efforts, we aim to bring to life a more responsible and sustainable design for beauty.
The Eco-Design principle I mentioned earlier was first introduced in 2017. Since then, all newly launched or renewed products have gone through this internal evaluation tool, allowing us to confirm that each one has achieved a measurable improvement in its environmental performance compared to before.
Now, let me share L’Oréal’s sustainability journey.
L’Oréal took an early step for a beauty company when, in 1989, we made the bold decision to stop all animal testing. Then, in 2009, we officially set environmental targets for our industrial sites, focusing on reducing energy and water consumption.
In 2013, we launched our first global sustainability program, Sharing Beauty With All. However, as the climate crisis became more serious, in 2017 we established science-based reduction targets, which were formally validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Building on that, in 2020, we began our second sustainability program, L’Oréal for the Future — a new journey toward a more sustainable and responsible beauty industry. And as the climate crisis continues to intensify, we have recently set an even more ambitious Net Zero target, which was again approved by SBTi.
The L’Oréal for the Future program focuses on four key areas: climate transition, nature protection, resource circularity, and community empowerment. Thanks to these continuous efforts, L’Oréal has been consistently recognized by external evaluation bodies such as CDP and EcoVadis, and has also maintained strong ratings in areas such as diversity, inclusion, ethics, and gender equality.
Through all of these actions, L’Oréal continues to transform its philosophy of sustainability and beauty for the future into real, tangible impact.
Combining Sustainability and Design
At L’Oréal, we place great importance on participation. We believe that participatory design plays a vital role in realizing sustainability.
One of the best examples of this is our global volunteering program called Citizen Day, where employees around the world take part in hands-on community activities. Here in Korea, we organize various programs every year. We take students with developmental disabilities on spring outings to Lotte World. We also conduct beach clean-up activities at Silmido Island, and paint school murals together with local communities. In this way, L’Oréal doesn’t limit its social and environmental responsibility to corporate donations alone—we emphasize the importance of employees’ direct participation in creating social value.
This year, for instance, 400 L’Oréal employees joined 188 students from Milal School, a school for students with developmental disabilities located in Irwon-dong, to dismantle discarded plastic toys and transform them into a beautiful upcycled mural. What made this project especially moving was that the mural’s original artwork was created by Lee Hyun-soo, an artist with developmental disabilities who is a graduate of Milal School. Over 600 participants worked together to assemble more than 300 plastic pieces into a large mural, which is now displayed in the lobby of Milal School.
Beyond employee participation, consumer engagement is also a crucial part of our approach. Across our brands—including Kiehl’s, Biotherm, Aesop, and Lancôme—we operate empty bottle collection and recycling programs that invite consumers to join us in sustainability efforts. In these stores, customers can bring back their empty product containers and place them in collection boxes. They receive loyalty points as a small incentive, and the collected bottles are then sorted and recycled through our partner companies. Sometimes, we go a step further by transforming these materials into special upcycling projects, sharing the value of resource circularity directly with citizens.
One example of how we connect sustainability with design was our collaboration with the Seoul Metropolitan Government during the first Seoul Beauty Week in 2022. Together with upcycling artist Lee Song-jun, we created an installation called “Fragrance Tree.” This artwork preserved the original shapes of used cosmetic bottles, transforming them into a beautiful tree adorned with leaves and fruits. It visually expressed the value of “circularity”—showing how discarded materials can be reborn through creativity. When it was exhibited at DDP, it received an enthusiastic response from visitors.
Another example is the Kiehl’s store at Shinsegae Department Store in Gangnam, which was designed under the concept of “Resource Circulation.” Used bottles collected from consumers were upcycled into bricks, tables, and cabinets, and these materials were used to reconstruct the entire store as a circular, sustainable space.
In collaboration with Shinsegae Department Store, we also replaced all the benches in front of the main entrance with upcycled benches made from recycled cosmetic containers. Building on this project, we are now working with KORAIL to install upcycled benches at the second-floor concourse of Seoul Station. These benches, made from repurposed cosmetic packaging, deliver both environmental and social value in a public space—serving as a symbolic example of the circular design L’Oréal aims to promote.
Lastly, I would like to share one more design case that embodies diversity and inclusiveness. This project began with a simple question: “Can we make our delivery boxes more sustainable?” At L’Oréal, sustainability starts even with our packaging materials. All our delivery boxes are made from recycled paper, sealed with FSC- certified paper tape, and use paper-based cushioning materials to minimize plastic use—establishing an eco-friendly packaging system from start to finish.
At L’Oréal, sustainability is not limited to environmental responsibility—it also embraces social value, inclusiveness, and diversity. With that in mind, we began to wonder how we could reflect these values even in something as simple as our delivery box design. That idea led to the creation of the “Créateurs All Beauty Campaign,” also known as the “Cre-All Beauty Campaign.”
Since 2022, L’Oréal has held an annual art contest for artists with disabilities, and the winning artworks are featured on our delivery boxes.
In the first contest, “Starry Night” by Park Chan-eum and “Self-Portrait” by Park Joo- young were selected. Their works were printed directly on the surface of our boxes, allowing customers to encounter art in their everyday lives. One especially moving story comes from Park Joo-young, who has a hearing impairment. Whenever he paints a self-portrait, he draws a flower where his ear would be, explaining that he wants to portray what he sees as his most beautiful part-his ear- as a flower. This story inspired us to capture the true meaning of beauty and inclusiveness through our box design.
In the second contest, “Free World” by Kim Chae-sung was chosen. The artist described the painting by saying, “For a whale to fly in the sky instead of swimming in the sea takes tremendous courage—I wanted to give that courage to the whale.” We found this message of dreams, courage, and freedom deeply resonant, and we applied his artwork to our boxes as well.
The first contest was organized in collaboration with the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, and in addition to the winning pieces, 20 finalist works were exhibited at the Lotte Department Store Main Branch, so that citizens could enjoy the artworks in person. The second contest was held in partnership with The Disabled, an art agency for artists with developmental disabilities. It included not only professional artists but also students who are aspiring to become artists, making it an even more inclusive and enriching competition.
What made the second edition especially meaningful was that the winning and finalist artworks were displayed on the lids of street trash bins newly installed in Seoul as a pilot project, in partnership with the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Design Policy Division. This initiative went beyond promoting L’Oréal’s campaign—it became a project that improved accessibility to art, allowing citizens to encounter works by artists with disabilities in their everyday lives.
One of the participating artists, Kim Chae-sung, shared a message that deeply touched us: “Beauty is something we feel with the heart. I want to bring happiness to the world through my paintings.” To us, this perfectly captures the essence of L’Oréal’s mission—to create the beauty that moves the world.
Conclusion
Looking ahead, we aim to further expand our design collaborations to include public facility design projects that embody the values of sustainability. For example, initiatives such as Seoul’s Construction Site Art Wall Project or the “Museum on the Road” project by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art show how artistic value can be shared with citizens in public spaces.
What matters most is that when corporate values—such as sustainability and social responsibility—align with public values, the opportunities and scope for collaboration grow much wider. And when those values are realized through design, we can inspire greater participation and empathy from society.
L’Oréal’s purpose is to create the beauty that moves the world. Now, we hope to expand that vision into “the beauty that moves Seoul,” working hand in hand with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to build a more sustainable and beautiful future together.
Thank you.
