Sustainable Sourcing

" We are very involved at ground level and know our raw products and our suppliers inside out. It demonstrates our credibility throughout the entire process, from the basic seeds right through to the finished products."

Building long-term partnerships based on trust & respect

L'OCCITANE works directly with over 130 French farmers and 10.000 pickers - from the immortelle fields of Corsica to the lavender fields of Provence - to ensure that the ingredients we use are of the highest quality and sourced as sustainably as possible.

OUR FOUR COMMITMENT PILLARS

The L’OCCITANE brand sees nature as its model and draws inspiration from the natural properties of plants to drive innovation. We are dedicated to developin long-term partnerships with our producers and prioritise short, local integrated channels when sourcing our key ingredients.

Traceability
Sustainability
Fairness
Quality

Traceability

We strive to purchase local produce whenever possible, in order to reduce our carbon footprint and support local business, for the benefit of the social fabric of the region. We give priority to small, integrated networks, to bring added value to the producer and have complete control over the traceability of extracts, from the seeds right up to the finished product.

Sustainability

Our work requires respect for both man and the environment. We make no compromises with regard to the protection of endangered species or the skills of communities.
We do not patent ways of using ingredients that are based on triditions (no biopiracy), but carry out effectiveness tests and work on combinations of ingredients to meet cosmetic needs.

Fairness

For our key ingredients, we build real partnerships that are strengthened, whenever possible, by multi-year contracts with our producers. These contracts guarantee them a minimum purchase volume, which ensures that they have a reliable, lasting outlet for their produce, at a price that is agreed by all parties.
The fairness of our partnerships cal also be found in our North-South trade. Several of our supply chains (shea butter, argan oil, orange blossom floral water) are fair trade approved and we donate a percentage of the purchase price of the raw material to local development projects.

Quality

The growing, harvesting, drying and storage conditions all have an impact on the purity of the plant materials. We guarantee their quality through specifications that are drawn up with our analytical, quality and regulatory departments, and with the help of our technical partners on the ground.
Our key ingredients are, for the most part, organically derived, to guarantee the absence of chemical inputs. The harvesting of wild plants is governed by sustainable harvesting guidelines, to protect the integrety and habitat of these plants.

Traceability

30 Traceable ingredient supply chains with 50% organic certificated

Partners

80 Partnerships with farmers

Pickers

10 000 Pickers working for L'Occitane

IMMORTELLE STORY

Organic Immortelle from Corsica

The large scale organic immortelle plantation programme was launched in Corsica.The initiative unites respect for the environment with equality. Today, this project brings together ten Corsican growers/distillers, who use organic farming methods and have contracts that cover five to seven harvests.

SHEA BUTTER STORY

Shea butter from Burkina Faso

M.Baussan, founder of the L’OCCITANE brand, discovered shea butter in Burkina Faso in 1980 : the start of a sustainable joint-development partnership with the women who produce this butter. Since 2015, the Group has been working on projects aimed at protecting the shea tree, reducing the environmental impact of shea butter production while maintaining local skills. Today, over 10,000 women are working in this industry and are able to sell their butter at a price that is twice that of a standard shea butter sold for export.

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Sustainable Sourcing and Human Rights

As a responsible company, we are aware of the challenges of complex global supply chains, particularly when they involve small family plantations, rural areas or areas with limited resources.

This is why we take actions to ensure that all our sourcing is ethical and responsible. We choose our suppliers beyond a simple buyer relationship and ensure that they are committed to human rights and environmental practices. Each of them must sign our Code of Business Conduct, which commits them to respecting the principles essential to our Group – protecting human rights, decent working and living conditions, and environmental protection. With our programme #NotJustSuppliers, we assess every year the compliance of our suppliers to our Code of Business Conduct. If the assessment reveals any weaknesses, we ask the supplier to take immediate action, and we conduct a second assessment within the year to ensure improvements are being made.

Our direct procurement
Where we source directly, we take action on the ground to address the root causes of child labour. We know that family-run small plantations and poverty are major causes of it. By contributing to stable and decent incomes, we are enabling an increase in the standard of living and school enrolment rates of children.

Our indirect procurement
Where we source indirectly, we ensure that our suppliers are committed to our Responsible Purchasing policy and use certified ingredients. For example, nearly all our palm oil derivatives used in L’OCCITANE en Provence and Melvita formulas are certified as ethical and sustainable by the RSPO.

To have concrete impact, we are strongly engaged with other industry players to improve the transparency and traceability of these supply chains. Since 2011, we have been a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an organisation that promotes the production of palm oil that respects the environment and the rights of workers in the supply chain. We also joined Action for Sustainable Derivatives (ASD) since its creation, a as well as the Responsible Beauty Initiative, an industry-wide initiative to improve the sustainability of supply chains across the beauty industry.

We support the implementation of an international framework for due diligence, requiring each company to identify and act on human rights and environmental issues in its value chain. As part of this, we encourage the sharing of all types of information related to potential issues in our supply chains. If such issues are identified, we will take firm and immediate action with our suppliers to remedy them as soon as possible.

For more information on: The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO): https://rspo.org/
Our actions: https://group.loccitane.com/commitments/commitments-publications