Ten areas are audited:
L’Oréal’s social audit is largely based on the internationally recognised SA 8000 standard. The Group has also imposed more stringent criteria, particularly with regard to the minimum age for child labour. It is set at 16 years of age for all employees working for suppliers, a higher age limit than the minimum age required by the Fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
A tool to manage social audits organises the planning of all audits with the external service provider’s system and manages all results and action plans for all the suppliers concerned.
An e-learning module is available to all purchasers in addition of the Sourcing Discovery training module, which explains to every new purchaser the importance of the social audit programme, and how purchasers must make it part of their daily process.
The Group’s purchasers accordingly promote the continuous improvement of their suppliers in line with the Group’s standards.
Over 9,300 supplier sites have been audited since the reporting tool was implemented in 2006 (see section 3.4.7.3.“Results of the application of the plan to suppliers” of this document):
In 2014, L’Oréal initiated a programme for assessing strategic suppliers(2) and their Sustainable Development policy. In addition to its own assessment, L’Oréal has mandated Ecovadis to evaluate its suppliers’ sustainable development policies with the aim of fine-tuning the analysis of supplier performance and assisting suppliers in improving their performance by identifying areas for improvement. The Ecovadis assessment allows L’Oréal not only to involve its suppliers in Sustainable Development, but also to encourage them to develop their ethics policies with a focus on combating corruption, monitoring the health and safety of their employees and the application of their sustainable purchasing policies (see section 4.3.3. “Human rights policy” of this document).
In 2021, 767 suppliers conducted an Ecovadis assessment of their social, environmental, and ethical policies, as well as the implementation of those policies by their own suppliers in 2021. 331 of them represented 82% of the Group’s strategic suppliers, all areas combined.
Since 2009, L’Oréal has associated its suppliers in the process for measuring and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging them to work with the CDP, within the framework of the CDP Supply Chain programme. This international not-for-profit organisation, of which L’Oréal has been a member since 2003, invites companies to publish their environmental impact and provides them with measurement, evaluation and communication tools.
In 2021, 565 suppliers participated in the CDP Supply Chain, representing 86% of the 658 suppliers invited. They were selected in all purchasing areas, everywhere in the world, both large industrial groups and small and medium businesses. The average of the 2021 Supplier results was “C”.
In the direct purchases category, the suppliers participating in the CDP Supply Chain programme account for 87% of expenditures made in 2021. Among them, 227 suppliers have assigned their emissions to L’Oréal. The average score of the direct suppliers is “C”.
☑The Statutory Auditors have expressed reasonable assurance about this indicator.
(1) Audits where the auditor was unable to access the site or sufficient data are included in the number of social audits carried out. They represent 2% of the total number of audits. Note that these cases are excluded from the analysis of non-conformity by chapter as described in the Vigilance Plan.
(2) Strategic suppliers are those whose added value is significant for the Group, contributing through their weight, their innovations, their strategic alignment and their geographical deployment, to the long-term support of L'Oréal's strategy, strategic alignment and geographical deployment, to support L'Oréal's strategy in the long term.
