‘Just the beginning’: L’Oréal ‘committed’ to expanding green e-commerce parcel initiative in APAC

In September, the company announced that it was partnering with South East Asian e-commerce platform Lazada to reduce the usage of plastic packaging materials in its delivering packages in a three-month pilot running in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

During this period, consumers who purchase products from Garnier, Maybelline and L’Oreal Paris through the respective LazMall flagship stores will receive greener parcels made from alternative sustainable packaging materials.

The parcels will use alternative sustainable packaging materials as part of Lazada Logistics’ Fulfilment by Lazada (FBL) offering. This includes using FSC-certified carton boxes as well as recycled shredded paper made from returned parcel cartons that replaces previously used recyclable plastic fillers.

“Our Lazada partnership is another important step that we are taking towards reducing plastic waste. Under our L’Oréal for the Future commitment, we are taking responsibility to transform not only our direct operations but also to extend that to our business partnerships and broader footprint, including e-commerce,”​ said Manashi Guha, general manager for the consumer product division, L’Oréal South Asia Pacific, Middle East, North Africa.

This announcement follows on from previous efforts L’Oreal has undertaken in the region.

In 2018, it began a green packaging partnership with Alibaba in China. In 2020 alone, it made 40 million plastic-free parcels deliveries across China.

In April this year, it rolled out the SustainaBox initiative in Singapore which offered plastic-free delivery packaging for online purchases from Lazada, Shopee and its own brand websites. The company also trailed an electric vehicle delivery fleet across 40 stores.

Expect greener deliveries

While the company is only starting with three brands, L’Oréal said these brands alone represent a significant portion of the products delivered online. 

These initiatives are only “just the beginning”​ and the company is gearing up to expand on these initiatives.

The overarching purpose of the initiative is to drive sustainable e-commerce solutions, which it knows its customers want and expect.

The company is using the pilot to test and learn ahead of its region-wide rollout, which it is committed to expanding.

It is already planning to roll out similar green parcels in the Philippines and Indonesia following the latest pilot.

At the moment, this initiative is expected to reduce the equivalent of 180,000 plastic water bottles made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) recyclable material across the markets over the course of the three months.

When it does scale up the company hopes to see larger-scale plastic packaging reductions.

In addition to making e-commerce deliveries greener and more sustainable, L'Oreal has also committed to reducing virgin plastic in the packaging of its products. By 2030, it expects 100% of the plastic used in its packaging to come from recycled or bio-based sources.