Our dedication to environmental sustainability this Earth Month and every month

An Earth Month Op-Ed by Sue Fox, Senior Vice President/ General Manager, The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland

Company Feature, 30 Apr 2021

As we wrap up Earth Month 2021, I’m proud to reflect on the UK’s leadership position when it comes to environmental stewardship, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic throwing the link between the health of the environment and the wellbeing of our collective society into sharp focus. Last week the Prime Minister announced that the UK will set in law the world’s most ambitious climate change target - cutting emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. This raises the bar on tackling climate change overall, ahead of the UK’s Presidency of the COP26 United Nations Climate Summit in November 2021, building on the UK’s strong legacy of pioneering green innovation.

The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) has long understood that environmental stewardship and long-term business value creation are not separate. Sustainability, local community, and social impact programmes have been a part of our seven-decade history and remain at the core of the company’s work today. Throughout my 25+ years at the company, I’ve been fortunate enough to live and work in many different parts of this earth, our world: the United States, Asia, South Africa and Europe. Each of these diverse parts of the globe are uniquely different, but wherever I’ve found myself, ELC stays true to the founding family values that have always guided us. Indeed, we like to describe ourselves as a Beauty Inspired, Values Driven company.

Sue Fox, Senior Vice President/General Manager, The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland

Business has a very important role to play in addressing climate change and we are committed to doing our part. For example, last November, we announced that we had met our global goals to achieve Net Zero emissions and source 100% renewable electricity for our entire direct operations, reaching the target we set on joining the internationally-recognised RE100 Campaign in 2017. The company’s growing investment in largescale wind and solar energy to power our operations around the world - including investing in a 1MW rooftop solar PV system at our UK manufacturing site in Petersfield in 2017 - greatly contributed to the achievement of these goals. To reduce carbon emissions even further and take more decisive action on climate change in the coming decade, last November ELC set new science-based targets, including emission reduction targets across our entire direct operations and values chain.

However, environmental stewardship goes beyond addressing climate change. Action to address packaging is needed - and quickly. Globally, ELC has committed to making 75 -100% of its packaging recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled or recoverable by 2025. Achieving this goal won’t happen overnight, but I’m proud of the progress that’s been made thus far. To name just a couple of examples, Aveda is a pioneer for the use of 100% post-consumer recycled PET packaging in beauty and Origins was the beauty industry’s first recycling program to accept packaging from other brands in 2009. ELC is also contributing towards a UK reforestation project, in partnership with the Future Forest Company, and La Mer is helping to protect marine habitats across the globe, through charitable donations and awareness-raising.

Whitman UK Solar Array

As always, our dedicated and talented colleagues play an essential role in bringing the company’s values to life, which is why it’s exciting that each and every person working at ELC now has access to sustainability and social impact education via our Interactive Learning Hub. Informative events, featuring inspiring external speakers, and employee volunteering opportunities via ELC Good Works are also regularly offered to colleagues.

It shouldn’t take a pandemic for us to recognise the pressing need to take action to protect our planet. That’s why this Earth Month - and indeed every other month - we will redouble our efforts towards embedding social impact and sustainability into our daily activities, continuing to partner with local community organisations, and support an inclusive and diverse workforce. Earth Month may pass but our resolve won’t.