Spotlight on the environmental success at Burgos

In 2017, the L’Oréal Group reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 73% (compared to 2005 levels) at its plants and distribution centers – exceeding its target of a 60% reduction by 2020. A total of 24 industrial sites, including 9 factories, are already carbon-neutral. Here’s a closer look at the production plant at Burgos, Spain, which specializes in professional hair products.

A carbon neutral footprint since 2015

Operating since 1971, the Burgos plant is today one of the Group’s top performers in terms of the environment. Achieving its target of having a carbon neutral footprint by 2015 involved combining different sources of renewable energy, with the main source being a biomass facility installed in September 2014. Thanks to a ‘trigeneration’ system, the facility provides the plant with three types of energy – heating, cooling and electricity – meeting all the energy requirements for manufacturing and packaging its products. The feedstock for the facility is nearly 12,000 tons of wood waste supplied by the forests and sawmills of the Castile-Leon region.

To complement the energy provided by wood waste, L’Oréal uses another clean energy source which is particularly abundant in Spain: the sun. The use of photovoltaic panels helped the plant to become carbon neutral in 2015.

Water consumption: not wasting a drop

And there is more on the environmental front: the Burgos factory has been equipped with a liquid effluent recycling station since 2015. As a result of recycling the water used in manufacturing, Burgos became the L’Oréal Group’s first “dry factory,” producing zero liquid waste in 2017. One hundred percent of the water used in industrial processes is purified and then recycled in a closed loop within the site.

To find out more about the transformation of L’Oréal’s industrial plants
Look at our special report on “Operations” and read our article “Operational excellence and cost management create value”. (Source: 2017 L’Oréal Annual Report)
Discover our sustainability program, initiatives and results at: https://www.loreal.com/loreal-sharing-beauty-with-all