L’Oréal Indonesia Sustainability Class Series for Gadjah Mada University

Sustainability is such a vast subject, and sustainable business do not have a fix approach, with government regulation, political willingness, economic system, social welfare, available technology come to play. With the knowledge that we hold, and the improved knowledge that we are generating, we have the luxury of choice. How do we invest today, pro-actively, in developing resilience and adaptation strategies while also mitigating the climate through business operations?

Building a More Inclusive Society

At L'Oréal, we have long been committed to making a positive contribution to society. The time has come to accelerate our efforts. L'Oréal Indonesia has collaborated with one of Indonesia's leading university – the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) – to launch a program that includes suite of special courses on sustainability in the beauty industry, available to students in Semester 2, 2020.

Rika Novayanti as Sustainability Manager L'Oréal Indonesia explained, "We are proud to have this collaboration together with UGM. L'Oréal understands the future of humanity and of our planet lies also in the hands of today's younger generation who will pass the torch to future generations. Furthermore, these classes might help L'Oréal identifying how the young minds have different approach towards the world of sustainability. Not only students are able to expand their network towards the beauty industry or industries in general, they are also capable to acquire real insights on what the industries are doing, specifically L'Oréal, in achieving our sustainability commitment for 2030."

Leading the Initiatives

Under the Social Entrepreneurship program conducted by the Gadjah Mada University, the teams have delivered its first sustainability class on September 25 2020. Students and L'Oréal experts will share the subject matter once a week, staggered from September – December 2020 with topics ranging from Sustainable Organization & Sustainability in L'Oréal, Energy System, Transportation, Water Conservation and Management, Procuring Sustainability, and Community Empowerment, Sustainability Communications & Campaign.

At the end of this program, students will present their project. In this project, students will work in small teams to experience the real collaborative actions of multidiscipline solution oriented approach to the climate crisis to crowd-source solutions of critical global, local and personal challenges influencing sustainability in the beauty industry.

"Sensitizing and educating young people in this area contributes to creating a knowledgeable creative class. Through L'Oréal's values, open-mindedness, our priority is to be open to new ideas or trends from anyone, at any time. Hence this class isn't just about students learning from L'Oréal, but the other way around, how L'Oréal can also learn from these bright minds," added Rika.

Besides gaining variety of approaches and challenges in sustainable operations, students can improve their ability to communicate, translate, and wield rhetoric in sustainability discussion in responding to the changing climate as well as develop a versatile sustainable intuition.

Different Speakers Tailored to Every Topics

As L'Oréal teams are preparing the course for students, it is important to make them aware and get the knowledge sourced directly from our leading employees, the sustainability taskforce. What is unique about this program is enabling students to think and learn from the experts itself. Through this suit of classes, students have an opportunity to grasp and implement the best practices being shared by our employees to be further examined. 

L'Oréal For The Future

L'Oréal Group has outlined the ambitious roadmap behind its ten-year social and environmental sustainability program, L'Oréal for the Future. The challenges the planet is facing are unprecedented, and it is essential to accelerate our efforts to preserve a safe operating space for humanity. We know that the biggest challenges remain to come, and L'Oréal will stay faithful to its ambition: operate within the limits of the planet. As we launch the new phase of our sustainability journey, we want to build on our accomplishments but also strive to make significant leaps forward.

"Through this unique program, we hope to be a catalyst of change in the beauty sector and beyond, and to inspire our customers and all people to take action with us. By sharing our expertise and in-depth transformation towards the world of sustainability in the beauty industry, we will engage our entire ecosystem and demonstrate that companies can be part of the solution to the challenges the world is facing," said Melanie Masriel as Communications, Sustainability and Public Affairs Director.