L'Oreal and Avery Dennison Partner for Sustainable Labels

MENTOR, OH—January 13, 2015—L’Oreal Americas and Avery Dennison are collaborating to identify and reduce the environmental impacts of packaging labels throughout the entire label lifecycle.

The collaboration has already produced a comprehensive Avery Dennison Greenprint assessment showing how thinner label materials can reduce environmental impacts. Avery Dennison Greenprint, a screening lifecycle tool launched in 2010, is the first of its kind in the label industry.

“We strongly believe in a sustainable supply chain, and this is ingrained in our business practices,” said David Wolbach, assistant vice president – Packaging Hair – L’Oreal Americas. “However, to achieve the ultimate goal of reduced-impact materials, we cannot work alone. It is essential that all facets of the value chain – material suppliers, printers, consumers, and recyclers – collaborate together to establish a clear and transparent low-impact product stream globally.”

When L’Oreal announced its Sharing Beauty with All strategy to meet tomorrow’s sustainability challenges, the company committed to a number of targets, including the continued improvement of its packaging’s environmental profile. In doing so, L’Oreal is considering packaging in the most comprehensive way possible, including labels and their precise environmental impact. According to L’Oreal, the Greenprint method allows them to look at impact of label materials, including the raw material extraction, manufacturing, and ultimately the label’s end-of-life. This approach is able to identify where the biggest environmental impacts lie and to devise strategies on how best to mitigate these impacts.

This method guided L’Oreal in its decision to transition the labels for some of its leading products to Avery Dennison’s Global MDO substrate, which is designed to lead to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and waste generated in disposal.

“It is equally important that we have the necessary information available to understand the environmental impacts of the materials we are using,” Wolbach added. “This helps us immensely in our material selection process.”

By switching from Avery Dennison’s Global Co-Ex film product to Global MDO, L’Oreal has reduced environmental impacts from 7 percent to 19 percent across the categories of fossil material, water use, energy use, GHG emissions and solid waste.

Improvements in sustainability require collaboration across the value chain, including converters recommending the correct material to the brands they work with,” said Rosalyn Bandy, Avery Dennison Sustainability manager, North America. “L’Oreal’s leadership in improving the environmental profile of packaging is driving the value chain to work closer together.”