Key Takeaways:
L’Oréal Groupe is elevating its sustainability ambitions through a factory of innovation, pursuing novel solutions to environmental and social challenges. The beauty giant is calling on start-ups, SMEs, and established companies to join the Sustainable Innovation Accelerator, powered by an investment of €100 million ($133 million) over a five-year period. The open call is now in its last days, with a deadline of Tuesday, September 30.
The program is part of a collaboration with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), with a mission to scout, pilot, and scale disruptive technologies and business models that will help beauty transition to a more sustainable future. Applicants will benefit from tailored coaching, mentorship, and may be eligible for pilot projects or investment towards scaling.
Bringing a network of over 40,000 sustainability practitioners and experts, CISL’s role will encompass assisting in select promising ventures and helping the ventures through an up to 12-month accelerator experience.
L’Oréal is searching for solutions in key impact areas, including:
In a press release, Ezgi Barcenas, L’Oréal Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer, emphasized that the company is doubling down on its past learnings and trying to amplify its impact by engaging external innovators.
CISL’s Executive Director and Chief Innovation Officer James Cole echoed this, noting that some of the strongest proposals may come from beyond the beauty sector. “The challenges ahead require pulling in ideas from adjacent industries,” he said. The beauty industry, he added, has a special role in shaping behavior and culture, which gives it leverage others may lack.
The initiative builds on L’Oréal’s for the Future roadmap, launched in 2020, which commits to addressing climate change, preserving biodiversity, driving circularity, and lifting up marginalized communities. Progress so far includes moving nearly all of its sites to renewable energy and increasing the share of water used in industrial processes that is recycled or reused. Also notable is the expansion of refillable and reusable packaging across many of its brands.
For innovators, this isn’t just a funding opportunity. It promises access to L’Oréal’s vast brand portfolio, R&D strength, and implementation pathways. For L’Oréal, the challenge is to integrate external innovation fast enough to meet its own environmental targets and to maintain credibility with increasingly sustainability-literate consumers and stakeholders. The accelerator is therefore not an optional extra, but a strategic lever at a critical moment in the industry’s evolution.
