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Alexandra PaltChief Corporate Responsibility Officer L'Oréal
Virginie HeliasChief Sustainability Officer, Procter & Gamble
Karin SvenssonChief Sustainability Officer, Volvo Group
Eliano RussoHead of 3SUN Gigafactory, Enel Green Power
William McDonoughDesigner, Architect, Author, InnovatorCradle to Cradle
Johan RockströmDirector, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
We aim to improve energy efficiency by transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2025.”
Where is L’Oréal on its sustainability journey?
L'Oréal’s sustainability journey started way back in 2013. We set ambitious sustainability goals throughout our value chain, which focused on reducing the environmental footprint of our products and increasing our social impact.
This led to a profound shift in mindset, which prompted all our employees to begin to address these issues. As part of a virtuous circle, this helped us develop our next generation of sustainability targets.
By 2020, we had reduced our carbon emissions by 78% from 2005 levels. We had reduced the carbon footprint of more than 90% of our products.
Read the full interview
When the best people in every discipline drive sustainability, this is how society will thrive.”
You have been with P&G for over three decades. How did you come to the Sustainability function?
When I first pitched my current role to the then CEO, sustainability was only loosely connected with business. I saw an opportunity to reinforce our business methods with scientific knowledge, with the primary mission of making sustainability integral to how we build our brands and innovate.
Over the years, my role has evolved from driving change on the periphery to being central to how we do business, and now I’m responsible for enabling our business to deliver our Ambition 2030 goals and helping our brands to develop irresistibly superior innovations that are more sustainable.
It is also about helping the company meet the needs of all our stakeholders – consumers, retailers, employees, shareowners, and society at large, for whom sustainability is an ever-increasing expectation.
We need access to greater quantities of renewable energy for sustainability reasons, but also as a prerequisite for achieving our net zero targets.”
As a veteran of transport, how do you think the industry has evolved from a sustainability perspective?
We know how important it is from an environmental perspective, but over the past few years, sustainability has now become business critical. We feel increasing pressure from stakeholders, investors, customers, employees, and society in general.
Sustainability is no longer just a government-driven agenda; now, businesses are leading the way and setting ambitious goals. We are talking about sustainability as a business opportunity, rather than just a compliance requirement.
We need the courage to make the transition to renewables real.”
You are Head of the 3SUN gigafactory. Can you help us understand the factory and your own role?
Gigafactory started in 2010 when the technology deployed was thin film. In 2015, we started deploying bifacial technology internally and, around the same time, Enel Green Power incorporated 3Sun as an extra division. Last year, we committed to invest more than 600 million euros to increase production capacity fifteen-fold.
As CEO, I'm responsible for running the business, and for ensuring that the 3-GW production capacity will be fully operational by July 2024. We will start with the first 400 MW as early as September this year, with the intention of reaching full capacity in July 2024.
In 50 years’ time, I hope to see a shift towards hydrogen-powered energy and renewable energy combined with battery and high-temperature thermal storage for industrial heating uses.”
You hold many unofficial titles: “Hero of the Planet,” “Father of the Circular Economy,” “Mr. Sustainability,” and so on. How do you see yourself?
I see myself as a designer working across many scales and contexts and I believe design is the first signal of human intention. I celebrate culture and commerce as powerful engines of both stability and change. For me, growing up in Japan and Hong Kong with summers in the Puget Sound, I always wanted to share the amazing things I saw with others. I always found beauty in nature – a smooth round rock or pebble on the beach, a leaf, a flower, a tree.
Nature had a hard time being ugly, while human artifice had a rough time being beautiful – crushed sharp gravel, clear-cut forests, concrete and steel. l love working on designing the future we want for our children and their children, and trying to work in accord with the laws of nature. I’m not alone; there are many who think this way. We seek to design in a way that is true to nature and true to ourselves. It is difficult to summarize my occupation or characterize my work, but, essentially, I want to turn work into play while playing by nature’s rules – the laws of nature.
Apart from imposing a price on carbon and investing more heavily in R&D, regulation and governance to support the business and technology development are also key.”
The Planetary Boundaries framework was the result of the integration of three scientific advancements. The first is the evidence that humans have entered the Anthropocene era as the dominant force of change on our planet.
The second is the overwhelming evidence that the Holocene is a unique state of equilibrium that has enabled the development of modern civilizations.
The third is the understanding of “tipping points,” where irreversible shifts in the biophysical processes that regulate the climate on Earth permanently alter our living environment.
