L’Oréal’s Ezgi Barcenas sees as China as a window of possibilities for sustainable beauty

“I see China as a window to the future,” says Ezgi Barcenas, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer of L’Oréal. The statement captures how the company now understands China’s role in its sustainability transformation. During a recent visit to the market, Barcenas described China not as a destination for rolling out global strategies, but as a place where future-facing models of sustainable beauty are taking shape. “What excites me is how this week I’m getting a glimpse into the future and possibilities that we can really use the power of tech and the collaboration mindset to shape the future of sustainable beauty,” said Barcenas. That perspective frames L’Oréal for the Future, the Group’s long-term sustainability blueprint. Sustainability, in Barcenas’ view, is not a checklist of initiatives. It is a system that must operate at scale, integrate innovation, and continuously evolve alongside consumer behaviour, technology and societal expectations. Sustainability as a living system, not a set of isolated actions At L’Oréal, sustainability today functions as an operating framework. It informs how products are designed, how materials are sourced, how innovation pipelines are built and how consumers are engaged across channels. This approach is formalized through L’Oréal for the Future, launched in 2020 and now entering a phase defined by execution and scale. The strategy is shaped by what Barcenas calls “dual excellence” — the conviction that financial performance and positive social and environmental impact must advance together. “For us, I think what’s really exciting is how in everything we do, we continue to pursue what we call dual excellence. We look for superior financial performance while also combining it with positive social environmental impact,” Barcenas said. That combination, she adds, creates a virtuous cycle: stronger performance enables deeper investment in innovation, while innovation sharpens understanding of consumer and community needs, reinforcing long-term value creation. “This really becomes a virtuous cycle in a way because it allows us to better understand the needs of our communities, the needs of our consumers and allows us to think of new and different ways to serve them better in their everyday beauty and hygiene needs,” Barcenas said. From science heritage to a structured sustainability architecture Founded in 1909, L’Oréal’s reliance on science has long defined its approach to innovation. Under L’Oréal for the Future, that heritage now underpins how the company approaches responsibility. Barcenas consistently emphasises curiosity and learning as organizational traits that enable sustainability to move beyond compliance. “None of that would be possible without a learner’s mindset,” she said. “And that’s what’s incredible about L’Oréal. A company born out of science, we are always curious about what is next, what is pioneering, pushing the boundaries, thinking of new opportunities and new potential.” Over time, that mindset has been translated into a more structured system. L’Oréal for the Future is organized around four core pillars — climate, nature, circularity and communities — which are increasingly embedded into governance, investment decisions and operational processes. What has evolved since the strategy’s launch is not ambition, but precision. Sustainability considerations are now built into how products are formulated, packaged and brought to market, rather than layered on afterwards. Barcenas describes this as a global vision implemented through local relevance: “The global strategy and vision is defined by our entire team of teams building on our heritage, our teams of science, resources, data, skin health, hair health.” Refill as behavioral innovation embedded in everyday beauty One of the most visible expressions of this system is refill. Within L’Oréal for the Future, refill is positioned not simply as a packaging solution, but as a behavioral lever that connects circularity with everyday consumer action. By reducing material use at the source, refill delivers environmental benefits. By offering convenience and value, it encourages repeated adoption. Barcenas frames packaging as a critical moment in the consumer journey. She tells Jing Daily, “Packaging is the first touch point that our consumers have with our products. It represents a significant role in that consumer journey.” China has emerged as a leading market for refill within the Group. Refill formats have been activated across more than 10 L’Oréal brands locally, spanning skincare, haircare and makeup. These include Kérastase Elixir Ultime hair oil, Lancôme Absolue soft cream, and Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream — premium products where performance and sensorial experience remain non-negotiable. “In China we have activated refills across 10 brands in haircare, skincare, and makeup,” Barcenas said. Globally, L’Oréal has increased its refillable offerings 17-fold over the past five years. China has contributed disproportionately to both scale and learning, informing how refill formats are designed, priced and communicated elsewhere. “I’m proud to say that China is the number one market when it comes to our refill business,” Barcenas said. Innovation beneath the surface: Scaling solutions beyond pilot project While refill represents the most visible layer of circularity, Barcenas is clear that long-term transformation depends on what happens beneath the surface. This belief underpins initiatives such as the Sustainable Innovation Accelerator, which focuses on identifying solutions that are supply-chain-ready, economically viable and capable of scaling beyond pilot phases. The goal is not only internal advantage, but industry progress. Barcenas defines her role in this process as one of translation and orchestration. “I would like to think of myself and my team’s role as the solutionists, not only understanding the evolving climate science and the socioeconomic gaps that may exist out there that we can solve for, but also identifying the scalable solutions, the partnerships, the collaborations,” she said. China plays a meaningful role as an applied-innovation and learning hub within this ecosystem. One example is Rightway, a Chinese startup specialising in low-carbon material using carbon capture technology and bio-based materials. Working with L’Oréal China, Rightway has developed sustainable wrapping materials and parcel fillers designed for China’s high-volume e-commerce environment, addressing packaging waste and logistics emissions at a system level. China as a source of learning, co-creation, and global insight For Barcenas, China’s importance lies not only in market scale, but in its capacity to generate insight and co-create solutions. “We don’t translate global to local by copying and pasting. It really comes down to locally how it is informed by local insights, how it is driven by local partnerships, how it is empowered by local technology and innovation,” she said. “We actually call this glocal [global + local] approach.” Chinese consumers’ expectations around convenience, performance and value continually inform how sustainability initiatives are designed and communicated. Those insights increasingly travel upstream, shaping how global strategies are refined. “We learn from each other, we learn from feedback, and we look for ways to inform our global strategy, or to identify best practices that then become international references,” Barcenas said. Mobilizing the ecosystem: Sustainability as collective effort Barcenas is explicit that sustainability outcomes cannot be delivered by any single company. “We cannot do it alone. We have to work upstream starting from our suppliers all the way downstream to our customers, retailers and partners,” she said. Under L’Oréal for the Future, the Group has intensified engagement across its value chain. In China, this includes partnerships with platforms such as JD.com, where sustainability has been integrated into the online shopping journey through initiatives such as refills, FSC-certified packaging, and no-gift-box options. This ecosystem approach reflects a leadership model centred on coordination rather than control — aligning capabilities so progress in one area reinforces the whole system. A system designed to endure As L’Oréal for the Future advances toward its 2030 horizon, the emphasis is increasingly on resilience and relevance. “Sustainability is not a destination,” said Barcenas, who believes that it’s about imagining a future together and co-developing and co-designing that future. China, viewed through this lens, is not a challenge to be managed, but a source of insight into what sustainable beauty can look like when innovation, consumer behaviour and ecosystem collaboration align.

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L’Oréal’s Ezgi Barcenas sees as China as a window of possibilities for sustainable beauty