Estée Lauder Companies
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products. The company’s products are sold in approximately 150 countries and territories under brand names including: Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, Tommy Hilfiger, M·A·C, La Mer, Bobbi Brown, Donna Karan New York, DKNY, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Michael Kors, Darphin, TOM FORD BEAUTY, Smashbox, Ermenegildo Zegna, AERIN, RODIN olio lusso, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, GLAMGLOW, KILIAN PARIS, BECCA, Too Faced and Dr. Jart+. The following summary of commitments, activities & initiatives, measures & targets is qualified in its entirety to ELC’s 2022 Social Impact and Sustainability Report. View the report here.

William Lauder

Executive Chairman, Estée Lauder Companies

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Fabrizio Freda

President and Chief Executive Officer, Estée Lauder Companies

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We believe it is vital to state clearly to the world the set of our beliefs about Inclusive Capitalism. As such, we start with our Statement of Guiding Principles for Inclusive Capitalism. Knowing that words alone are not enough, each of us is making a series of commitments about how we will operate our institutions so that they help achieve Inclusive Capitalism. These commitments are forward-looking statements based on current goals, expectations and assumptions, which are not guarantees of future performance. For more information, please refer to our Terms of Use

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Summary

By 2025, at least 95% of our palm-based ingredients (palm oil and its derivatives) will be certified sustainable from RSPO physical supply chains.

Activities & Initiatives

100% of our palm-based ingredients are certified under one of RSPO’s four certification types: Mass Balance, Identity Preserved, Segregated, or Book & Claim.

Measures & Targets

By 2025, at least 95% of our palm-based ingredients (palm oil and its derivatives) will be certified sustainable from RSPO physical supply chains. FY22 Metric: 92% (calendar year 2021).

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

Our ambition is to use responsibly sourced paper products whenever possible with a goal to have 100% of our forest-based fiber cartons FSC certified by 2025.

Activities & Initiatives

Many of our brands in the United Kingdom ship orders in recyclable outer boxes, while additional protective shipping packaging is made with recyclable paper materials and/or 80% starch packaging. In the United States, some of our brands have switched from plastic to paper mailers that were redesigned to reduce packaging weight by 79% from the previous version and have begun using 100% recycled-content boxes. In fiscal 2022, we became the first prestige beauty company to join the Pulpex partner consortium. Pulpex is a first-of-its-kind technology that creates bottles from wood pulp using FSC-certified renewable feedstocks from responsibly managed forests. The paper bottle, still in development, will be designed to be widely recyclable in standard waste streams.

Measures & Targets

Have 100% of our forest-based fiber cartons FSC certified by 2025. FY22 Metric: 95%.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

By 2030, reduce the amount of virgin petroleum content in our plastic packaging to 50% or less.

Activities & Initiatives

Our goal to reduce the amount of virgin petroleum content in our plastic packaging, as well as regulations around the world that target plastic reduction, further encourage our exploration of advanced recycling as a complementary solution to mechanical recycling. At many M·A·C stores, consumers can test our products using bamboo applicators instead of those made from virgin plastic.

Measures & Targets

By 2030, reduce the amount of virgin petroleum content in our plastic packaging to 50% or less. FY22 Metric: 87%.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

By 2025, increase the amount of post- consumer recycled (PCR) material in our packaging to 25% or more.

Activities & Initiatives

Many vendors have increased the percentage of PCR content they use in their secondary and tertiary packaging, which subsequently helps us to make progress on our PCR goal. Our work with suppliers like SABIC, a global chemical industry leader, and Eastman, a specialty materials provider, have helped us incorporate advanced recycling technologies into PCR content used in our packages

Measures & Targets

By 2025, increase the amount of post- consumer recycled (PCR) material in our packaging to 25% or more. FY22 Metric: 17%.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

By 2025, 75-100% of our packaging will be recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled, or recoverable.

Activities & Initiatives

Our internal plastic guidelines help drive the reduction of virgin and nonrecyclable plastic in our packaging, products, offices, facilities, and retail spaces. Our guidelines include options such as pursuing alternatives to singleuse virgin plastic packaging, replacing plastic applicators used in our retail stores with paper or wood versions, reducing plastic water bottles and cutlery in our spaces, and reducing virgin and nonrecyclable plastic used in our visual merchandising. Our brands are implementing initiatives to help minimize the impact of their packaging by exploring alternative models that can deliver a luxurious experience while encouraging circular behaviors like packaging reusability.

Measures & Targets

By 2025, 75-100% of our packaging will be recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled, or recoverable. FY22 Metric: 63%.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

We will drive safety to continue decreasing the total incident rate to ensure continued world-class-leading levels, with a goal of 0.15 by 2025.

Activities & Initiatives

Our fiscal 2021 total incident rate was 0.18. We are taking several steps to identify and eliminate risk across our operations.

Measures & Targets

We will drive safety to continue decreasing the total incident rate to ensure continued world-class-leading levels, with a goal of 0.15 by 2025. FY22 Metric: 0.20.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

By 2025, we will engage 50% of eligible employees in regional, brand, or local volunteerism and giving programs such as ELC Good Works, The Breast Cancer Campaign, and the M·A·C Global Volunteer program.

Activities & Initiatives

We have transitioned our volunteerism and giving goal to a new scope that more accurately captures the increased impact of employee engagement as ELC expands the reach of our social impact and sustainability engagement program globally.

Measures & Targets

By 2025, we will engage 50% of eligible employees in regional, brand, or local volunteerism and giving programs such as ELC Good Works, The Breast Cancer Campaign, and the M·A·C Global Volunteer program. FY22 Metric: 19%.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

By 2025, we will engage and mobilize employees to contribute a total of $25 million, by completing actions such as donating or volunteering, to nonprofits through ELC’s social impact and sustainability engagement program, since its launch in 2015.

Activities & Initiatives

We have transitioned our volunteerism and giving goal to a new scope that more accurately captures the increased impact of employee engagement as ELC expands the reach of our social impact and sustainability engagement program globally. The previous goal unintentionally established a disincentive to program expansion. Specifically, as we added new markets and programs, the total universe of eligible employees grew. This negatively impacted percent engagement figures even as the absolute number of participating employees increased. The new goal maintains our initial ambition and intent to engage as many employees as possible. It also enables us to adapt to new ways of driving engagement and offering diverse, inclusive programs.

Measures & Targets

Engage and mobilize employees to contribute a total of $25 million, by completing actions such as donating or volunteering, to nonprofits through ELC’s social impact and sustainability engagement program. FY22 Metric: $17.7 million.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

We commit to at least double the amount we spend with Black-owned businesses over the next three years.

Activities & Initiatives

We have made strong progress towards increasing the diversity of our supplier base. With the establishment of our new dedicated resource focused on supplier diversity, we will continue to build on the momentum to achieve our goal of doubling spend on sourcing ingredients, packaging materials, and supplies from Black-owned businesses by the end of 2023. Our brands will continue to work with diverse suppliers on long-term opportunities and expand the use of Black-owned suppliers across various procurement categories as well as marketing, advertising, and creative agencies.

Measures & Targets

We commit to at least double the amount we spend with Black-owned businesses over the next three years. FY22 Progress: Spent $43 million with Black-owned businesses in fiscal 2022—more than double the baseline fiscal 2020 spend of $20 million.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

Increase spend with women-owned businesses to $150 million (per fiscal year) by fiscal 2025.

Activities & Initiatives

We are accelerating our efforts to increase representation of women from underrepresented groups in all regions and affiliates.

Measures & Targets

Increase spend with women-owned businesses to $150 million (per fiscal year) by fiscal 2025. FY22 Progress: Spent $118 million with women-owned businesses in fiscal 2022.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

Achieve gender parity for women in senior leadership positions (SVP+) globally by 2025. Expand leadership development programs.

Activities & Initiatives

We launched the Open Doors Collection—ELC’s signature women’s leadership program—with five test-and-learn pilots.
  • We held three Intensive training sessions, bringing together women from North America, UK & Ireland, and EMEA to deliver skills and support to advance in their careers.
  • We graduated one Women’s Leadership Intensive cohort.
  • We held quarterly events with hundreds of attendees.

Measures & Targets

Achieve gender parity for women in senior leadership positions (SVP+) globally by 2025. FY22 Progress: 45% of Global SVP positions and above are held by women.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

By 2025, we are committed to reducing our water withdrawal from our direct manufacturing sites by 20%, from a fiscal 2019 baseline, focusing on our high and extremely high water-stressed sites.

Activities & Initiatives

In fiscal 2022, we implemented a well water bypass project at our Melville manufacturing facility, which is located in a water-stressed region. By investing in this capital project to optimize our groundwater-fed HVAC cooling system, we are reducing groundwater withdrawal from the Magothy Aquifer. Furthermore, our green building standards have water-efficiency requirements that all new facilities are expected to meet. For sites pursuing LEED certification, indoor and outdoor water-use reduction is required.

Measures & Targets

By 2025, we are committed to reducing our water withdrawal from our direct manufacturing sites by 20%, from a fiscal 2019 baseline, focusing on our high and extremely high water-stressed sites. FY22 Metric: 13% reduction in water withdrawal.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

Reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 50% by 2030 from a 2018 base year.

Activities & Initiatives

In fiscal 2022, we continued to make progress towards our 2030 target through a portfolio of climate solutions.

Measures & Targets

Reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 50% by 2030 from a 2018 base year. FY22 Metric: 54% reduction Scope 1 and 2.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

Reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, upstream transportation and distribution, and business travel 60% per unit revenue by 2030 from a 2018 base year.

Activities & Initiatives

We set this target in fiscal 2021 and have begun to identify and implement emissions reduction programs in partnership with key stakeholders. Increase in fiscal 2021 upstream transportation and distribution emissions is likely due to significant increases in global shipping and logistics costs, as per spend-based calculation methodology.

Measures & Targets

Reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, upstream transportation and distribution, and business travel 60% per unit revenue by 2030 from a 2018 base year. FY22 Metric: 3% increase per unit revenue (fiscal 2021).

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

By 2030, 100% of our global corporate fleet vehicles will transition to electric.

Activities & Initiatives

We’ve identified that our global corporate fleet accounts for approximately 35% of our Scope 1 emissions. We have set a new electric vehicle (EV) goal to address this opportunity to make progress towards our SBTs. As part of this commitment, we have also become the first in prestige beauty to join the Climate Group’s EV100 initiative, which brings together companies committed to accelerating the transition to electric vehicles.

Measures & Targets

By 2030, 100% of our global corporate fleet vehicles will transition to electric.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

By 2025 we will have identified sensitive ingredient supply chains and developed robust biodiversity and social action plans for them.

Activities & Initiatives

In fiscal 2022, we continued to strengthen and implement biodiversity and social action plans for priority ingredients, and to embed related programs and partnerships across our operations.

Measures & Targets

As part of our continuous efforts to address issues that may exist within complex supply chains, by 2025 we will have identified sensitive ingredient supply chains and developed robust biodiversity and social action plans for them.

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

Achieve global pay equity by 2023.

Activities & Initiatives

Pay equity continues to be a critical area of focus in our talent and rewards programs and processes, in order to support fair and equitable pay decisions and career development opportunities. This includes conducting rigorous and objective pay equity assessments as a core component of our annual compensation reviews. In fiscal 2022, we refreshed our pay equity analysis focusing on our non-Point-of-Sale population globally based on gender, and for our U.S. workforce, based on race. As part of this study, we conducted an in-depth statistical analysis of employee compensation, based on like-for-like jobs, considering factors such as grade, experience, time in role, location, and performance, among others.

Measures & Targets

Achieve global pay equity by 2023. FY22 Progress: Globally, it is expected that women will earn 98.9% in fiscal 2023 of what comparably positioned men earn (as compared to 98.7% in fiscal 2022).

SDG Focus Area(s):

Summary

In June 2020, The Estée Lauder Companies committed to address racial equity by reaching U.S. population parity for its Black employees for all company levels in the next five years.

Activities & Initiatives

ELC will provide  more equitable access to professional development and advancement for its Black employees in  the U.S. and holds itself accountable for creating a workforce that is more representative and responsive to people of all backgrounds.

Measures & Targets

  • Reach U.S. population parity for the company’s Black employees for all levels in the next five years.
  • Require diverse slates of candidates for all Executive Director and above positions in external and internal searches before hiring decisions can be made.
  • Establish stronger partnerships with Black organizations (e.g., National Black MBA Association) for recruiting.
  • Double our recruits (FT/Interns) from HBCUs and double diverse recruits from other top universities in the next two years.
  • Double the number of diverse external recruiting firms in the next year.
  • Create stronger partnerships with current and additional Black owned businesses to support recruiting.
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