The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (ELC) has released its Fiscal Year 2023 Social Impact and Sustainability Report (SI&S Report) outlining efforts and progress made toward the company’s social impact and sustainability goals and commitments focused on climate and energy; packaging; sourcing; green chemistry and ingredient transparency; inclusion, diversity & equity; employee health and safety; and social investments.
 
The company also released its second Climate Transition Plan which provides a more detailed look at the company’s ambitions to reduce total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its extended value chain.
 
“I am proud of the collective efforts across our company that drove progress against our environmental and social impact goals and commitments in fiscal 2023—including our continued carbon neutrality in Scope 1 and 2 emissions, our progress in product packaging, and the expansion of our employee giving and volunteerism program. We look forward to continuing to drive innovation and collaboration to build a more sustainable future,” said Nancy Mahon, Chief Sustainability Officer, The Estée Lauder Companies.
 
“Throughout fiscal 2023, our passionate and engaged global employees continued to act on our values to drive our company and business forward, delivering benefits for our consumers, our communities and partners, and ourselves,” said Fabrizio Freda, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Estée Lauder Companies.
 
Key highlights from the FY23 SI&S Report include:
 

• Attained ELC’s global gender pay equity target across R&D, Supply Chain (including Manufacturing and Distribution), and other Corporate Functions, Brands and Regions.


• Achieved supplier diversity commitments by surpassing the commitment to increase spend with women-owned businesses to $150M, by the end of fiscal 2025, and exceeding the commitment to increase spend with Black-owned businesses — to more than double the company’s previous spend — by the end of calendar year 2023.


• Announced a commitment to donating $15 million over five years to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), through The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation (ELCCF), with the goal of helping reduce breast cancer disparities and improve outcomes.


• Advanced progress towards ELC’s packaging sustainability goals with 71% of packaging now recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled, or recoverable towards the company’s target of 75-100% by end of calendar year 2025.


• Reduced water withdrawal by 18% from direct manufacturing sites advancing the company toward its target of 20% by calendar year 20252.


• Generated more than 4,729 megawatt hours of solar energy, collectively, from ELC’s global on-site solar arrays.


• Launched ELC’s Responsible Store Design program, a framework for evaluating new stores, existing retail stores, and visual merchandising, to advance progress toward improving store sustainability profiles.


• Achieved carbon neutrality across Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions and sourced 100% renewable electricity globally for ELC’s direct operations3, and zero industrial waste-to-landfill for all global manufacturing, distribution, and innovation sites4 for the fourth consecutive year.