L’Oreal and Veolia team up to clean up wastewater

[Magazine Exclusive] To ensure zero chemical waste discharge into waterways and landfills, multinational cosmetics firm L’Oreal has enlisted Veolia Water Technologies to design an innovative wastewater treatment system. Medilyn Manibo reports from Indonesia.

loreal manufacturing id
L'Oreal Manufacturing Indonesia is the first silver LEED-certified green building factory in Indonesia, employing aboout 400 staff and producing about 200 million units of hair and skin care beauty products for the Asean and Indonesian markets. Image: L'Oreal

As the world’s water resources become increasingly scarce and more at risk to industrial and domestic pollution, the United Nations has identified the reduction of untreated wastewater as an area of focus in the post-2015 development agenda following the Millennium Development Goals.

One company that has taken significant strides to put water sustainability goals ahead of the post-2015 roadmap is multinational beauty care products maker L’Oreal, which has committed to reduce 60 per cent of its water footprint by 2020, including how wastewater is discharged from all of its 43 factories worldwide, as outlined in its ‘Sharing Beauty with All’ sustainability blueprint.

As part of a company-wide strategy to improve every aspect of its business operations through sustainable innovation, L’Oreal has built a sustainable wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) at its largest factory globally - located at the Jababeka industrial park in west Java, 60 kilometres east of Jakarta, Indonesia - that not only meets environmental standards, but also lowers operational carbon, water and waste footprints.

At a recent media tour, the firm explained how it enlisted water treatment company Veolia Water Technologies to design an onsite wastewater treatment plant which is easy to operate and maintain within in its 66,000 square metre factory. 

Read the rest of the story in our inaugural Eco-Business magazine here.

Did you find this article useful? Join the EB Circle!

Your support helps keep our journalism independent and our content free for everyone to read. Join our community here.

Most popular

Featured Events

Publish your event
leaf background pattern

Transforming Innovation for Sustainability Join the Ecosystem →