9 July 2010 | Angeline Albert

Nearly half of L’Oréal’s suppliers (48 per cent) must make substantial sustainability improvements and a further 35 per cent require some changes to come up to scratch.

According to the cosmetic company’s 2009 Sustainable Development Report, out this week, audits found just 12 per cent of suppliers were considered satisfactory.

The remaining 5 per cent account for audits that were denied (4 per cent) and 1 per cent of checks that L’Oréal describes only as “tolerance zero”.

In other figures, the company said 21 per cent of vendors failed to conform to health and safety standards, 28 per cent did not meet working hour standards and 9 per cent involved some child labour.

Between 2008 and 2009, 1,124 social responsibility audits were carried out on suppliers.

Auditing will continue this year with the company aiming to carry out 400 social responsibility supplier checks globally. The ultimate goal is to complete assessments of most suppliers by end of 2010.

L’Oréal’s Buy & Care Programme aims to favour sustainable relationships over “one-shot” purchasing from low-cost providers. It also sets out to support suppliers facing a critical business situation, continuously develop relationships with minority and women-owned businesses and select suppliers that share common goals which promote an environmentally focused supply chain.

The company said: “L’Oréal is committed to long-term relationships with suppliers from all origins and cultures, based on mutual trust and transparency. To support this policy, L’Oréal has: reinforced formal business reviews with its top 50 suppliers worldwide; redesigned contents and formats to include L’Oréal sustainable development objectives all along the value chain, with the aim of raising supplier awareness; communicated key performance indicators to suppliers; and established ongoing dialogue to understand how its suppliers are addressing sustainable development within their own organisation.”