French beauty and wellness company L’Occitane en Provence has teamed up with Marseille-based environmental organisation Plastic Odyssey to launch an around-the-world expedition to fight plastic waste.
L’Occitane en Provence is the main partner of Plastic Odyssey’s voyage, which will travel across three continents to raise awareness and stimulate local solutions to fight against plastic pollution.
The Plastic Odyssey Expedition exemplifies the four R’s of L’Occitane en Provence’s sustainability programme: reduce, reuse, react and recycle. Reduce focuses on testing plastic alternatives onboard. Reuse represents the expedition’s repurposed 40-metre oceanic exploration vessel, which has been fitted with open-source, low-technology plastic-recycling machines. React is represented through the expedition’s 30 stopovers to help local communities develop their own micro-plastic recycling factories.
Recycle highlights how the vessel converts non-recyclable plastics into fuel through the process of pyrolysis. The boat’s rear houses a research and development laboratory and a recycling workshop; while the front of the boat will be used a plastic reduction showroom. The vessel will sail along Latin America, Africa and Asia’s most polluted waters, completely powered by plastic waste.
The Plastic Odyssey vessel serves as an ocean protection ambassador. It carries 15 technologies onboard to be tested in various local areas as well as a travelling village which will be deployed in stopovers to raise public awareness about plastic pollution. Its journey will be filmed and broadcast through a network of L’Occitane en Provence media partners.
“We are facing an environmental crisis, and companies need to do more than reduce their impact on the planet,” said L’Occitane en Provence Global Brand Director Adrien Geiger. “They have a responsibility and a duty to find real, concrete solutions in order to generate value for our ecosystem.
“As the main sponsor of Plastic Odyssey, L’Occitane en Provence is supporting a project focused on transforming plastic waste into a resource and thus helping to develop a new economy. We’re proud to be the main partner, for a duration of five years, and to be part of this incredible human adventure for the good of mankind.”
L’Occitane’s environmental programme is built on six key principles. These are to respect biodiversity, fight pollution, support local producers, encourage women’s entrepreneurship, promote craftsmanship and to fight avoidable blindness.
Beyond the expedition, L’Occitane en Provence has also launched several initiatives to reduce its own plastic waste. By the end of this year, the company aims to introduce ten new eco-refills across its range. By 2025, it aims to reduce plastic materials across its value chain by 50%.
It also set an ambitious 3 x 100 target: which means that 100% of all plastic bottles will be made from 100% recycled plastic and that 100% of its stores will offer recycling services.
L’Occitane goes for Gold at Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail ExpoFrench beauty company L’Occitane en Provence is a Gold Partner of the Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo. The unique 5-day ‘live’ event, followed by a 30-day showcase, begins on 12 October, just after the conclusion of the Chinese Golden Week holidays. It features a star-studded series of events across the five days, including a Symposium, category workshops and a new consumer research initiative. Registration is free for buyers, exhibitors and preferred media partners (Click here to register). |