From more than a thousand applications spanning around 100 countries, L’Oréal has selected 13 “agents of change” to join its sustainable innovation programme, L’Accelerator (with an emphasis on the “Or”), backed by €5 million in funding over five years.

Among the awardees are six packaging and materials companies, notably Sweden’s PulPac and the UK’s Pulpex, focused on low-carbon paper packaging and recyclable paper bottles respectively. They are joined by Sweden’s Blue Ocean Closures, which aims to replace plastic components with fibre-based caps and lids.

Estonia’s Raiku has also been chosen for its premium, shock-absorbing, wood-based packaging. The UK’s Kelpi contributes sustainable packaging made from algae, while Japan’s Bioworks joins the programme with its high-performance bioplastics made from sugar cane.

In keeping with L’Oréal’s focus, natural ingredients for cosmetics are also in the spotlight, notably French company Biosynthis for its renewable and biodegradable raw materials. Also selected are green-chemistry solutions and bio-based materials from US company P2 Science, as well as ingredients from US company Oberon Fuels derived from upcycled wood and pulp waste.

On the circular economy front, L’Oréal welcomes Belgian company Novobiom, which uses fungi to transform waste into usable material, as well as French company Replace for its technology to recycle complex, multi-layer waste. Brazil’s Gás Verde has also been selected for its biomethane, offered as an alternative to fossil fuels in the cosmetics industry. Rounding out these companies is the British company Neutreeno, whose solution enables emissions to be calculated and reduced throughout the production chain.

L’Accelerator is being deployed by the L’Oréal Group in partnership with the University of Cambridge, in particular its Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), whose teams will offer “intensive” support to the thirteen organisations selected by the programme.