Romain Trébuil, L'Oréal: “We have one 'green' goal, but many ways to reach it”
“Align the right vehicles for the right needs and driver profiles”: that's how you get drivers to accept a Green Fleet Policy, says Romain Trébuil, Purchasing Manager at L'Oréal. “It makes no sense to suggest electric or hybrid vehicles to the salesforce; but they are the best solution for top-level management who live close to the HQ”.
Convincing top management of the need to go green was relatively easy, Mr Trébuil remembers: “L'Oréal has an internal programme called 'Sharing Beauty with All', which covers all aspects of sustainability. So it was already in our DNA”.
L'Oréal's has over 10,000 vehicles in more than 50 countries. Three categories of employees get a company car: salespeople, their managers, and top management. L'Oréal also offers car-sharing, grey cars and mobility credits. Mr Trébuil and his team started with the Green Fleet Policy in 2011, when L'Oréal externalised its fleet management. They had three goals.
CO2 -20%
“Firstly, to cap CO2 emissions at 115g/km for our salesforce. We offered bigger budgets to salesforce managers and top management if they opted for a greener car. Top management could also benefit from mobility credits. One in 10 top managers took that offer”.
“Secondly, once car policy was implemented for each of the categories, we reduced average CO2 consumption by 20% at global level. We did this by limiting selectable cars to 100g/km for sales people and 110g/km for top managers, and by including hybrids and electrics in the catalogue”.
“Finally, we offered car-sharing solutions replacing individual cars; and we gave our employees driver's ed and eco driving courses”.
Six pillars
Implementation depends on six pillars: Quality, Simplicity, Globalisation, Innovation, Monitoring and CO2.
“To achieve our global objective to reduce CO2 emissions by 20%, we benchmark best practices across our different markets, and we offer a Green Toolbox that offers our various teams the necessary leverage”, Trébuil explains. Included that Toolbox are a cash allowance, an increase of hybrid and electric cars in the catalogues, car-sharing, and CO2 caps per driver category. “Every country purchasing director knows the policy, and the Toolbox. It's up to them to define the best local policy. The ultimate KPI is the average CO2 rate per country”, says Romain Trébuil. “We have one goal, but many ways to reach it!”
