THE SUSTAINABILITY INTERVIEW
“It requires collaboration, humility and openmindedness”
Ezgi Barcenas Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer L’ Oréal
because we’ re constantly thinking about solutions.” This reflects a philosophy that sustainability must drive business value, not compete with it.
For L’ Oréal, this translates into integrating sustainability into decisionmaking across procurement, product development and commercial strategy. The company’ s scale, with around 35,000 suppliers globally, makes this both an opportunity and a challenge. Ezgi emphasises that sustainability must be operationalised through everyday decisions, not just long-term targets. This requires coordination across teams, functions and geographies.
“ It requires collaboration, humility and open-mindedness,” she explains.
The concept of“ team of teams” – ensuring that sustainability is embedded across departments rather than owned by one – is central to her leadership approach and aligns with the company’ s heritage as an innovation-driven organisation. For Ezgi, sustainability is simply the next frontier of that innovation.
24 August 2026