AI IN SUSTAINABILITY
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF AI IN R & D?
Through analysing vast datasets, AI can identify and predict the biological activity of new ingredients and even help to discover them through reducing experimental workloads. By analysing environmental impact data, AI can help to support sustainable sourcing of ingredients and optimise production processes to reduce waste and emissions.
What is green science? Green science, Ana says, is not a single discipline but a framework.
“ It’ s a set of scientific disciplines that deal with how we source and transform our ingredients,” she explains.
This framework has four pillars. First is sustainable agriculture, ensuring raw plant materials are grown responsibly. Second is green chemistry and green extraction, which replace high-energy or resource-intensive processes with lower-impact methods. Third is biotechnology, covering techniques like fermentation that use living systems to produce or transform ingredients. Finally, there is innovation in ingredient transformation, creating new materials without depleting natural resources.
In practical terms, green science covers the earliest stages of L’ Oréal’ s value chain: the upstream processes that happen long before a product reaches a shop shelf.
L’ Oréal’ s sustainability goals Before change can happen, impact must be measured. In 2016, L’ Oréal developed the Sustainable Product Optimisation Tool( SPOT) with 11 independent experts, including the LCA Institute in Montreal. Based on lifecycle analysis, SPOT calculates the environmental impact of products from raw material sourcing to end-of-life.
144 September 2025