Message from the chairman and CEO

Marc Puig, Chairmand and CEO
“In 2020, despite being immersed in one of the most difficult contexts of recent times due to the health and economic crisis caused by Covid-19, we successfully completed our first Sustainability Program. Started in 2014, when, coinciding with our 100th Anniversary, we took on the challenge of becoming a more responsible and sustainable company, the 2014-2020 Sustainability Program has allowed us to undertake a genuine commitment to sustainability across our business model.“ Marc Puig – Chairman and CEO

Over these last seven years, we have sought to increase the commitment of our employees in sustainable management and we have engaged with the key agents in our value chain to work together on a more transparent, sustainable and responsible business model.

This new edition of the Sustainability Report reflects the work ethic and firm commitment of our teams and our collaborators, which have enabled us to manage the impact of Covid-19 on our company, cope with an unexpected new reality for everyone and fulfill the goals we set ourselves.

Having completed our first program and consolidated our position as a stable sustainable company within the industry, this report highlights our milestones and achievements in this seven-year period of transformation for Puig, as well as our successes throughout 2020.

Our commitment, flexibility and ability to adapt have been key factors for our performance within the Sustainability Program. In 2017, having achieved most of the objectives we had initially set, we carried out a review of the plan that allowed us to advance in our commitment to a more sustainable and low-carbon economy, bringing us into line with important international initiatives such as the Paris Agreement on climate change, the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We have promoted numerous initiatives in each of the five strategic pillars of our program: Product Stewardship, Sustainable Sourcing, Responsible Logistics, Responsible Manufacturing, and Employees and Facilities. Projects that have allowed us to successfully achieve all the quantitative objectives of our Sustainability Program. Our major challenge was to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible, while at the same time driving the growth of the company. Thanks to our conviction and commitment to the established targets, we have achieved a total reduction of our carbon footprint by 55%, on net revenues, since the start of the program.

In this regard, during 2020, we reached our goal of being 100% carbon neutral in all four production sites and of ensuring that all the energy used in our factory in Chartres (France) was from 100% renewable sources, thanks to the purchase of energy with guarantee of origin and the replacement of 100% natural gas with biomass.

We also strengthened the culture of sustainability within the organization through a proactive attitude and the adoption of policies and recommendations that are even more demanding than the current legal requirements. We engage with our entire value chain, promoting innovative initiatives to make our processes more sustainable. We continue to work on searching for more environmentally friendly resources and raw materials, on the innovation of our packaging, on the optimization of logistics and on the use of energy from renewable sources.

In 2020 we took a big step forward in our commitment to fighting climate change. We joined important global initiatives, such as the Science Based Targets (SBTi)1 project, and we registered for the first time in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)2 questionnaire, positioning ourselves as a company committed to the major international challenges and involved in the transition towards a decarbonized economy.

These lines of work will be strengthened with the implementation of a new plan, which will promote sustainability across all our brands, enhance strategic partnerships and collaborations, and promote our company as a leader in sustainability.

Therefore, at the end of 2020 we decided to create a new delegate committee reporting to the Board of Directors. The ESG Committee (Environmental, Social and Governance) is led by the Vice Chairman of the Board and family member, Manuel Puig. The ESG Committee is aligned with the commitment to giving greater significance and internal and external impact to sustainability at Puig.

Bolstered by our experience, we are preparing for a new and ambitious roadmap that will be based on reinforcing and continuously improving the five strategic pillars and on integrating the most significant international certifications and commitments. In this regard, Puig has recently joined the UN Global Compact, an initiative that confirms our commitment to the ten universal principles of the UN, as well as the SDGs.

The company’s new global sustainable development strategy will have a series of challenging and measurable objectives that will be implemented progressively until 2030. In these difficult times, our commitment to transitioning towards an increasingly sustainable and inclusive business model, sustained by a long-term vision, is essential to face up to the challenges that we as individuals and a society must respond to.

Marc Puig – Chairman and CEO

1SBTi is an alliance between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The Science Based Targets (SBTi) initiative drives ambitious climate action in the private sector by enabling companies to set science-based emission reduction targets and by showing them how much and how quickly they need to reduce their GHG emissions to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

2 CDP is a non-profit charitable organization that runs the global disclosure system for investors, businesses, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts.

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