PETALING JAYA: L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty company, believes that lasting business success is built upon ethical standards which guides growth coupled with a genuine sense of responsibility for the community at large.

As a company that believes in good corporate citizenship, L’Oréal is keen to contribute to projects that serve the wider community which reflects the company’s deeply rooted values, its Corporate Communications & Media Relations director, Tay Ai Leen said.

She told Bernama in an interview that there was an acceptance in the community yesterday that the private sector had a role to play in fulfilling its corporate social responsibility (CSR)  making society a better place. To this end, in every country where it has operations, L’Oréal supports projects that contribute to the community at large through philanthropy and long-term partnerships.

One of the latest CSR programmes L’Oreal Malaysia participated was the recently launched Haiti Earthquake Appeal Fundraising drive which aims to  to help earthquake survivors recover from the disaster.

The campaign, themed ‘Rebuilding Lives in Haiti’ was organised by the Humanitarian Organisation Islamic Relief Malaysia (IRM) with support from the Malaysia National News Agency (Bernama) and 21 other corporate partners including L’Oreal Malaysia.

The one-month campaign which started on Jan 29, was launched by Bernama general manager Hasnul Hassan and aims to raise RM250,000.

During the interview, Tay handed a cheque amounting RM15,000 to Bernama to be given to Islamic Relief Malaysia as a support for the Haiti Earthquake Appeal campaign.

She said the money was donated by its employees and for each ringgit donated, L’Oreal Malaysia gave an additional ringgit.

Tay said: “L’oreal ias a global company. We have a pledged to support the Haiti victims. What we have done globally is actually donate 500,000 euros to the Haiti Relief Fund.”

L’Oreal Malaysia, in line with its parent company, L’Oréal Group, headquartered in Paris, France, together with other L’Oreal subsidiaries worldwide, is not lagging in playing its role towards achieving the aspiration of being a good corporate citizens by participating in CSR and philanthropy programmes.

“L’oreal, as a company believes that we want to be a great citizen of the world.

“That is why in every subsidiary that we do business we want to give back to the society. This is because we believe that while business is doing well, it is important that we give back to the community where we do our business,’’ she said.

As a corporate citizen of the world, she said: “We need to balance…apart from making money, we need to give back to the society, so we believe in philanthropy work.”

She said it was also important for employees especially the young ones as they would be proud to be with a company that cares for the society.

As a caring company, L’Oreal in turn also cares for its employees.

She said half of the funds raised for charity goes to the Red Cross and the other half to the corporation which supports the relief and the victims. She said subsidiaries should also donate.

“For every dollar that the employees donate, L’Oreal will donate one dollar, so one for one.

“As a company, it pledges another half a million euros, so in total actually it amounts to 1.5 million euros,” she said.

To make a donation to the Haiti Relief Fund, a donation box was also set up at L’Oreal Malaysia’s Human Resource Department.

“Apart from the money contributed by the global company, we are happy to contribute the money to the Islamic Relief Fund Haiti,” Tay said.

Touching on other CSR programmes, she said L’Oreal has developed a tier of programmes, and that programme evolves basically on science, education and solidarity.

“So when we talk about our corporate programmes, we talk about science. Our number one international philanthropy programme is for women in science.

“It is basically about giving support, encouragement and recognition to women in the field of science.

“What we realise is in the world today, two to three per cent of scientists are female and that is a very low percentage, whereas in L’Oreal itself, out of 3,000 researchers, 55 per cent of them are women,” she said.

Tay said L’Oreal believes in giving equal opportunity to men and women and sometimes, “we feel it is great because it (science) drives innovation.”

At international level, she said L’Oreal awarded five leading women reserchers from each continent namely from Asia, North America, South America, Africa and Europe.

Tay said L’Oreal Malaysia’s  first philanthropy for women programme locally was called the “The National L’Oreal Malaysia For Women and Science Campaign.” She said the company works hand-in-hand with UNESCO as well as the Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and Academy of Sciences. — Bernama