Commercial, Distributed Generation, Industrial, Solar, Sourcing Renewables  -  September 20, 2016

L'Oréal USA announces 2 new solar installations

^{Photo: L'Oréal's previous Arkansas solar installation, courtesy of L'Oreal USA}

L'Oréal USA on Sept. 20 announced plans to build two large-scale solar projects at the company's manufacturing facilities as part of its global sustainability strategy. 

The L'Oréal Group subsidiary, based in New York City, said the two solar projects in North Little Rock, Ark., and Florence, Ky., represent an acceleration of the global beauty company's goals to reduce its CO2 emissions by 60% from its 2005 baseline; it now expects L'Oréal USA to achieve an 80% reduction, and to power all of its U.S. manufacturing with renewable energy through the two solar projects and the purchase of "additional, locally-sourced renewable energy certificates," or RECs.

The 1.5-MW project in Florence will be the largest commercial solar array in Kentucky and the 1.2 MW-array in North Little Rock will be the third largest commercial array in Arkansas, the company said in a news release. 

"Reducing our CO2 emissions by 80% and achieving 100% renewable electricity for our U.S. manufacturing is a major milestone for L'Oréal USA," L’Oréal Americas CEO Fréderic Rozé said in a statement. "The achievement is a testament to our passionate, creative and innovative teams who have pushed us to go beyond our original ambitions. We are committed to being a sustainability leader in the United States and are proud of the progress we have made."

Both projects are being developed in partnership with Scenic Hill Solar. 

The projects are not L'Oréal USA's first steps into solar; the company was previously named one of the top 25 companies for U.S. solar capacity by the Solar Energy Industry Association.  Once these two solar projects are completed, L'Oréal USA will boast 16 installations across the country generating a total of 13.5 MW.

L'Oréal USA has been a partner with the U.S. EPA's Energy Star program since 1996, and recently joined the EPA’s Green Power Partnership as well as the U.S. DOE's Better Buildings, Better Plants Partnership that same year.  The Energy Star, Green Power Partnership and Butter Buildings initiatives are content partners of Smart Energy Decisions.