L'Oreal vs Trafigura
Ethics in Our World - Good & Bad
Overview
L'Oreal - Ethical
Trafigura- Unethical
L'Oreal - Ethical Business
The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company. With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics. Concentrating on hair colour, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfumed and hair care, the company is active in the dermatological tissue engineering and pharmaceutical fields and is the top nanotechnology patent-holder in the United States.
The world leader in beauty, L’Oreal is present in 130 countries on five continents. The group's mission is to provide the best in cosmetics innovation to women and men around the world with respect for their diversity. For more than a century, L’Oreal has devoted its energy and competences solely to one business: beauty. L’Oreal’s mission is to provide the best in cosmetics innovation to everyone around the world. L’Oreal integrates ethics into the heart of its business practice. The group's mission is to provide the best in cosmetics innovation to women and men around the world.
L’Oréal’s ethics programme is proactive and supports the Group’s growth. In 2000, L’Oréal was one of the first companies in France to establish a Code of Business Ethics and to appoint, in 2007, a Chief Ethics Officer. In 2008, L’Oréal Chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Agon received the prestigious Stanley C. Pace Leadership in Ethics Award. L’Oréal is a signatory of the UN Global Compact since 2003. L’Oréal organises an annual Ethics Day where employees around the world can chat online with L’Oréal’s Chairman and CEO about ethics.
Benefit Analysis
• L'Oréal absolutely supports the objective of the elimination of laboratory animal testing. For the past 25 years, L'Oréal has been actively involved and has made major contributions to the research, development, validation and acceptance of alternative non-animal strategies.
Trafigura - Unethical Business
Cost Analysis
Due to the toxic waste that had been released in the Côte d’Ivoire there were many negative impacts regarding the environment. To begin with, the poison that is released from the toxins releases dangerous chemicals in the air. From this there is a possibility of causing mutations to plants and wild life in the surrounding areas. Also, the chemicals that are released into the air are the main contributors to global warming and causes changes to temperature. The green house gases are emitted into the air creating a chemical filled atmosphere. When the land becomes intoxicated it leads to plants dying off which causes animals/aquatic life to lose their source of food.
In 2006, the dumping of toxic waste had negatively impacted more than 100,000 people in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. It had impacted many civilians largely causing breathing difficulties, nausea, stinging eyes and burning skin. The national commission of inquiry reported that due to these effects there were 15 deaths, which was then changed to 17 deaths. Dead included a 6-month-old baby and an inmate at the capitals main prison who was 12 or 13 years old. Trafigura had announced that they were unclear of those figures and saying the waste could only have caused “low level flulike symptoms and anxiety.” The company had paid an additional $45 million in compensation as part of a 2009 settlement in the U.K. by 30,000 victims. The distribution process was corrupted when an organization falsely claiming to represent victims robbed roughly 6,000 victims of the money they were supposed to be compensated for.
The new government in Côte d’Ivoire’s had ensured that the compensation paid out by Trafigura would reach the thousands of victims affected by the toxic waste dumping. Trafigura has paid US$260 million in a number of payouts yet some victims haven’t been compensated for. In 2007 Trafigura entered into a settlement agreement with the government of Côte d’Ivoire where Trafigura paid US$195 million for compensation and clean-up costs. The company had also paid a second payment of US$20 million to the government of Cote d’Ivoire as full and final payment for any additional clean-up costs. The government created a list of over 95,000 victims to compensate; however, the government compensation process was never completed. From the US $195 million there is a doubt in mind as to how much the victims actually received. In recent years, both Canada and the USA have created laws and regulations to try to stop the illegal dumping of toxic wastes and the destruction of our environment.
Due to the events that took place regarding Trafigura, the London-based Cynthia Corbett Gallery withdrew their sponsor for the art prize. The gallery was showcasing the work of 16 international emerging artists and decided that the recent events did not make Trafigura fit for the part. Even though Trafigura had done such an unethical move, the investors were not affected at all. In November, Trafigura still managed to secure a $700m credit facility from Asian investors. Also, in March they still secured a $520m credit facility from European banks.