FONDATION L'OCCITANE A VIEW OF TOMORROW Since its creation in 1976, L'OCCITANE has nurtured simple values: authenticity, respect and sensoriality. This is more than philosophy, it is a commitment to give back, carried on by our founder Olivier Baussan and held by employees. After 30 years of support to charity projects, L’OCCITANE created its Foundation in 2006 to give further impact to its commitment. We support the visually impaired, promote women’s entrepreneurship and help for the preservation and the transmission of the cultural and natural heritage, especially in Provence. Our average annual budget of €1,000,000 enables us to finance around fifteen projects every year. The Foundation works hand in hand with the L'OCCITANE subsidiaries that wish to take action in their own countries to help the blind and partially sighted like the United States and China. L’OCCITANE employees play an important role in these actions. For instance, the Nord et Sud employees association, supported by the Foundation, concentrates on training women in soap making.
LAVENDER FOR EVER Within a few years, the cultivated surfaces in the Provence region have been halved. L’OCCITANE is committed to the preservation of this emblem of Provence. In harmony with our values and our origins, we are supporting the “Fonds de Dotation pour la Sauvegarde de la Lavande” created in 2012 by the CRIEPPAM (the Interprofessional Regional Centre for Experimentation on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants). The first projects supported, amounting to €55,000, enabled to launch research programs to remove from lavender plants the insect responsible for their decline.
Lavender field, Valensole plateau (Provence)
Activity of gardening thanks to a microcredit given in partnership with the NGO Entrepreneurs du Monde.
WOMEN FOR BURKINA In the early 1980s, on a trip to Africa, Olivier Baussan discovered the wonderful properties of shea butter – the green gold of Burkina Faso. L’OCCITANE has built a strong relationship of co-development and fair trade with local communities for 30 years. To go deeper in the partnership and enlarge the beneficiaries, the Foundation works during the dry season with women in Burkina on empowerment and entrepreneurship. Only one woman out of five knows how to read and write in Burkina Faso: improving literacy is thus a priority for the L’OCCITANE Foundation. We also concentrate our actions on developing incomegenerating activities thanks to training and microcredit programs and supporting business creation. All of these projects aim to allow women to become more autonomous and start up their own businesses. To date, over 10,000 women have been able to benefit from these initiatives.
A PRODUCT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR LITERACY To highlight Women's Day, in March 2013, L'OCCITANE sold a soap made in Burkina Faso. 100% of profits* from the sale of this soap, that is to say more than €57,000, went towards building and running literacy centers for women in that country. * Sales price in store minus taxes, transport and production costs.
An eye-screening session taking place with Helen Keller International near Koudougou, Burkina Faso.
UNION FOR VISION Almost 285 million people throughout the world are blind or partially sighted. Yet 80% of blindness is preventable. L’OCCITANE is a sensorial brand and its Foundation has chosen to focus its action on one sense: sight. Since 2006, 500,000 people have received eye care. The L'OCCITANE Foundation contributes to fight avoidable blindness by financing training and eye care services of NGOs such as Sight Savers, Light for the World, Helen Keller International, Vision Aid Overseas and Medicus Mundi. We have also built a network of local representatives in our subsidiaries to support the visually impaired in their country and increase our impacts. In April 2014, the Foundation handed, in partnership with the International Council of Ophthalmology, the second L’OCCITANE Sight Award. €50,000 were attributed to the researcher Dr. Clare Gilbert of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for a research project in Bangladesh which enables the eye-screening of 10,000 children.
UNITED TO SAVE SIGHT Every year on World Sight Day, L’OCCITANE sells a fundraising soap in its stores. 100% of profits* from the sale of this soap are used for projects dedicated to prevent blindness in developing countries. In 2013, almost €190,000 were raised, to launch projects in Burkina Faso. * Sales price in store minus taxes, transport and production costs
© Credits: Yamphoto, J.Nicolas
fondation.loccitane.com fondationloccitane If you wish, you can help make a difference by making a donation directly to any of the following organizations – the main partners of the L’OCCITANE Foundation:
aide-et-action.org
sightsavers.org
entrepreneursdumonde.org
light-for-the-world.org
hki.org