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CNN
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The escalation of the climate crisis is changing the purchasing patterns of many people and this extends to the $500 billion dollar global beauty industry which is facing a variety of sustainability challenges in manufacturing, packaging and disposal of products.
Strategy and consulting firm Simon Kucher’s 2021 Global Sustainability Study found that 60% of consumers globally rated sustainability as an important purchasing criteria, and 35% were willing to pay more for products or services. sustainable.
This shift in consumer preferences has prompted many beauty brands to set environmental goals: move away from single-use and virgin plastics, provide recyclable, reusable and refillable packaging, and offer more transparency around beauty ingredients. products so that customers can determine how “green” their products are. purchase is.
However, consumers still struggle to understand the sustainability credentials of many products, according to the British Beauty Council. This is because industry cleanup efforts have been inconsistent and fail to have a recognizable impact in the absence of collective goal setting, a global strategy, and standardized regulations.
There is no international standard for the beauty industry on how much information about product ingredients to share with customers, or how to do it. Brands can set their own rules and goals, leading to confusion and “greenwashing” where sustainability claims are often promoted but not substantiated.
Companies often use marketing language like “clean beauty” to make it appear as if their products are natural, for example, when in fact they may not be organic, sustainable, or ethically made.
“The term ‘clean beauty’ has become quite dangerous. It is used to sell more products,” according to Millie Kendall, chief executive of the British Beauty Council, who added that such buzzwords are losing steam in the UK as British customers realize their shortcomings. “Customers need better marketing information and certification information.”
In a 2021 report calling on the industry to have “the courage to change” its business practices, the British Beauty Council wrote that too often even the natural ingredients involved in making products give way to “overconsumption, non-regenerative agriculture”. practices, contamination, waste and abandonment”.
“The only way out of this is transparency,” Kendall told CNN.
Jen Lee, chief impact officer for US brand Beautycounter, said she continues to see confusion about ingredients among consumers. (In 2013, the company launched and published “The Never List,” which currently cites more than 2,800 chemicals, including heavy metals, parabens, and formaldehyde, which it claims to never use in its products.)
“Natural versus synthetic ingredients has been a conversation. People think natural is safer, but that’s not always the case,” Lee explained. “Natural ingredients formulated in the industry can have a toxic load. Heavy metals can occur in the natural components of the earth.”
“We used to be more natural and organic,” added Sasha Plavsic, founder of makeup brand ILIA Beauty. “What was a challenge is (that) the raw materials were hard to come by or they came in inconsistently or the products didn’t work.”
Most makeup is created and molded at high temperatures, Plavsic explained. Purely organic materials often fall apart in this heat, leading to inconsistent results and poor product performance. “Not all synthetics are bad,” Plavsic said. “Sometimes, it helps create a best-in-class formula.”
The industry’s plastic packaging is a particular sustainability challenge: 95% is thrown away and the vast majority is not recycled, according to the British Beauty Council.
The cosmetics business is the fourth largest user of plastic packaging globally, after food and beverage, industrial packaging and pharmaceuticals, with plastic accounting for approximately 67% of the industry’s packaging volume, according to Vantage Market Research. Beauty giant L’Oreal used 144,430 metric tons of plastic in its packaging material in 2021, for example, according to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation (EMF). The Estee Lauder Companies reported that its brands produced 71,600 metric tons of plastic product packaging that same year.
And only 9% of the world’s plastic waste is recycled, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The United States only recycles 4% of its plastic waste.
Many brands are trying to phase out harmful plastics from their operations and adopt post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic. (L’Oreal has set a goal of 50% PCR plastic use by 2025, while Estee Lauder is aiming for 25% “or more” PCR plastic, but both are far from achieving their targets.)
“Between 60 and 70 major global brands have made unprecedented progress” in the use of PCR plastic across all industries, EMF Plastic Initiative leader Sander DeFruyt told CNN. But DeFruyt stressed that PCR plastic needs to be embraced alongside brands that remove virgin and unique plastics from their use cycles to truly make a difference.
However, PCR plastic is not easy to find: low recycling rates around the world mean there is a limited supply. Meanwhile, demand is growing across all industries, DeFruyt said. This competition raises its price, which is already higher than that of virgin plastic.
Hair care brand FEKKAI claims to have used up to 95% PCR content in its packaging, but pricing and supply issues have posed a challenge, forcing it to currently target containers and packaging that feature at least 50% PCR. % PCR in its packaging.
“PCR plastic is more expensive than common plastic. The cost is high and so is the supply,” founder Frédéric Fekkai told CNN. “PCR is close to our hearts, but there is a huge demand for it, so finding recycled plastic is difficult.”
Beauty retailers play a critical, and underutilized, role with control over warehousing decisions and supply chains. But many vary when it comes to the standards they set for the brands they sell.
“Smaller companies do more, full stop,” said Jessi Baker, founder of technology platform Provenance, which helps brands showcase their sustainability credentials to customers. “They move more agilely. Some of them are good born brands: friendship with the weather was part of their setup. They don’t need to restructure their entire supply chain. Their culture already has it compared to the bigger brands that need to work hard to change.”
Sephora launched its “Clean + Planet Positive” initiative in 2021, which labeled products that met its stated criteria. (This is separate from the French retailer’s “Clean at Sephora” program, which is currently facing a consumer lawsuit alleging it carries a significant percentage of products that customers find harmful.) Target launched a similar program in 2022, introducing a “Target Icon Zero” for both online and in-store offerings that have reusable, recyclable, compostable or reduced plastic packaging, or feature waterless or concentrated products.
Still, many steps taken by brands and retailers don’t even begin to address the waste and pollution generated throughout supply chains, manufacturing, and shipping—all big issues facing the industry.
Gaps in standardization in the beauty ecosystem can, to some extent, be filled by certifications like the US-born B Corporation or B Corp. This accreditation, one of the best-known in the beauty space, is issued by the nonprofit B Lab, which rates a company on a variety of criteria related to ethics and sustainability. However, as beneficial as it may be among environmentally conscious consumers, it is currently completely voluntary for brands to request it.
Many experts and business leaders believe that governments and multinationals enforcing regulations and setting a baseline for brands to operate from when they make sustainability claims would go a long way toward bringing about change.
Susanne Kaufmann, founder of her eponymous beauty brand, says her efforts in Austria would pay off better if more countries around the world had stricter and more uniform garbage disposal laws.
“I pack our product in a recyclable material,” Kaufmann said. (Their product packaging, which is refillable and reusable, is made from 75% recycled plastic and is 100% recyclable.) If I ship this to the US, the trash doesn’t separate… and it’s not recyclable,” he explained. referring to the inconsistencies in recycling laws in the United States.
And when it comes to ingredients, the European Chemicals Agency lists 2,495 substances whose use is prohibited in cosmetic products marketed for sale or use on the block. But the US Food and Drug Administration only lists 11, making it harder for American consumers to find safer, greener options. The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog, looked at lab tests of 51 sunscreen products in 2021 and found that only 35% of the products met the EU standard, compared to 94 % Exceeding US Standard
However, while the government may set minimum requirements, Mia Davis, vice president of sustainability and impact at beauty retailer Credo Beauty, says the needle will move in the private sector.
“Regulation can raise the floor a bit. A person who doesn’t know of any (sustainability issues) should still be able to walk into a warehouse and get clean products… But that’s never going to be what the market can do,” she said. “Market leadership is key.”
In the absence of bold regulations or global standards on sustainability practices, this ‘leadership’, taken by both brands and customers in the beauty market, is likely to be the most immediate impact vector for addressing the industry’s climate shortcomings. . It will take continued collective advocacy and initiative to see meaningful climate conscious change.
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