cnn
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The escalating climate crisis is changing the purchasing patterns of many people and this extends to the $500 billion global beauty industry, which faces a number of sustainability challenges in manufacturing, packaging and product disposal.
Strategy and consulting company. Simon Kucher Global Sustainability Study 2021 found that 60% of consumers worldwide rated sustainability as an important purchasing criterion, and 35% were willing to pay more for sustainable products or services.
This shift in consumer preferences has prompted many beauty brands to set environmental goals: moving away from virgin and single-use plastics, providing recyclable, reusable and refillable packaging, and offering more transparency around product ingredients so customers can determine how “green” their purchase is.
However, consumers are still struggling to understand the sustainability credentials of many products, according to the British Beauty Council. This is because the industry’s cleanup efforts have been inconsistent and have failed to achieve a recognizable impact in the absence of collective goal setting, a global strategy and standardized regulations.
Transparency of ingredients and brands.
There is no international standard for the beauty industry on how much information about product ingredients to share with customers, or how to do so. 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 seem like their products are natural, for example, when in reality they may not be organic, sustainable, or ethically made.
“The term ‘clean beauty’ has become quite dangerous. It’s 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 become aware of their flaws. “Customers need better marketing information and certification information.”
in a 2021 report that asks 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 farming practices, pollution, waste and neglect.”
“The only way out of this is transparency,” Kendall told CNN.
Jen Lee, chief impact officer at 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, that it claims to never use in its products.)
“There’s been a conversation between natural ingredients versus synthetic ingredients. People think natural is safer, but that’s not always the case,” Lee explained. “Natural ingredients formulated in industry can have a toxic load. Heavy metals can be found in 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 raw materials were difficult to get, they arrived inconsistently, or the products did not work.”
Most makeup is created and molded at high temperatures, Plavsic explained. Purely organic materials often crumble under this heat, leading to inconsistent results and poor product performance. “Not all synthetic products are bad,” Plavsic said. “Sometimes it helps create the best-in-class formula.”
The industry’s plastic packaging represents a particular challenge for sustainability: 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) and plastic accounts 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). Estee Lauder Companies reported that its brands produced 71,600 metric tons of plastic in 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. USA it only recycles 4% of its plastic waste.
Many brands are attempting 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 reaching their goals.)
“Between 60 and 70 major global brands have made unprecedented progress” in using PCR plastic across industries, EMF Plastics Initiative leader Sander DeFruyt told CNN. But DeFruyt emphasized that PCR plastic must be adopted alongside brands that eliminate unique and virgin 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 limited supply. Meanwhile, demand is increasing across all industries, DeFruyt said. This competition increases 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 posed a challenge, forcing it to currently target packaging containing at least 50% PCR in its packaging.
“PCR plastic is more expensive than regular plastic. The cost is difficult and then the supply is also difficult,” founder Frédéric Fekkai told CNN. “PCR is something very important to us, but there is massive demand, so finding recycled plastic is difficult.”
Beauty retailers play a critical (and underutilized) role, with control over stocking decisions and supply chains. But many vary in the standards they set for the brands they sell.
“Smaller companies do more, period,” said Jessi Baker, founder of technology platform Provenance, which helps brands showcase their sustainability credentials to customers. “They move more nimbly. Some of them are good brands – climate-friendliness was part of their setup. They don’t need to restructure their entire supply chain. Their culture already has that compared to bigger brands that need to work hard to change.”
Sephora launched its “Clean + Planet Positive” in 2021, which labeled products that met its established criteria. (This is separate from the French retailer’s “Clean at Sephora” program, which is currently facing a consumer lawsuit alleging that it carries a significant percentage of products that customers consider harmful.) Target launched a similar program in 2022, with a “Target Zero” icon for both online and in-store offers that have reusable materials, recyclable, compostable or reduced plastic packaging, or present waterless or concentrated products.
Still, many of the measures taken by brands and retailers do not even address the waste and pollution generated in supply chains, manufacturing and shipping – all huge problems facing the industry.
Gaps in standardization in the beauty ecosystem can, to some extent, be filled with certifications like US-Born. B Corporation or B Corporation. This accreditation, one of the most well-known in the beauty field, is issued by the non-profit organization 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 establishing a baseline for brands to operate from when making sustainability claims would go a long way to achieving change.
Susanne Kaufmann, founder of her eponymous beauty brand, says her efforts in Austria would be better served if more countries around the world had stricter, more uniform garbage disposal laws.
“I package 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 send this to the US, the trash is not separated… and it is not recyclable,” he explained, referring to inconsistencies in recycling laws in the United States.
And when it comes to ingredients, the European Chemicals Agency lists 2,495 substances Its use is prohibited in cosmetic products marketed for sale or use in the block. But the US Food and Drug Administration only lists 11making it harder for American consumers to find safer, more environmentally friendly options. The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog, studied Laboratory testing of 51 sunscreen products. in 2021 and found that only 35% of products met the EU standard, compared to 94% that exceeded the US standard.
However, while the government can 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 little bit. A person who knows nothing (about sustainability issues) should still be able to walk into a warehouse and get clean products… But that will never be what the market can do,” he said. “Market leadership is key.”
In the absence of bold regulations or global standards on sustainability practices, this “leadership” – undertaken 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 initiative and advocacy to achieve meaningful, climate-conscious change.
