The beauty industry is one of the top plastic waste creators globally, contributing to 120 billion units of packaging every year, making single use packaging the biggest contributor of carbon emissions in the industry.
Unfortunately, most of this plastic waste is not recyclable and end in our landfill or as litter. Cosmetic brands have a responsibility to minimise the amount of plastic across their products.
Covid-19 increased this problem dramatically with more single-use plastic use via the creation of personal protection equipment (PPE), use of disinfecting wipes and online shopping packaging.
However, one New Zealand company is demonstrating that you can be kind and compassionate and help build a better world – while still being competitive.
Emma Lewisham, launched in 2019, is a luxury, science-led natural skincare line backed by the highest calibre of green science and innovation in the industry.
We met Emma Lewisham to know more about how and why how they’ve moved towards sustainability. Emma referred to the knowledge she had in sustainability, saying “I had a eureka moment where I could see how broken the current beauty model was. The model was linear; brands took from the Earth, made something (packaging – through fossil fuels), then consumers threw it away - take, make, waste.”
Emma continued, “So since our inception, our genuine focus on bringing about a better world has had the power to disrupt a market and challenge the status quo.”
The LCA centre (for packaging life cycle assessment) has reported that cosmetics industry could reduce carbon emissions by as much as 70% by moving to a circular model.
“I have been determined to create a circular model of beauty, where we reuse what already exists - keeping our resources in circulation, eliminating packaging waste and significantly reducing our carbon emissions. We had an audacious goal to transform the beauty industry and bring about systemic change."
"It’s not only about recycling, refills and reuse (circularity) will also reduce carbon and waste – so if we are serious about being sustainable - let’s focus here.”
Emma also said that their brand is happy to share their knowledge with other brands, though it’s one of their brand’s competitive advantages, as one brand can’t a meaningful difference when it comes to our impact on the climate crisis.
“By sharing our Beauty Blueprint, we hope that other brands can capitalise on our innovation and investment to accelerate their transition to a circular and carbon positive model.”
Emma concluded with a piece of advice for businesses starting their sustainability journey, “Maintain patience and persistence and never underestimate the power of taking one small step after the other. As it doesn’t take too long before you look back and realise just how far you’ve come.”
We, at MfE, are happy to see these examples that demonstrate the critical role business play so our nation can realise a cleaner and flourishing environment for every generation.