What’s the most sustainable beauty brand?

If you’ve ever wondered at headlines like ‘L’Oreal and Unilever named most sustainable companies worldwide’ (Well And Good) then this post is for you. What is really the most sustainable beauty brand out there? We’ll find out.

Look at the biggest beauty corporations like L’Oreal, Unilever, Estée Lauder, Baiersdorf and Kao. The first thought crossing your head won’t be that you admire them for their efforts in sustainability. On the contrary, very likely you’ll think of plastic packaging, burning rainforests and so on. But maybe (maybe!) you should rethink.

For over ten years now, the CDP (formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project, but they’ve since branched out from only concentrating on carbon emission) conducts a worldwide study on whether companies employ sustainable practices.

What is the CDP?

The CDP (woman-founded, btw), is a global force in its own right. It’s a non-profit that manages a yearly survey to index sustainability efforts of companies, cities/regions and governments worldwide. They work with over 6000 corporations, some of the biggest in their area, asking them to track not only carbon emissions, but also their use of resources like wood and water.

They don’t only do that for consumers like you and me. Very likely, as a regular consumer, you’ll the see headline above pop up once a year and that’s it. From their Wikipedia entry:

“It aims to make environmental reporting and risk management a business norm, and drive disclosure, insight and action towards a sustainable economy.”

Survey results mainly give investors data for their own risk assessment, and best-practice examples to competitors to identify areas of potential innovation and more cost-effective production.

Data for investors and consumers

Environmental issues like natural disasters following climate change pose not only risks, but also huge opportunities (as cynical as it sounds) for businesses. While a growing number of consumers demand sustainable products, corporations as well seem to realise that producing sustainably might cut back risks and potential losses. In addition, that might well gain them positive PR and higher sales. This is very likely a huge incentive for companies that after all want to make a lot of money. The CDP honours companies’ making their sustainability efforts transparent.

Goals, aims and plans

Companies that emit a lot of CO2 can rake in A grades: the report honours mainly change. Spiegel Online gives an example from the newest report (paraphrased): a cement producer will have huge CO2 emissions, but CDP honours when they set themselves scientifically based sustainability goals, start to use renewable energy and makes their subcontractors reduce their CO2 emissions.

It’s the goal that counts, not the end result. L’Oreal, for example, pledges to be CO2 emission-free in 2050. For me, that’s a timeframe so huge it becomes nearly meaningless, but still, CDP honours that approach. And companies (so-called leaders) that get A grades gain huge traction.

Media company Happi puts it this way:

“A List companies are considered leaders because of their transparent and comprehensive disclosure of climate data, thorough awareness of climate risks, demonstration of strong governance and management of those risks, and demonstration of market-leading best practices, according to CDP.”

Findings of the 2019 report

 L’Oreal (Lancome, Kiehl’s, Armani, YSL, Biotherm, Vichy, Kerastase, essie, NYX for example) and Unilever (Dermalogica, Kate Somerville, Living Proof, Hourglass, Ren, Murad, Dove, Ponds and many more) win both win triple As (see categories in table above).

Unilever was recommended for ditching brands that weren’t sustainable from their portfolio while acquiring especially low-carbon brands. L’Oreal was lauded for their renewable energy programme and a supply chain most protected from physical climate risks (Bloomberg).

L’Oreal: ‘Sharing Beauty with All’

L’Oreal’s programme ‘Sharing Beauty with All’ that basically tracks their company values, shines some light on that: Sustainability Director Jonathan Maher gives an example of producing sustainably:

“We have clear targets in terms of reducing CO2 emissions, water use and waste, and that applies to all of our facilities worldwide. For example, we have reduced water consumption in our plants and distribution centers 40 percent since 2005. Our goal is 60 percent reduction by 2020.”

(Sustainablebeauty)

They also choose suppliers for their environmental efforts (that comes into play with raw materials or packaging, for example).

Sustainable, how?!

If you’re still wondering how L’Oreal can score that high (in a score system that doesn’t only tell you about real sustainable changes, but also a lot about efforts and goals to entice investors and customers), here’s it: Corporations like Unilever and L’Oreal have the power to dictate suppliers what they want, can do a lot in-house and reduce transport costs, for example.

If that doesn’t help, they ditch brands that aren’t producing sustainably. Presto, a grade A sustainability rating!

Less cynically put, if you choose to buy Unilever and L’Oreal brands, you also choose to back their efforts and cement investors’ beliefs that it pays for them to strengthen their sustainable efforts. 

What’s the best sustainable beauty brand to buy from?

Still, buying from local sustainable companies MAY be the better solution. In the end, it’s comparable to buying sustainably grown apples from New Zealand – but in a supermarket in Germany. No matter how sustainably that apple was grown, it will still have a huge CO2 impact from being imported.

I’m STILL lobbying for a cool, regional sustainable makeup brand with fun colours and a good shade range. (Let’s add some great skincare and haircare to that.) Is that too much to ask?!??!??!??!

But until we have that, it’s both a good idea to 1) shop your stash and buy mindfully, and 2) hold corporations like L’Oreal and Unilever accountable to actually reach their goals and don’t pay just lip service to sustainable ideas.