Today the beauty industry produces over 100 billion units of waste per year. Although most beauty products are made to use once and be thrown away, one beauty company is doing away with the status quo and changing what it means to be a green company.
Emma Lewisham has teamed up with Dr. Jane Goodall to create a beauty brand with a carbon positive status, meaning that the company actually removes more waste from the Earth than it creates, which is far from the norm in the beauty industry. Lewisham told Harper’s Bazaar, “The problems we face are so much greater than the success of one business or brand, and if we are going to solve them, collaboration is key. We must tear down the barriers of competition once and for all. … This has to be the future of beauty.”
The New Zealand-based brand creates reusable containers for all of their products, urging customers to order refills instead of buying new containers. Some of the brand’s products include serums, skin creams, cleansers and sunscreen. Lewisham focuses on finding natural ingredients that work as well as chemical products on the market.
The circular business model of the company is unique, and the brand takes extra precautions to make sure their business practices are up to snuff, including tasking environmental organization agencies like Toitū Envirocare to track their carbon emissions. And founder Emma Lewisham is also urging other beauty industry giants to follow in her footsteps, especially when it comes to reusable packaging. “After all, why would you invest time and resources into producing something that is inherently designed to be thrown away?” Lewisham asked in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.