Planet Week
The planet pillar focuses on being able to redefine the term sustainability and to be able to take into account the variety of the ‘Re’ practices such as: reduce, repair, reuse, recycle, re purpose, restore and regenerate. This can be expressed in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are described to be a universal call to action to end and or decrease different aspects of a low quality of life. The term circular economy can be defined as ‘an economic system based on the reuse and regeneration of materials or products, especially as a means of continuing production in a sustainable or environmentally friendly way’. This concept is stated to have ‘gained traction with many companies looking to operate in a way which minimises waste.’ One fashion company that evidently uses the circular economy principles is MUD Jeans where they have used these principles in the jeans they have produced where 40% of the denim used is recycled and the remaining is organic cotton from using this recycled denim. This brand uses high quality products to increase and extend the life of their products as well as working to avoid waste, reducing water use and carbon dioxide emissions. Once a pair of jeans does eventually reach their final stage, the jeans are sent back from the customer to be recycled again, thus following circular economic principles (www.considerbeyond.com, n.d.). In terms of cosmetic companies, REN Clean Skincare has made a zero-waste pledge back in 2018 and has managed to complete it in 2021 through their use of circular economics. REN Clean Skincare have also managed to overhaul their packaging process and thus allowing their products to become 100% recyclable. REN has also succeeded in debuting world-first initiatives which include their: Infinity Recycling program and their pioneering recycled and recyclable aluminium sample tubes. All of these initiatives therefore have led to the re-purposing of 16 tons of plastic and saving approximately 900 kg of plastic in 2021 (REN Clean Skincare, n.d.).
Furthermore, sustainability in relation to cosmetics could be argued to be fluctuating depending on the company or brand. This can correlate with circular economics which is based on the four key principles of: limiting waste, reusing where possible, recycling and recovering to turn waste into resources. Some brands may only be able to tick off less than four of these mentioned goals and thus leading to ‘79% of beauty shoppers not being able to believe sustainability claims’ (www.mmi-analytics.com, n.d.). The term greenwashing is used to describe this where a company or brand provides their consumers with misleading or false information about the environmental impact of a company’s products and operations (Hayes, 2023). A brand needs to be ‘truly eco-conscious’ to secure consumer trust (www.mmi-analytics.com, n.d.).
An example of a brand that can be seen as an example of being ‘truly eco-conscious’ is Lush due to their variety of methods to source their materials in an eco-friendly and sustainable way and to help smaller communities benefit from when they source out from them. In relation to this, a sustainable developmental goal that correlates to Lush’s eco-consciousness can be seen to be the goal of ‘responsible consumption and production’. This goal aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns (United Nations, 2022). With Lush, they have a policy that has been put in place for many years aiming to purchase their materials directly from their producers which include the farmers, growers and processors. Lush’s buying team travels the world to visit these suppliers in order to meet the people involved and thus forming connections with these individuals henceforth increasing their understanding on the raw materials they are obtaining, how they are produced and if there could be potential labour or environmental issues involved. By forming a relationship with the producers and or suppliers, Lush is able to ensure that their suppliers understand their needs of business and allows Lush to gain a further understanding of the constraints of their operations. This process of building relationships with direct producers and suppliers has allowed Lush to become a highly ethical brand as they successfully support and help finance forward-thinking projects worldwide (We are Lush, n.d.). From this we are able to see that even though there are issues with some companies enabling greenwashing and having a lack of ethics, there are still some that are continuously improving in terms of their ethics, sustainability and eco-consciousness which are small but relatively impactful actions that can help with the sustainability of our planet.
References:
www.considerbeyond.com. (n.d.). 10 Fashion Brands That Contribute to a Circular Economy | ConsiderBeyond. [online] Available at: https://www.considerbeyond.com/lets-consider-beyond/5-fashion-brands-that-contribute-to-a-circular-economy.
www.mmi-analytics.com. (n.d.). How Are Beauty Brands Embracing a Circular Economy? [online] Available at: https://www.mmi-analytics.com/blog/how-are-beauty-brands-embracing-a-circular-economy#:~:text=From%20Chanel%20to%20Byoma%20to.
REN Clean Skincare. (n.d.). About Us. [online] Available at: https://www.renskincare.com/pages/about-us.
Hayes, A. (2023). What Is Greenwashing? How It Works, Examples, and Statistics. [online] Investopedia.
Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/greenwashing.asp.
United Nations (2022). Sustainable consumption and production | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. [online] sdgs.un.org. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/topics/sustainable-consumption-and-
production.
We are Lush. (n.d.). Ethical Buying. [online] Available at: https://weare.lush.com/lush-life/our-values/ethical-buying/#:~:text=For%20many%20years%20we%20have.