Driving sustainability

The cosmetics and personal care industry fully recognises its key role in minimising the environmental footprint of its products and processes. Reflecting this, cosmetics companies are implementing a broad range of strategies to improve the sector’s sustainability:

  • Environmental and social criteria are carefully considered when sourcing ingredients and packaging materials. The use of sustainable materials is being prioritised, and steps are being taken to conserve and protect biodiversity.
  • More efficient processes and technologies are being used during manufacturing to reduce energy and water use, and to minimise emissions, pollution and waste. Where possible, energy is derived from renewable sources.
  • Cosmetics companies are adapting their distribution practices to reduce the emissions from transport.
  • Recognising that an important part of the environmental footprint of cosmetic products is linked to their use and disposal, the industry is engaging with consumers to raise awareness about the sustainable use and disposal of products.

Commit for Our Planet

Commit for Our Planet is an unprecedented industry-wide initiative to reduce the overall environmental footprint of the cosmetics industry. It was launched in December 2022 and encourages all cosmetics and personal care companies to take part in a joint industry effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve packaging solutions and act for nature. Commit for Our Planet is based around a series of voluntary commitments, accompanied by tools to support participating companies. It works with companies in the areas of climate, packaging and nature to help drive progress across the full value chain.

To learn more, visit the Commit for Our Planet website.

EcoBeautyScore (EBS)

Cosmetics Europe is an associate member of EcoBeautyScore (EBS). This is an association of companies and associations that are working together to develop an industry-wide environmental impact assessment and scoring system for cosmetic products. EBS has global reach and provides consumers with clear, transparent and comparable environmental impact information, based on a common science-based methodology. Its goal is to meet growing consumer demand for greater transparency about the environmental impact of cosmetics products (formula, packaging and usage).

To learn more, visit the EcoBeautyScore website.

The environmental footprint of shampoo

Understanding the environmental footprint of different products is a key starting point for reducing their environmental impact. The European Commission has piloted techniques for measuring both Product Environmental Footprints (PEFs) and Organisation Environmental Footprints (OEFs). Using these methods, Cosmetics Europe evaluated the PEF of shampoo, publishing the findings in a journal article entitled Developing Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) for Shampoos: The Basis for Comparable Life Cycle.

The outcomes of the project included a communication component to help raise awareness of the environmental footprint of shampoo among the public. It also set out ways that companies and consumers can reduce the environmental impact of shampoo.

Watch the video and download the shampoo PEF study reports.