Carbon beauty: #Cleantech
Consumers are more and more sensitive to the carbon footprint. They change their habits consumption due to more frequent extreme climatic episodes.
During the last COP 27, the United Nations (UN) made a statement: currently, 93% of companies in the world will not achieve their goal of reducing their carbon footprint.
2020 - 2030 is therefore a key period to succeed in the transition to a decarbonized economy, in order to avoid crossing the tipping point and generating irreversible climate chaos.
What are the tracks and innovations implemented to decarbonize beauty and achieve at least carbon neutrality, or even a positive carbon impact (also called carbon sequestration)?
Carbon Capture
Negative emission technologies are defined as technologies that store or sequester more greenhouse gases than they produce. It has two main forms: the nature-based solution with reforestation and afforestation and then the technological solution such as capture and storage directly in the air, bio-charcoal, carbon sequestration in the soil, or enhanced weathering.
Higher concentration of CO2 increases plant growth: carbon dioxide fertilization. Plants produce more leaves in response to increased CO2, Agroforestry aims to mix crops to fight against green deserts (intensive monoculture) however, trees take decades to grow to store carbon efficiently.
The pioneers
Yves Rocher Foundation and Caudalie are pioneers in this field.
Since 2007, the Yves Rocher Foundation has planted 120 million trees around the world, developed agroforestry with 750,000 km of hedges by 2050, restored forests by preserving existing hedges, forests... and also encouraged citizen involvement.
Caudalie has been a member of the 1% for the Planet collective since 2012. The company donates 1% of its worldwide sales to associations for the protection of the environment. Caudalie's goal is to reach 10 million trees planted by 2023. In parallel, Caudalie has committed to the 100% Plastic Collect initiative since 2020, to collect and recycle as much plastic waste as it produces.
Carbon Neutral Packaging
LVMH and Revlon have a partnership with Origin Materials to acquire zero-carbon PET for packaging manufacturing. The PET produced using Origin Materials' technology is functionally identical to petroleum-based PET. But, with a significantly smaller carbon footprint since it is made from carbon-capturing wood residues and old cardboard. The chemical catalysis process converts C6 cellulose into four sub-blocks, one of which can be used to make PET with almost zero carbon impact.
Bybi: carbon negative skin care
This skin care product captures more carbon than it emits through its packaging and production. Audited by Carbon Trust, the brand claims that with 12.6g of CO2 per product, the care saves the equivalent of the emissions of 11 loads of iphone.
Packaging components such as the vivomer cap and nozzle are in a polymer (polyhydroxyalkanoate) that uses bacteria that can create a polymer from their cells. These microbes see the polymer as a food source and can degrade the cap in 52 weeks without greenhouse gas emissions or residual microplastics. Their bottle and carton are made from cane sugar, a material that is 100% recyclable and where 1Kg of cane sugar stores 3Kg of carbon.
Ethique Climate Positive
Since March 2021, Ethique offsets 120% of its carbon emissions. Their carbon footprint is measured every year by EKOS, with the aim of measuring and then offsetting the emissions. Their offices are powered by 100% renewable energy thanks to Ecotricity. As far as travel is concerned, their air travel is offset through Air New Zealand or through applications such as sustainabletravel.org and their commute to work through Ecologi.
Climate care
Nivea men climate care moisturizer has a CO2 recycling technology, the carbon dioxide is collected directly from heavy industry stacks (e.g. metallurgy) and through bioreactors. The CO2 is converted into cosmetic ethanol through fermentation. The moisturizer contains 14% ethanol that was obtained through this CO2 recycling method. The formula is free of microplastic, silicone and PEG. This men's product is climate neutralized and manufactured using 100% renewable electricity. The formula is 99% biodegradable and its packaging is 100% recyclable.
Carbon Capture Soap
CarbinX™ captures carbon dioxide emissions from building heating systems and transforms them into non-toxic pearl ash (potassium carbonate) to make soap bars. The machines invented by CarbinX use a city building heating system that uses natural gas and allows through a patented system to reduce carbon impact. A single machine recycles as much carbon dioxide as 300 planted trees (6 to 8 tons of CO2).
Blockchain Tracking
Clarins Trust is a traceability platform based on the Neurochain blockchain for the sourcing of raw materials but also the carbon impact. Named Clarins T.R.U.S.T. (for Traceability, Responsibility, Uniqueness, Security, Transparency), this technology takes the form of an interface accessible from the clarins.com website, on which the consumer only has to enter the batch number of his Clarins skincare product to discover its entire course.