I set up Good Ventures, the development company that makes Evolve Beauty 11 years ago. Our mission has always been to make products that are healthier, greener and kinder to us and the planet and help to push the boundaries of what is possible in this area to help the beauty industry sustainably evolve.
One way we are evolving is to become completely transparent about our impact on the planet by publishing an annual impact report, starting with this report in January 2021 about our 2020 impact. We know that we have an impact all the way from ingredient sourcing to the moment our products are used and the packaging is (hopefully) recycled. To grow and transport our ingredients and products, carbon is emitted and water and land are used. We use energy to turn them into products. Waste is produced after our products are used. Our impact and responsibility also extends to the people within our amazing team and along our supply chain.
We have divided our impact into 5 areas we will measure and report on, and we have set goals for each area that we will work on to continue to reduce our impact. Our aim here is not only to become sustainable but to eventually aim to become regenerative. Regenerative means our impact is not zero, it is actually positive: restorative for the planet and restorative for body and mind.
This report is a roadmap for Evolve to become a regenerative business.
Laura
- 95% of beauty packaging is thrown out after just one use, and of those that are made of plastic, only 14% of plastic make it to a recycling centre.
- 50% of Brits don’t recycle bathroom waste such as shampoo, conditioner and shower gel bottles simply because it’s inconvenient. This equates to 2.7 billion plastic bottles hitting our landfills every year.
- Water makes up about 70% of most beauty products; but if current water usage trends continue (142 litres a day for the average Brit), water poverty is set to impact 2/3rds of the population by 2025.
- Oxybenzone, a chemical used in sunscreen, is destroying coral reefs around the globe. A single drop in six and a half Olympic-size swimming pools is enough to be harmful.
- Used frequently in beauty products, the use of palm oil has been climbing steadily over the past 50 years. Of this, 85% comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, where it has aided local economies but at the cost of mass deforestation andlabour and human rights abuses.
- Human rights violations (including child labour) are commonly foundin the production of cocoa, mica, shea butter, vanilla, copper, silk, carnauba wax and palm oil - all ingredients used by the beauty industry.
- From the production and transportation of raw ingredients to the manufacture and sale of consumer end-products, carbon intensive industry practices are contributing to climate change. Beauty companies have sought to tackle this by investing in carbon offsetting projects, such as tree planting schemes. However, we recognise that this is not enough.
- According to Rainforest Rescue, the conversion of a single hectare of Indonesian peatland rainforest to grow palm oil releases up to 6,000 tons of CO2.
- According to a recent WWF report, wildlife populations have plummeted 68% since 1970 and continue on this trajectory. This is partly the result of unsustainable agriculture and deforestation.
- The footprint of palm oil production is huge.Plantations to produce it account for 10% of permanent global cropland and have had a massive contribution to habitat loss.
Our long term ambition is to move beyond being sustainable to become regenerative as a business. This means putting more into the planet than we take out: restoring, revitalising and renewing the world around us, as well as the wellness of everyone who uses our products.
We have divided our impact into 5 areas we will measure and report on, and we have set goals for each area that we will work on to continue to reduce our impact.
Our goal is to become carbon neutral as a business, and then eventually climate positive. This means that we will take out more carbon from the environment than we produce, and we’re beginning this journey by offsetting 110% of our emissions via a deforestation project in the Amazon Rainforest.
Our long-term goal is to reduce our waste levels to zero, and become circular as a business. This means that we will either reuse, recycle or regenerate everything we produce… and we mean everything! We know that is an ambitious target, and that’s why we’ve started by becoming the UK’s first plastic negative beauty brand and launching our Dump The Pump campaign.
Kindness can be easily lost in business, so we put our focus into showing kindness and respect to both people and animals. With both the Living Wage & Living Hours and Leaping Bunny Certifications on the 2021 horizon for us, we’re excited to see what else we can achieve with the support of the Evolve family all around the world.
Sustainable sourcing of organic, raw ingredients is the best way to champion the preservation of forests and the wildlife within them, and that’s exactly what we do. As well as having over 200 organically grown ingredients, we’ve partnered with Earthly to offset our carbon emissions and become planet positive.This is just the start of our journey to become the greenest beauty brand in the world.
It’s the things we don’t use in our products that make them healthy for both our customers and the environment. We don’t use GMO, nanoparticles, microbeads or synthetic sunscreen, but what we do use are organic ingredients whenever we can. We’ve got 25 of our products COSMOS Organic certified, and 7 more products COSMOS Natural certified, with our goal being to get 95% of our products certified by the end of 2023.
We will remove twice as much plastic waste from the environment as we produce. That's our plastic negative promise, and we are able to do this thanks to our partnership with rePurpose Global and their Multi-Layered Plastic Packaging Recovery programme in Aurangabad, India.
Carbon emissions are a problem that is well known about, but as a climate positive business we officially remove more carbon from the environment than we produce. By partnering with Earthly, we are going to be supporting Bosques Amazonicos SAC (BAM) as they aim to reduce deforestation deep in the Peruvian rainforest.