“Acting for nature”: Unilever pioneers Cosmetics Europe’s industry initiative to monitor sustainability

08 Dec 2022 --- Unilever is joining Cosmetics Europe’s newly launched “Commit for our Planet” sustainability initiative, casting a keen eye on the social and environmental needs the personal care industry is increasingly required to cater to. The initiative acts as a network of European companies – ranging from corporate leviathans to start-ups – holding each other accountable for sustainability progress. 

Yesterday, Cosmetics Europe, the trade association, announced the launch of the Commit for our Planet initiative, which aims to encourage industry-wide commitments that are inclusive and measurable. Through this, companies commit to upholding the highest standards of ethical, moral and responsible conduct while tackling the most urgent challenges plaguing the planet.

“We identified three themes – reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improving packaging and acting for nature – that are essential to our sector and sit at the center of our operations and their related impacts,” says John Chave, director general at Cosmetics Europe.

He explains that an inclusive environment is imperative for the collaborative success of this initiative. “For this reason, we established a flexible framework for commitments that is adaptable to each company’s needs, resources and operating environments. This ensures each company can contribute at its own pace.”

Deforestation gambits
Part of Unilever’s commitment to this initiative is the regeneration maneuvers it is implementing across its palm oil, paper and board, tea, soy and cocoa supply chains to eradicate deforestation.

Since 2017, Unilever has made traceability-to-mill (TTM) information available via supplier sourcing declarations, the palm oil processing plants in its supply chain and its direct palm oil suppliers. 

Unilever says gathering TTM data is a laborious effort and that sometimes it is unclear how plantations are related to mills.

Although the corporation may already have information about plantations, it maintains that gathering TTP is a laborious effort and that sometimes it is unclear how plantations are related to mills.

According to Innova Market Insights, one-third of consumers globally consider the environmental implications when making a personal care product purchase, and they actively look for sustainability claims. When asked about the meaning of sustainable beauty, “preventing environmental damage or protecting biodiversity” ranked in the top three definitions worldwide.

Examining the way the industry caters to this demand, the data also shows that there were over ten thousand product launches in Europe this year with environmentally ethical claims and of these. Of these, a mere 5% of the launches were face and body cosmetic products.

Zooming in on deforestation initiatives, the European Council and the European Parliament have also recently struck a provisional deal aimed at minimizing the risk of deforestation and forest degradation caused by the expansion of agricultural land to produce imported or exported commodities. Companies failing to meet the new rules may result in increased checks and fines. 

“Less, better, no plastic”
According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, net zero emissions occur when “anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a set period.”

For Unilever, this entails making sure that the emissions connected to its operations and products are cut as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions being offset by carbon removals through either technological or natural carbon sequestration (such as reforestation or carbon capture and storage).Unilever aims to collect and process more plastic than it sells.

The company established a goal of achieving net zero GHG emissions throughout its value chain by 2039, zero GHG emissions from operations by 2030 and halving the GHG effect of its goods throughout their entire lifecycle by 2030.

Using the framework of “Less Plastic, Better Plastic, No Plastic,” the company has committed to halving the amount of virgin plastic it uses in packaging, with a total decrease of 100,000 metric tonnes by 2025.

Additionally, the company aims to use 25% recycled plastic in its packaging, collect and process more plastic than it sells and make sure that all of its plastic packaging is made to be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable.

“We have a long history of putting sustainability at the heart of our growth strategy but know how important it is to join forces across the entire cosmetics industry on this vital agenda to ensure we maximize our impact,” says Rebecca Marmot, chief sustainability officer at Unilever.

“Only by working together can we truly reduce our environmental footprint in Europe.”

By Mieke Meintjes