PLANET BEAUTY
As a beauty-loving
biochemist, Brianne West
quickly realized the products
in her bathroom were
unnecessarily made of water.
“Cosmetic chemists call
[water] ‘profit-making liquid.’
It’s essentially free,” she says.
“Conditioner is probably
the worst offender—it’s
about 90 percent water
compared to 60 percent in
shampoo. You’re shipping
a plastic or glass bottle that
contains mostly water
around the world, around
the country, which is a
large carbon footprint on
top of that waste.”
So West created Ethique,
a company that concentrates
shampoos and lotions
(among other things) into a
solid bar that is placed in
minimal recycled-cardboard
packaging that’s also
compostable. Of course, as
a business owner, West is
acutely aware that the
point of a business is to turn
a profit. “What I want to
demonstrate is that it is
possible to be profitable and
sustainable in one company.”
(New Zealand–based Ethique
is in the black and saw its
biggest growth in the past
two years.) But how to justify
the flight these bars have
to take to get to America?
West argues it’s still a better
deal than something you
might pick up at the local
grocery. “Because you get
more uses out of a shampoo
bar, which is lighter, the
cost per use for a carbon-
footprint basis is still
significantly lower—even
if you ship it from New
Zealand—than if you buy
something from
a supermarket.”We’re regularly urged to eat a plant-based diet for our health and the
environment. A plant-heavy beauty routine is a great thing, too—but
we need to make sure those botanicals are coming from the right
place. Enter: the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, global epicenter of all
things plants. This biodiverse Eden, 30 minutes outside of London, is
home to the world’s largest collection of wild plant DNA and tissue.
Monique Simmonds, its deputy director of science, has made the
study of plant chemistry and fungi her life’s work. Her research has
been employed by conservationists as well as cosmetics companies,
most recently Herbal Essences, which partnered with Kew to verify the
ingredients in its Bio:Renew line—ingredients like the hair-smoothing
antioxidant histidine.
Simmonds works to ensure that each plant is farmed responsibly. So
in this case, she asked: Where do you get your histidine from? “Because
histidine only occurs in small amounts in the roots of some plants,”
Simmonds says. For the Bio:Renew line, the answer was fermented
corn, of which there is no shortage, and which uses by-products from
the food industry—something Simmonds is optimistic will happen more
often: “Companies that use plant ingredients want to do it right.”
But the real drivers, she says, will be the consumers who hold com-
panies accountable and buy purposefully. How so? Look for brands
that talk about where their ingredients come from and be wary of
ones that highlight a plant ingredient as being exotically rare (where
there’s the potential they could be more easily depleted).
It’s one thing to create more-sustainable personal-care products. But
how to help larger businesses take larger action? That’s Erin Craig’s
job. As the vice president of the energy and climate practice for
3Degrees, headquartered in San Francisco, Craig helps companies
reduce their carbon emissions. “Almost all the companies we work
with, from data centers to fashion retailers, are changing the way
they buy electricity to purposefully incorporate more renewable
energy,” she says. “Increasing renewable energy is possible and a
great place to start.”
Sustainability is also more valuable for businesses. Craig argues
that renewable energy is not as expensive as previously thought: For
example, in midland United States, we have widespread solar
resources that are cost-effective to deploy across the South and
West. And solar generation panels have gotten far more affordable.
On a related note, companies are being held accountable for their
social responsibility. In fact, according to one recent survey, 83 per-
cent of millennials believe that business success should be mea-
sured by more than profits, and by the positive impact companies
make on society and the environment.THE
MONIQUE SIMMONDS, KEW ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS
Because protecting the planet means protecting the plants
(including the ones in your favorite shampoo).T
H
E
BRIANNE WEST,
ETHIQUE
Because we need to be
smart about the product
and its package.ERIN CRAIG, 3DEGREES
Because we need the big guys to get with the program.