Inching Towards A Greener Future
By Kaya Zhou
In the recent decade, the importance of sustainability for brands has increased manifold, as consumers increasingly look for products that do not negatively impact the planet. As the percentage of millennials and generation Z increases among the consumer base, the trend towards sustainable consumption grows accordingly, with 81% of global consumers agreeing that brands should be striving to protect the environment. But are consumers ready to sacrifice affordability and effectiveness in order to lessen the harm to our planet? The answer is not so much, as studies show that only 50% would purchase products from eco-friendly brands, attributing the lesser demand to sustainable products being frequently less convenient and more expensive. This increasing pressure from consumers has affected the beauty industry from two main directions. Firstly, many traditional companies have been looking for new ways to rebrand themselves as environmentally friendly, while from another angle, rising startups are centralizing their branding strategy around sustainability and pushing manufacturers to match the standards of convenience and affordability.
L’Oréal had been previously under fire for practices that negatively affect the planet. The company is partly owned by Nestle, who has been linked to many environmental problems such as deforestation and high greenhouse emissions. Furthermore, they are not certified as cruelty-free, which indicates that they allow animal testing if required. Recently, L’Oréal has taken action to correct its reputation, including signing an agreement to acquire Youth to the People, a skin care company that has manufactured various vegan skincare products. The president of L’Oréal Luxe, Cyril Chapuy, has stated that “it's skin care expertise based on healthy, vegan, high-efficacy formulas make it a very strategic addition to L’Oréal Luxe”. Youth to the People has so far gathered a loyal customer base because of their dedication and focus on using formulas crafted from plant extracts. Moreover, consumers are more likely to trust smaller companies to source their ingredients ethically. These factors combined render Youth to the People a highly strategic acquisition for L’Oréal to reposition themselves as an eco-friendly brand to become more popular among younger consumers.
Another dominant way in which consumer pressure has influenced the beauty industry is by pressuring start-ups to center their brand strategy around eco-friendly formulas and packaging. Their unwillingness to give up convenience while valuing sustainability has allowed emerging brands to push manufacturers to adopt new, sustainable technology. One prime example is Wellow, a sustainable beauty startup specializing in eco-friendly, plastic-free, and completely biodegradable deodorant. In the beauty industry, billions of packaging units are discarded yearly worldwide, and recent years have seen numerous products marketed by brands as sustainable. However, many of these have failed due to reasons such as being too expensive or difficult to use. Inspired after witnessing countless beauty products in environmentally hazardous packaging being thrown out at airport security, co-founders Dan Hernden and Martin Ochwat created a paper based deodorant tube that is 100% recyclable and compostable, that focused simultaneously on being environmentally friendly while maintaining affordability and long-lasting odor. In an interview, Dan comments on how Wellow is caught between forces from all angles; consumers are increasingly emphasizing the importance of sustainability while many large manufacturers are still reluctant to deviate from the traditional plastic packaging. “It’s like playing three dimensional chess”, Dan remarks, “we are playing multiple games at the same time”. Startups like Wellow are allowing manufacturers to become more aware of the market opportunities, and are pushed to divert from the standard plastic packaging.
We saw the influence of consumer opinion first hand in recent years, where social media has been dominated by sustainability movements such as “save the turtles” and pitiful images of sea turtles with straws stuck in their nostrils angered millions of users, resulting in brands such as Starbucks adopting the use of paper straws. The pressure of an increasingly aware and environmentally conscious consumer base has undoubtedly pushed existing major brands to adopt new policies and make acquisitions to further progress towards sustainability. However, this customer base is equally unwilling as a whole to sacrifice convenience and affordability, which pushes emerging startups to release sustainable product lines and encourages established manufacturers to switch away from traditional plastic packaging to sustainable innovations. From this trend, we can confirm that sustainability inspires, while sustainability with quality is what truly sells.
