Co-creating a science-based approach for greater product transparency with major cosmetics players

Quantis is thrilled to announce our collaboration with leading beauty brands to co-design a voluntary environmental impact assessment and scoring system for cosmetic products.

Working closely with the 36 members of the new EcoBeautyScore Consortium — including Henkel, L’Oréal, LVMH, Natura & Co and Unilever — we’ll bring our scientific expertise to develop a common method for measuring environmental impacts inspired from the EU’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method.

The consortium is open to all cosmetics companies and aims at designing a system to enable consumers to compare products within the same category. By taking into account the entire product life cycle in the overall score, the ambition is to inform consumers of the environmental impact of products — meeting the growing demand for greater transparency and driving more sustainable consumption choices.

As the technical expert, we will help develop a robust and scientific approach ensuring that efforts to co-build the voluntary assessment methodology and scoring system are guided by and articulated around:

• A common method for measuring environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of products, backed by the principles of the “Product Environmental Footprint” (the European Union’s PEF scientific method based on life cycle assessment (LCA) for quantifying the environmental footprint of products).
• A common database of environmental impacts of standard ingredients and raw materials used in formulas and packaging, as well as during product usage.
• A common tool that enables the assessment of the environmental impact of individual products, usable by non-experts.
• A harmonized scoring system that enables companies to inform consumers about the environmental footprint of their cosmetic products.

The methodology, database, tool and scoring system will be verified by independent parties.

To drive the level of change needed, companies must look beyond their own walls and collaborate with competitors to build solutions at the industry level. As technical expert of the consortium, Quantis looks forward to joining forces  on this robust and scientific assessment methodology and scoring system to guide the sector forward.