New report outlines the critical actions for beauty brands to consider for a sustainable business transition

In Make Up the Future, Quantis demonstrates how science-driven action across three levels — industry, corporate and product — is critical for shaping a sustainable future for cosmetics. The report offers an unprecedented look inside today’s beauty and personal care industry to help brands prioritize efforts on the topics that will have a meaningful impact and accelerate industry-wide action. The report draws on Quantis’ scientific expertise and extensive experience in cosmetics sustainability as well as concrete examples from industry sustainability leaders BeautyCounter, Chanel, Coty, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., French Federation for Beauty Companies (Fédération des Entreprises de la Beauté – FEBEA), Groupe Rocher, L’Oréal, the Personal Care and Cosmetics Council (PCPC), among others.

Topics covered in the Make Up the Future report include:

• Science-based targets and planetary boundaries
• Innovation and circularity
• Metrics-driven decisions and strategies
• The power of pre-competitive collaboration
• Product and brand transparency
• Naturality
• Ecotoxicity

“Climate change, shifting lifestyles and stakeholder expectations around sustainability will define beauty for the next decade. The time is now to take action to transition to a sustainable model. Indeed, it’s time to design — to make up — the future we want for beauty and personal care,” incites Dimitri Caudrelier, Director of Quantis France and Global Cosmetics Industry Lead, adding, “As a first step, brands will need to assess whether they are operating within or above our planet’s boundaries.”

A valuable resource to foster brand resilience + accelerate action

To ensure industry efforts meet what scientists say is needed to limit global warming to 1.5˚C, cosmetics companies must act decisively. Featuring insights and analysis from Quantis, case studies from industry sustainability leaders, and descriptive infographics, the report delves into the most relevant issues for cosmetics and personal care from an industry, corporate and product perspective. The report will set sustainability managers, corporate decision-makers and their teams up to:

• Prioritize efforts and resources on the topics that will make a meaningful difference;
• Identify opportunities for collaboration and innovation within companies and across the industry;
• Collect high-quality, consistent and representative data to understand environmental impacts across the value chain;
• Set bold environmental goals that will lay the foundation for resilience in a resource-constrained world; and
• Accelerate industry-wide action to make up a sustainable future for cosmetics.

A critical look at cosmetics’ environmental data gaps

Data can be a major catalyst for meaningful change. For the cosmetics industry to catch up to FMCG categories more advanced on sustainability, it will need more, high-quality, comprehensive data to understand the full scale and scope of its environmental impacts. In an effort to shed light on key areas of impact, Quantis produced the first full value chain environmental footprint estimate of the cosmetics and personal care industry. Quantis’ estimates, based on currently available data, puts its contribution to global CO₂ emissions anywhere between 0.5% to 5%, highlighting the need for additional data to calculate a more complete picture of the industry’s impacts. What the estimated footprint data can identify, however, is that the raw materials, packaging, transportation and use phase stages are the main areas where innovative and science-backed solutions can lead to significant impact reduction.

Further support for the Make Up the Future report:

“Consumers increasingly demand beauty products that are clean, safe, transparent, ethically sourced and sustainable. The only way to deliver these goals is to get serious about sustainability. Quantis’ report shows us how.” — Gregg Renfrew, CEO and Founder, Beautycounter

“Consumers are looking for transparency and product offerings that have a positive impact on our planet and society. Sustainability is no longer a trend, it is a license to operate. This report draws on Quantis’ expertise to empower beauty companies to tackle key environmental issues head-on and transform into sustainable and resilient businesses. We look forward to sharing this exciting resource with the Cosmoprof community.” — Mattia Miglio, International Marketing Manager, Cosmoprof

Want to learn more?

WEBINAR JUNE 10: Hear from Quantis, L’Oréal and other sustainability leaders in beauty as they share their journeys and how to leverage this new resource to transition your brand to a sustainable business model. Register for the WEBINAR: Make Up the Future Webinar: Beauty leaders share how science-based actions can positively change the industry’s image and its impact.

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For media enquiries, contact:
Anne-Florence Lecolier
France Marketing Lead
makeup@quantis-intl.com
+33/ 9 63 23 04 67