Emma Lewisham has announced the brand’s carbon positive product range and 100% circular designed business model. Image supplied.
The beauty industry is one of the biggest contributors to the world’s pollution problem, with the industry currently producing 120 billion units of waste every year, the majority of this being non-recycled – thus having a massive impact on the industry’s carbon emissions. In a bid to create change within the global beauty industry, New Zealand natural beauty brand, Emma Lewisham is being the change in a world-first for a beauty brand, proudly announcing its carbon positive product range and 100% circular designed business model.
Emma Lewisham will also publicly release its IP for its 100% circular designed product packaging and carbon positive model, enabling small and large competitors alike to capitalise from Emma Lewisham’s investment and to start making widespread change within the beauty industry. If other beauty brands follow suit by moving to a circular model, the brands could lower their carbon emissions by 70%.
In this trail blazing move, Emma Lewisham’s circular, carbon positive business model is the only viable solution to the beauty industry meeting global climate targets. Furthermore, to validate these world-first achievements, Emma Lewisham has gained written endorsement from iconic environmentalist, ethologist and United Nations Messenger of Peace, Dr Jane Goodall – who is proud to globally support these industry-shifting efforts.
Dr Jane Goodall says, “New Zealand beauty brand, Emma Lewisham, is demonstrating what it means to be a truly sustainable business. Through their carbon positive and circular business model, Emma Lewisham is creating environmental prosperity and showing their peers that this business model is not just possible but paramount if we are to make a meaningful difference.”
Emma Lewisham spent 12 months working with world leading independent environmental certification agency, Toitū Envirocare, to measure the carbon emissions emitted at each stage of its product’s lifecycle and have the brand independently verified as carbon positive at a product level. Emma Lewisham went further than accounting and compensating for the product footprint to achieve full Toitū climate positive product certification. The brand sought to measure its emissions throughout its entire supply chain, including the harvesting and production of raw ingredients used, transportation, product packaging and end-of-life for each product in order to put reduction plans in place before positively offsetting what could not be reduced.
Emma Lewisham’s range of circular beauty products.
Aligning with the urgent objective of the United Nations 2015 Paris Agreement of halving CO₂ emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero by 2050, when it came to offsetting, Emma Lewisham was clear that it did not just want to neutralise its impact; it wanted to create a positive one as the future of sustainability lies in regeneration. Emma Lewisham decided to offset its remaining emissions by an additional 25% to become the world’s first beauty brand to be verified carbon positive at a product level.
Emma is also clear that offsetting should be the final port of call; reduction should be the priority, saying: “It’s not just about measuring and then offsetting our impact. We are focused on reducing our carbon footprint to the lowest number possible and implementing strategies, such as moving to a circular business model to illustrate this is more than just offsetting for us. We are doing the work. We’d love to be in a position where we eliminate the need to offset altogether.”
All of Emma Lewisham’s products are refillable and 100% designed to fit within a circular system, which is the pinnacle of sustainable achievement. “Circular designed” means designing out waste, keeping materials in use through reuse, repair and recycling, and regenerating the environment. Emma stresses the dire need for the industry to prioritise refills over recycling, saying; “The industry seems to have become so focused on recycling. However, a solution that has a significantly lighter environmental impact – is to reuse – in our case, refill. There must be investment industry-wide into refillable models and reuse of material – recycling should be the final port of call.”
Images supplied.