Creating a world powered by circularity and regeneration

Last month, we celebrated our Commitment To Life one year anniversary with a special live event and a host of guest speakers and panellists. During the event, we spoke in-depth about the three pillars central to our 2030 sustainability vision – addressing the climate crisis and protecting the Amazon, defending human rights through diversity and inclusion, and embracing circularity and regeneration – and the progress we've made towards achieving these goals. 

As a group, we are looking at how we develop and manufacture our products and how we are seeking to demonstrate the importance of these more environmentally conscious choices to our consumers. 

This sentiment was reiterated by Louise Scott, Chief Scientific Officer at Avon, during the live event:

"To achieve full product circularity AND meet our net-zero ambitions, we will need to search out new innovative solutions."

That's why our pledge to ensure packaging circularity by 2030, and guarantee that 100% of our packaging materials are either reusable, recyclable or compostable, includes pioneering innovative projects, such as the product refill scheme from our friends at The Body Shop.

As part of this endeavour, customers can visit one of The Body Shop's selected stores (see The Body Shop website for a full list of locations), pick up a refillable aluminium bottle and fill it up with one of the popular shower gels from the shelves. Once they have finished using the product, they can bring it back to a store and refill the bottle. With this program, The Body Shop is hoping to inspire and empower individuals to change the way they consume beauty products and become agents of change.

We've also vowed to use 95% renewable or natural ingredients in our products and over 95% biodegradable formulas and increase investments and partnerships in regenerative solutions within the next decade.

During the event, Louise stressed that for us to achieve these ambitions, "We need to focus on making every stage of our product cycle more sustainable, from how and where we source the raw materials, to how we design the formulas for our products and the packaging we use, to deliver this to the end consumer."

One such example of effort comes from our friends at Aesop, whose partnership with Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils (DSO) involves working with Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.

Catherine O'Dea, GM, Global Strategy, Sustainability and Growth at Aesop, provided further insight into this incredible partnership:

"Sustainable Development is at the heart of their business model. Their blended sandalwood oil is produced from new plantation trees, a sustainable and renewable source, and old-growth, wildwood, desert trees, held under native title by the traditional owners, which are sustainably harvested by the custodians of the land to ensure culturally appropriate sandalwood harvesting.

Today, many signature Aesop products such as Rejuvenate Intensive Body Balm, Moroccan Neroli Post-Shave Lotion and the brand's iconic Camellia Nut Facial Hydrating Cream contain this sandalwood oil.

We also heard from Roberta Roesler, Global R&D Director at The Body Shop. She spoke about the latest relaunch of their body butter, which brings our most sustainable practices to life and represents what we are trying to achieve through our Commitment To Life sustainability goals. 

The new and improved body butters are certified vegan by The Vegan Society, and are made with at least 95% natural original ingredients, including handcrafted Community Fairtrade Shea Butter from Ghana. 

Roberta shared that the brand really "raised the bar" for the body butter relaunch on how to increase the impact of their Community Fair Trade program. The new body butter packaging is made up of aluminium lids and 100% recycled plastic, which includes Community Fair Trade recycled plastic, collected from the streets of India. 

Roberta added: 

"With almost a third of waste being uncollected in India, The Body Shop Community Fair Trade partnership with Plastics for Change not only helps tackle the existing plastic problem but also helps to support around two thousand and five hundred unsung heroes, known as 'waste pickers' with access to more sanitary working conditions and a fair price for the plastic waste they collect."

Overall, the presenters agreed that even though there's a lot of work to be done, we are together on the same journey towards creating a more sustainable future. We all need to step up – and in the words of our marvellous moderator for our Commitment To Life live event Charmian Love, Co-Founder of B Lab UK – it all starts with three Cs: courage, compassion, and commitment. 

Watch the full event here.