EP104. Entrepreneurial sustainability in action

I've just finished recording an episode with Tammy Facy, the founder of Jim and Henry, in which we discussed the refilling scheme that she set up across the uk. And by the time this recording goes live, you'll already have listened to our discussion in your favorite podcast app because it was released last week. Now, I loved talking to Tammy because she is so entrepreneurial and I don't even think she recognized how simple she's made a really complex challenge by just picking up the phone to speak to zero waste and refilling stores and and asking them if they would stock her range so that her existing customers can shop there. And that made me ask myself, are the sustainable beauty pioneers going to be the most entrepreneurial people in our industry? And I think quite possibly the answer to that is yes. So for that reason I wanted to jump on quickly, record this super short opinion piece and challenge you to join me in fostering entrepreneurial talent for sustainable beauty. Foreign. Hi, it's Lorraine Dallmeyer, Chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my Green Beauty opinions in which I share my takeaways from the podcast interview we released last week. In this short episode I put forward my main thoughts on the topic we last discussed, as well as setting you a challenge to make the green beauty sector a better place. Now, a few weeks ago I taught a webinar for the New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists on my four pillars of sustainable beauty, and one of the questions from the audience at the end was asking how a brand could seek to become more sustainable and embrace circularity when the infrastructure for that isn't in place yet. And that's a mindset I've seen come back a lot in the beauty industry over the years, where someone says that the system doesn't yet support them, so how can they possibly do the right thing? In fact, I've had quite a few business owners tell me that sustainability is too hard for indie beauty brands, that they have enough to think about without having to take care of something that is so complex that the minimum order quantities for more sustainable packaging are far too high, that they can't afford certification to demonstrate to their customers that they're climate neutral or organic, that they just don't have the hours in the day to think about what sustainability means in the context of their business. And I would argue that an entrepreneurial mindset can get you over or around a lot of those hurdles. Now my favorite part of Tammy's story in last week's podcast episode is the fact that she runs her business all by herself. She I highlighted this multiple times during the interview because I really want that message to sink in. You don't need a big team to move to a circular model. You don't need to create lots of big fancy refilling stations. You don't need the finest state of the art packaging and infrastructure. You just need the entrepreneurial spirit to think differently and to come up with something that works for your size of business and the infrastructure where you live. We need entrepreneurs to come up with innovative sustainability solutions for the beauty industry. We cannot rely on the big brands to do it. They move and they think far too slowly. For instance, I recently saw a press release from Colgate in which they proudly announced that their team has designed recyclable toothpaste tubes. Now obviously that's a great achievement given the fact that all toothpaste tubes are currently not recyclable. But that same article then admitted that only about 30% of the high density polyethylene plastic that they're using for their tubes is actually recycled in the US and it certainly didn't touch on the rest of the world. Now Colgate is undertaking projects to help local recycling and waste facilities improve the way they handle plastic packaging, and they're sharing this packaging technology with their competitors, which is all great, but it doesn't take away from the fact that they're still expecting about 60 to 70% of their toothpaste tubes to end up in landfill. This is 2022. The beauty industry should not be producing any consumer products that we expect to end up in landfill unless we have absolutely no other alternative. Now, this approach from a giant corporation is innovative and I applaud them for that. But it is not circular, and I would argue it's not entrepreneurial. Colgate says that this is their contribution to the circular economy. But just making your packaging recyclable doesn't mean that you're suddenly embracing circularity. After all, they still want you to buy toothpaste tubes and then dispose of them. They're not asking you to refill them, and they're not trying to collect them, to recycle them, or clean them. So much as it pains me to kick an organization that is trying at least a little bit, the reality is that it is still a big corporate entity going about business as usual, and quite frankly, it's not good enough. Now, the two brands I've mentioned in my green beauty opinion today are worlds apart in terms of size. I know that. But I think it's the tammies of this world who will educate beauty shoppers what it means to move to a more sustainable economy. And they'll do that by being entrepreneurial about it, by connecting with their customer, by finding solutions that people understand and want to try. So that's my challenge to you for this week. Next time you hear a company founder or a company talk about the fact that sustainability is too hard, point them in the direction of this episode, please. If even one person listens to this episode and comes up with an entrepreneurial approach to sustainability, then we've made a change together. And let's not forget that it's the innovators, the pioneers who often run the most successful businesses because they're the first ones to bravely try something that's not been done before. I can't wait to see what the innovators in the green beauty space come up with, and I hope that includes you. I strongly believe that it's the entrepreneurs who will lead the drive to sustainable beauty. Thank you for listening to my green beauty opinions. Remember to visit the Formula botanica website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you haven't subscribed yet to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast, please make sure you do so now in your favorite podcast app. Leave me a five star review if you enjoy the conversations I host and I'll be back soon with my next episode.