EP77. Does the beauty industry have the courage to change?

The beauty industry has historically not exactly been known for its sustainability initiatives. But if there's one thing we've seen since the start of the pandemic, it's that sustainable beauty is now the term on everyone's lips. Many of the big players in the industry have issued comprehensive sustainability reports for the first time. And while some of them still leave a fair amount to be desired, as we've discussed in previous episodes of the podcast, they are certainly heading in the right direction. But how do you make industry wide sustainable changes? Well, in today's podcast I talk to Anna Teal, innovation pillar, President of the British Beauty Council and CEO of the well known brand Aromatherapy Associates. Last year the British Beauty Council issued their Courage to Change report, which for the first time set out at a strategic level where the industry needs to go in order to boldly embrace sustainability. But how was that report received? And what happens next? Well, grab your headphones and stay tuned for the next 30 minutes or so to find out where the beauty industry is aiming to go. Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations, the podcast that challenges you to think about how you buy, use, make and sell your natural beauty formulations. We tackle topics that will make you think and encourage debate about green beauty with your friends, followers or customers. I'm your host, Lorraine Dallmeyer. I'm a chartered environmentalist, biologist and the CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school, Formula Botanica. We have thousands and thousands of students in over 175 countries worldwide who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course today. So today's episode is an interview with Anna Thiel, CEO of Aromatherapy Associates, VP and Global Business Development Director for the No. 7 Beauty Company, WBA Consumer Healthcare Futures and WBA Global Sourcing, as well as innovation pillar, President of the British Beauty Council. Anna is a highly accomplished commercial leader with a 22 year tracked record that combines experience across global retail and consumer brands businesses. I could not be more thrilled to welcome Anna onto the podcast today. Hi Anna, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

I'm really good, thank you. And thank you so much for having me. It's a real pleasure.

Oh, it's fantastic to have you here. So let's start then with could you please give us a brief intro to the British Beauty Council and the work that you do there?

With pleasure. So the British Beauty Council was established, I think it was about three years ago now by the CEO Millie Kendall MBE, who is an absolute beauty industry maven, and really set this up for three different reasons. It's a not for profit organization and it is primarily here to help elevate the reputation of the beauty industry, to help people to understand the value it contributes, the career pathways it can contribute and the innovation within the sector, both domestically and on an international level. And then so therefore, within that, she's established three pillars. One is around education to helping modernise career pathways, helping to people understand the richness and the breadth of areas that people can explore for their careers, whether that's in STEM work in the digital space or in science, for example, or even in more traditional marketing or commercial roles. There's a pillar that's orchestrated around reputation, so working with government, working with other advisory groups and on an international level to really help people understand the richness of the beauty industry. And then the third is innovation, of which I'm the innovation pillar president, which is very much around promoting entrepreneurship, novel ways to grow the industry, and within that, sustainability has initially formed the main thrust of body of work within the innovation pillar.

Wow, that all sounds incredibly exciting. So education, reputation, innovation. And I'm obviously thrilled to have the innovation pillar president on with me today. So I wanted to talk to you about a report that the British Beauty Council put out a while ago called the Courage to Change Report. And I was wondering if you could tell me what the Courage to Change Report is and why the British Beauty Council decided to write it.

Well, we issued the report, I think it was September 2020, and we actually developed the report over the first lockdown and the first wave of the global pandemic. And we were really in two minds as to whether to proceed or not when the first lockdown occurred. And Millie and I had a conversation which was very much orientated around. Now is definitely the time to create a report of this kind. Because the one thing that I think everyone will remember 20 is a year like no other. And the year where the world effectively changed. People stopped, paused, became more conscious about the world around them and how they were making their choices. And so we felt actually it was the perfect moment to issue an industry wide report that really shone a spotlight on sustainability within the sector. And so the report, the Courage to Change is, is one of the first that really looks objectively at the industry. It was created in partnership with a specialist research agency, Junction. We commissioned Hubbub to do some consumer research. So we questioned 3,000 people, we ran think tanks with the advisory board, ran independent interviews which covered activists, small businesses, entrepreneurs and large scale organizations to create what we feel is an industry first has been one of the most holistic views of sustainability in the beauty industry, not just in terms of what great things we are doing, but more importantly, how we could collaborate further to go faster in the future.

That sounds incredibly exciting and it's wonderful to see the British Beauty Council put this report out. Why did you decide to call it the Courage to Change? Is a question that I've got as well.

The reason why is when we looked at some of the key recommendations to instigate the change that we believe is possible and is in reality required. If we want to leave the world in a better shape than what we found it, then we're going to have to act more boldly and we're going to have to collaborate more as an industry. We're going to have to therefore be courageous, not just in the choices that we make, but how the industry will work together so that we can move as quickly as possible. And it's very easy to accept the status quo because many businesses have got big pressures on them, particularly when you're going through a pandemic around how do you satisfy the needs of all of your stakeholder groups, whether they're economic stakeholders or consumer stakeholders, and give them what they want and need? And sometimes it can be easy to bend towards, let's do everything quickly so that we can fulfill those stakeholder needs. Whereas to be a force for good within the industry and to really, truly actually give what the consumer's wanting, which is more sustainable products, there will need to undoubtedly be changes in the industry in terms of how we work together, how we develop products and how we innovate and pass that innovation knowledge across the industry to enable more people to have access to sustainable solutions.

Yes, and that makes perfect sense. I have to admit, when the report came out, I was so excited. I sat there and I went, oh, this is such a breath of fresh air. I'm so pleased to see this being put out at a beauty industry level. So whilst I was hopping up and down with excitement, I would love to know how was the Courage to Change report received by the beauty industry in general when you put it out?

In general, really, really well, because when we launched it, we held a virtual event because of the timing of it and it was so well attended and we had so many follow ups and so many people that were reaching out to say, one, thank you for issuing this kind of report. Secondly, how can we help spread the knowledge? And most importantly, and I'm sure we'll go on to talk about this in a second. We didn't want the report to be the end. We wanted it to be the beginning of the conversation. And so one of the key actions that came out of the report was the invitation for the industry to collaborate more and to join forces to establish what we've called the Sustainable Beauty Coalition, which is, as we speak, in its early phases of formation. And the response to the coalition has been overwhelmingly positive. We'll be issuing in the next couple of weeks the steering committee and the advisory board. And I'm bowled over by the names that we have that are wanting to work together to accelerate the good work that has been happening in the beauty sector.

Oh, that's fantastic to hear. Well, I mean, wonderful to hear that the beauty industry is starting to take strides in the, in the right direction. In the report itself on page Six, you quoted Greta Thunberg as saying, I want you to act as if the house is on fire. I mean, this is now quite a well known quote of hers. Do you feel that the beauty industry is acting yet as if the house is on fire?

I wouldn't quite say it's acting like the house is on fire, but I definitely feel that it's kind of reacting to a building momentum and an upcoming blaze. Because what I'd never want to give the impression of is that the industry isn't doing great work because it is. There's a reality that it's complex because of the way that the industry is constructed from where you manufacture, how you ship around the world, biodiversity, affordability of different solutions. But what I would say is, is particularly in the last two years, there's been some tremendous work that's been happening. If you look at some of the larger beauty organizations in their CSR efforts and their reports, their commitment to climate change being carbon neutral, community based efforts, there is definitely a momentum that is building. Would I say that we're acting as if the house is on fire? Not quite, but I definitely see that there is significant movements.

An upcoming blaze. I get it. So what changes do you feel that the beauty industry needs to start making immediately in order to embrace sustainability?

The report drew out a number of key aspects. Some of them were consumer facing because what became really clear was the engagement from consumers. I think over 70% have made changes in the last few months in terms of their consumer habits based on purpose or sustainability based shopping decisions. We know that animal testing in particular is one of the most considered aspects when it comes to sustainability issues. There's actions for the, for the consumers first of all, because everything comes from serving your consumers well, there's an encouragement for them to look at reducing how much they buy, reusing and recycling more. And unfortunately, even though kitchen recycling, for example, is a reasonably commonly understood way of using and disposing of your waste, sadly, our bathroom waste isn't commonly understood and therefore very little of our bathroom waste is actually that go that can be recycled is going into the recycling bin. And so there's elements there, there's using refillable options. And increasingly in the industry, people are responding to that consumer demand for refillables. And you'll see that there are more and more brands offering that as an option for consumers. So that's definitely something that they could be doing, as well as being more curious and asking more questions about the products that they're buying from, the brands that they're buying to clarify their credentials, whether it comes from sourcing animal cruelty or their own sustainability agenda as well. On the other side, the report definitely called for some key actions within the industry. And in particular, when we described what we would hope some of the roadmap for the Sustainable Beauty Coalition would be, it was how we can create what we've termed as a framework for action. And one of those is around transparency and being very clear with consumers about what sustainability means. There's some tightening of some of the claims frameworks that need to be made. And so I wouldn't want to come across as the beauty industry is evasive or isn't passing legal and safety requirements, because that's absolutely not the case. But sometimes there can be some marketing artistry that can occur, which has been termed as greenwashing, and it can make consumers feel that a product or a brand is more sustainable than it actually is. So there's a piece of work around standards, certification, claims, and the transparency that comes alongside that, that we think there's a job to be done there. There's how you can communicate to the consumer in a way that then engages them to help them make better and more informed choices. And more generally, how we can collaborate together to create task forces on certain common issues. And so, for example, that could be around plastics usage that's used in packaging. Are there methods in which that there could be collaborations across companies to find more sustainable packaging solutions to reduce the amount of waste? Is there options where people can join forces when they're buying ingredients, for example, from good biodiverse farming to help from a community perspective in that space? There's a lot for the industry that can and should be done which the coalition will be picking up and creating a framework for action against over the coming weeks and months.

Incredibly exciting to hear. The thing that I really liked about the report in particular was the fact that you picked up on the consumption issue as well, which was the first time I'd ever seen anyone talk about that publicly. Obviously the standard economic model which is heavily embraced by the beauty industry globally is that we aim to achieve infinite economic growth with finite resources. However, obviously this can't continue. We only have one planet. So how do you think the beauty industry should start measuring success differently?

There's different models obviously that are around. There's the doughnut for example, that has been described and is described in the report, which definitely looks looks at different measures. People describe the triple bottom line quite often as a broader method for businesses to manage their performance and their impact, not just purely from an economic level. And I think that increasingly as consumers become more concerned and more discerning about where they spend their money, they will be wanting to naturally gravitate towards purpose driven brands and therefore naturally, as part of that, a measure of a company's success will have to become broader than just the financial contribution that it makes. It will need to more clearly articulate and many businesses already are the impact that it is making on the planet and the impact that it's making on the communities that it's served and equally the well being of the people that they employ. So I do think that there are some measures against. The introduction of the sustainability development goals by the United nations is also incredibly helpful because we know that governments are aligning themselves to those, particularly the race to net zero and increasingly will be looking to organizations to help them on that journey to do that. And so I do think that there will be movements away from just looking purely at the financials. And there's already some fantastic businesses in the industry, Natura and Co, who have the body shop Aesop within its portfolio do that incredibly well in my opinion. If you look at l' Oreal's website, if you went on their corporate website, their CSR agenda and how they define talk about their contribution to society is very much front and center within their communications and their narrative now, as is the number seven beauty company and Walgreens Boots alliance who I'm associated with. So I think it will change and it is changing in that respect. But on the point of consumption, it's a really difficult one, isn't it? Because traditionally that is how people have been defining their success. But I don't think it's Impossible because consumers look for value and ultimately really if you move the conversation away from volume instead into value, it helps you reorientate the business own personal opinion. Because we'll encourage people to do is to think differently about I don't have to get more product into people's hands per se. I can get more product to people in a slightly different way. And I think this concept of reusable packaging or naked products is one of those areas that I actually think it brings back to life quite nicely. Equally, there's increasing innovations in waterless products because we know that water is an incredibly valuable resource. The bulk of many cosmetic products, particularly personal care products, are water based and realistically used with water. And so if you used more waterless technology, you could save yourself on shipping and the environmental impact of that shipping by not having the water in there in the first place. So I definitely think there's different ways that you can have the conversation around consumption. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're having a big economic impact on the businesses, if that makes sense.

Yeah, I agree with you. I think there's. Well, I mean it's a whole separate podcast really in itself, isn't it? But ultimately, yeah, we need to think less about the number of products that we buy and more about the quality and the value, as you said, of the products that we buy. Because there is so much scope for multi purpose, multifunctional products out there that are longer lasting. And you're right, the more naked products, the waterless products, at least waterless in their, in their formulation, not necessarily in their life cycle, is an incredibly important discussion for the beauty industry to have. Talking more about the conversation that we're having as an industry, we typically wait for the consumer to tell us the change that they want to see before making industry level changes. But when it comes to sustainability, change has to come from both the shopper and the industry at the same time. So how do you hope that we as an industry can change beauty shoppers hearts and minds when it comes to sustainability?

Oh gosh, that's a really tricky question. And I think hopefully, and this is what I also personally love about the Courage to Change report is what it really shone as a spotlight for me was actually just how engaged consumers are on this topic. For example, when we were asking them about recycling or packaging uses, we found that 91% of people asked want less packaging their products. Nearly 90% wanted to be able to refill their cosmetics. And so the wonderful thing is the majority of the consumers are already There wanting more sustainable solutions. And one of the things that I hope and I suspect, and to a certain degree I'm already seeing, is that through this pandemic period, people have been much more reflective about what they are wanting to buy versus what they used to. When you mentioned multifunctional products, we've definitely seen a trend towards that movement as well because people want to stretch their products out further. There's been a real rise in seven to nine step skincare regimens in the west over the last few years and in the last 12 months definitely seen much more innovation coming through again with much more multifunctional products saying you only need to use 2 or 3 if you use this one, because we've expertly formulated it to give you what you need, so you need to buy less within your regime. So I think the great news is from a consumer perspective, everything that I have seen in the report is that there is genuine interest, there's genuine concern, there's a genuine expectation that the industry needs to do more and they're looking to them to help them to make better choices. When it comes to the industry itself, I already think that there have been some good and interesting movements which we do cover in the report as well, whether that's work from a retailing perspective and this will be more prominent for your US consumers and listeners. Retailers are increasingly issuing their own standards around conscious beauty and what they're expecting their businesses and the brands that they work with to commit to in terms of sustainability, transparency, community commitments in those spaces. We're increasingly seeing that come over here into the uk, There's a beauty specialist retailer called Beauty that has been working with a blockchain technology provider called Provenance which will enable people to trace back the ingredients back to the source. So definitely seeing some movements in the retailing space. People are moving away from plastic bags to paper bags. So there's definitely movements there from a brand perspective in also seeing progress being made. If you look at the amount of brands that are adopting things like Loop terracycle concepts with of the reusable and the refillable, brands such as Wren which have committed to B0 waste by 2021, brands like Liz Earl which are experimenting with cross industry relationships for the ingredients that they are using to make sure that there is nothing that's left over from production to ensure that waste is being reduced and that every element of the ingredients that they put into their product is being maximized. So there's some wonderful examples that are out there. I guess the principle though is let's do some more for. And do more more quickly.

And that's exciting to hear. I mean, it's great to hear that these conversations are happening. In fact, I recently even on the podcast had a retailer from the US on to talk about their sustainable sourcing and, and retail strategy as well, and how they stock new brands. So it's fantastic to see everyone having these conversations. My final question to you then is what is the British Beauty Council's vision for the Courage to Change report? What comes next? Can we take it global? What can we do with this?

Well, we hope so. Like I mentioned before, we saw the report at the beginning and not the end. We're in the final stages of electing the Sustainable Beauty Coalition. And in addition to that, once that is in place, we're going to set out our roadmap with key actions and task forces. We'll also be looking to participate in COP26. Hopefully we've made our submission in that space and so fingers crossed we'll be successful there. And so it's watch this space. Hopefully in the next two to three months we'll be issuing the strategic roadmap to be sharing with everybody.

I will certainly be watching and I can't wait to see what the British Beauty Council does next. Now, the Courage to Change report will be linked in all of our show notes, but where can our listeners find out more about you and about the British Beauty Council?

The British Beauty Council has its own website and it has its own Instagram page. And so I would encourage anybody listening that has an interest in the sustainability agenda of the British Beauty Council or in general the council itself, to go along there, sign up as a member. There's a wealth of knowledge that gets released on a weekly basis, not just about sustainability, but events that are happening within the industry around innovation, education events, career progression events. And so it's, it's a wealth of knowledge and insight for all things beauty.

Brilliant. Well, thank you for sharing that and those links will also be in the show notes. So thank you for coming on the podcast today, Anna. It's been really lovely chatting to you and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'd love to hear what you thought of this podcast. How do you feel about the beauty industry's sustainability initiatives? Have you read the Courage to Change report yet? And what do you hope to see the industry change first? I'd love to hear what you think. Please do come and leave us a comment on our social channels as both the Formula Botanica team and I love hearing from you. Thank you for joining Anna and I for this latest episode of Green Beauty Conversations. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast on itunes or Spotify and stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanica Formula Botanica on Facebook, Instagram, Clubhouse, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest or LinkedIn. Visit our website at formulabotanica.com and sign up for our free online formulation course today.

Sam.