Called “Sustainability Facts,” the added panel was modeled after a nutrition label and is printed on the packaging. Cocokind used the Department of Energy’s Life Cycle Inventory Database to determine its carbon footprint and worked with Carbon Calories to validate all the featured information. Now, each product is labeled with its quantified impact on sustainability across four life cycles, from sourcing to consumer use to end-of-life. It also offers instructions for curbside recycling, as well as how much of its packaging and cap are recyclable, and what they’re made from. A QR code on the box allows customers to scan to be directed to more sustainability resources on the brand’s e-commerce website.

Six-year-old Cocokind is sold through Target, Ulta Beauty and Thrive Market, among other retailers. Priscilla Tsai, Cocokind founder and CEO, declined to provide financial figures but said its direct-to-consumer sales make up more than 50% of total revenue.

The “anti-aspirational” brand is one of many beauty companies trying to figure out how to elevate its sustainability ethos. Since its launch, Cocokind has relied on glass bottles or bioplastic materials and ocean-waste plastic as its primary packaging materials, Tsai said. But amid 2020 and its environmental side effects, Tsai began asking herself and her team if these efforts were enough to call the brand sustainable. She also questioned what it means to be a sustainable brand.

“As the beauty industry continues to launch products, ourselves included, there needs to be [a more transparent] way to substantiate claims around sustainability,” she said. “[The beauty industry] has been looking at this through a limited definition of sustainability, which is only focused on packaging, and it’s so much more than that.”

Sara Miltenberger, sustainability expert and founder of Restore Media & Strategy consultancy expressed concerns regarding how well customers would understand the metrics behind Cocokind’s sustainability, such as carbon footprint, which is measured in grams. Alternatively, she suggested that Cocokind use more tangible conversions to demonstrate the measurements, such as stating that the energy produced to make a product is equivalent to a certain number of flights or offering a visual representation.

“If you’re going to use secondary packaging, make it powerful and make it educational. It is really great real estate to talk about your brand and what you’re doing,” said Miltenberger.

Cocokind’s packaging initiative arrives as brands are rethinking their sustainable packaging options and understanding that their secondary packaging is underutilized real estate. Traditionally, secondary packaging is the outside carton that houses a product and hosts an ingredient list, instructions on use and other basic information. Codex Beauty recently began printing efficacy panels on its packaging to show customers how well its products perform.

Online, each Cocokind product page also includes the sustainability panel on the brand’s e-commerce and will be consistently updated over time. In addition to updating its packaging, Tsai said Cocokind plans to improve sustainability efforts and produce an annual sustainability report, similar to those shared by conglomerates like L’Oréal Group and Estée Lauder Companies.

“People are no longer buying something because of superficial reasons. People want substance, and packaging should reflect that,” said Tsai.

Besides, its factories and manufacturing units would become carbon neutral by 2025, using renewable energy, it said in a statement.

Garnier is a mass-market cosmetics brand of French cosmetics company L'Oreal.

The company would use either reusable, recyclable or compostable materials in all packaging, which will save 37,000 tonnes of plastic every year, under its sustainability programme -- Garnier Green Beauty,

Moreover, from 2022, all plant-based and renewable ingredients used by the company for its products will be sustainably sourced, it noted.

"We pledge to lessen our impact on the planet and innovate for a sustainable future. It will take time, but Green Beauty will transform Garnier, and we hope the beauty industry as a whole," Garnier Global Brand President Adrien Koskas said.

Garnier India General Manager Zeenia Bastani said under the initiative, the company is also working with its suppliers and the communities.

It has partnered with Plastics For Change to help with the social impact of plastic pollution.

"Through this association, Garnier will support the holistic development of waste picker communities in India," it said.

Plastics for Change supports education for children, healthcare, nutrition, financial literacy and empowerment of girls and women.

By 2025, Garnier will empower 800 communities worldwide as part of its solidarity sourcing programme, it added.

"The Garnier Green Beauty initiative is our journey towards contributing to a better and more sustainable planet, while also creating a community of our consumers and supporters who can take this journey with us," L'Oreal India Director of Consumer Products Division Pankaj Sharma said.

The company  explained that move was designed to make its series easier for consumers to recycle, and follows in the wake of its wider environmental commitments, including a recently launched impact investment platform for eco-aware businesses.

The change means that the full Easter egg range, spanning Cadbury, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Bournville, Fry’s, Green & Black’s, Maynard’s Bassets and OREO is plastic window free.

In addition, the company also reviewed the cardboard cartons for its shell egg range and were able to remove a further 108 tonnes of cardboard using 100% sustainably sourced cardboard. Mondelēz International has also continued its season specific on-pack recycling labelling, ‘Be A Good Egg’, in partnership with OPRL – the UK’s most recognised recycling label, across its entire Easter egg range to help people dispose of packaging correctly.

This move is part of the company’s ‘Pack Light and Pack Right’ strategy and its ongoing efforts to remove, reduce, replace and recycle packaging across its portfolio in support of its long-term vision of zero net waste packaging. Last year in the UK, Mondelēz removed 1.1 million plastic trays from its Christmas adult selection boxes, delivered a 15% reduction in the plastic used in its iconic Cadbury large share bags and also reduced its shelf ready packaging for the nation’s favourite chocolate bar, Cadbury Dairy Milk 360g sharing tablet, saving over 40 tonnes of cardboard on this product alone.

Louise Stigant, UK Managing Director, Mondelēz International, said: “Increasing the recyclability of our products and reducing the amount of packaging we use overall are important steps in contributing to the creation of a circular economy. In the last six months alone, we have removed over 192 tonnes of packaging in the UK and Ireland and removing the plastic windows from all our Easter eggs further supports our existing position as one of the most efficient users of plastic packaging in the consumer goods space.”

Mondelēz International has committed to global goals of making 100% of its packaging recyclable and labelled with clear consumer recycling information by 2025. To date 93.3% of its total packaging is already designed to be recyclable. Recently the company announced a new commitment to reduce its use of virgin plastics in its packaging and is aiming for at least a 25% reduction in virgin plastic use in its rigid plastic packaging, or a 5% reduction in virgin plastic use in its overall plastic packaging portfolio.

The company is a member of the UK Plastics Pact and a signatory of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment and has recently announced that Philadelphia cream cheese sold in the UK and Europe will be made using recycled plastic packaging from 2022.

Mondi uses the retailer’s corrugated waste to produce the EcoVantage grade, in which recycled and fresh fibres are combined to create a recyclable shopping bag.

According to Mondi, the use of fresh fibre in combination with recycled fibres has multiple benefits. EcoVantage paper reportedly combines the strength, printability and appearance of a fresh fibre top layer with the sustainability advantages of a recycled fibre bottom layer.

As of today, Tesco has rolled out the shopping bags created with the EcoVantage paper in an initial pilot across Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia in November 2020.

Paulus Goess, sales director for speciality kraft paper at Mondi, comments, “Our EcoSolutions approach means we collaborate very closely with our customers to create the best possible product for their needs – using paper where possible and plastic when useful.

“We have been working on this project with Tesco for over two years, with the aim of reusing their warehouse waste to create a quality product that is strong in terms of performance, based on renewable resources, uses recycled materials and can, in turn, be fully recycled and ultimately contribute to a circular economy.”

Nóra Hevesi, head of communication at Tesco in Hungary, adds: “Our target is to make packaging 100% recyclable by 2025 and to reduce packaging wherever possible. We’ve already made great progress by removing 454 tonnes of hard-to-recycle material from our packaging so far, and it is exciting that we are able to close the loop by recycling our warehouse paper waste and use the recycled fibres in our shopper bags.

“We know how important sustainable and high-quality shopping bags are to our customers, so we are communicating the recycled fibre content and the closed-loop concept on the underside of the shopping bags as part of our consumer information.”

Customers across the United States can now shop online at Loop Beauty By Ulta for beauty and personal care products in durable, sustainable packaging which will be refilled and reused. 
 
“Rethinking packaging provides the industry with the opportunity to develop new, luxurious designs that are also sustainable,” said Tom Szaky, founder and CEO, Loop and TerraCycle. “Consumers are increasingly asking for more environmentally responsible options in this category and this collaboration provides them with a solution that is simple and convenient.”

How It Works
 
When placing an order, Loop shoppers pay a deposit on each package which is fully refundable upon return. After use, consumers simply place empty packages back into the exclusively designed tote and schedule a free pickup online. 
 
“As the nation’s leading beauty retailer, we have a responsibility to continuously improve and bring innovative solutions forward for the industry,” commented Dave Kimbell, president, Ulta Beauty. "This first-of-its-kind partnership with the pioneers at Loop is an exciting step on our journey. We look forward to seeing our guests embrace Loop by Ulta Beauty as we all work together to create a lasting legacy for our world.”
 
At launch, participating brands include Burt’s Bees, Plaine Products and Mad Hippie, among others. Oneka Elements, Dermalogica and L’ANZA will be coming to the platform soon.
 
Ulta Beauty announced its partnership with Loop within its Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty launch, a holistic initiative focused on delivering transparency, education and choice. Together the companies will work to help minimize the more than 120 billion packaging units produced globally annually within the cosmetics industry and fuel actionable improvements for the industry and the world.

The new solution is available in plastic tube diameters ranging from 30-50mm, and in four substrate varieties: polyethylene and recycled tubes, each with or without EVOH barrier.

The reduction of material usage is most apparent in the tube’s wall thickness, which has been reduced from 0.5 mm to 0.35 mm without, Neopac says, sacrificing “exemplary” haptics. Low profile closures are already in the pipeline with the aim of achieving maximum weight reduction in plastic tubes.

Neopac estimates that, in its own packaging manufacturing operations, the new tubes will eliminate the need for as much as 4.6 tonnes of HDPE materials per one million tubes produced. This translates to an overall carbon footprint reduction of about 8.6 tons of CO2 per million tubes manufactured. 

“Finding ways to reduce the overall amount of material is mandatory for packaging suppliers to move toward ambitious sustainability goals,” says Cornelia Schmid, head of marketing at Hoffmann Neopac.

“The challenge is always to boost a pack’s eco-friendliness without sacrificing product protection or aesthetics. The new lightweight tubes are viable solutions for brand owners in a number of industries, helping meet increasing consumer desires for comprehensive product sustainability.”

Origin by Ocean’s vision is to build a new value chain around the eutrophication problem of oceans – by harvesting algae from the Baltic Sea and turning algae-based biomass into sustainable ingredients. These ingredients are used in production of everyday consumer goods such as food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Seaweed’s natural building blocks give algae a wide array of sustainable and functional properties suitable for many different applications like packaging. 

"In our Nauvu® biorefineries, we isolate various components from different naturally occurring seaweeds to create new sustainable raw materials. These components can, for example, increase the viscosity, adhesion and porosity of the material or give it different decorative features for luxury glass packaging, explains Mikael Westerlund, Chief Business Activist from Origin by Ocean.

For Brightplus, the redefined algae biomass offers a non-fossil-based side-stream for biosourced BrightBio® materials. The cooperation focuses especially on examining the different decorative and barrier properties of seaweed-based biomass, which can provide e.g. haptic effects for glass coatings.

"There is a growing demand for algae-based synthetic biomaterials in Europe, and we are happy to start cooperating with an innovation leader such as Origin by Ocean. Algae is a naturally occurring side-stream that captures CO2 efficiently. With a wide array of functional properties, it is an ideal component for our synthetic chemistry BrightBio® materials, says Milja Hannu-Kuure, Managing Director from Brightplus.

Pioneered by Kingsmoor’s R&D team, KPL Cirrus works by creating a unique pattern in the sidewalls of a thermoformed container. As the container is formed, a series of small pockets are created where material continually gets slightly ‘affixed’ during the thermoforming process.

According to the company, this in turn creates stronger sidewalls with less material, thereby creating a much lighter yet stronger pack.

“As expected, there has been considerable positive interest in KPL Cirrus from our customers,” says Kingsmoor Packaging’s managing director, James Hill.

“And while we appreciate that lightweighting might not be the ultimate answer to producing sustainable packaging, KPL Cirrus represents an important step towards achieving a more sustainable solution to a hugely complex problem.

“Amongst the positives in this scenario - the use of less energy, less material and the increase in transport efficiency - lightweighting is ultimately about utilising the great benefits that plastics bring to food packaging, but using only what is totally necessary to make the product fit for purpose. The initiative also enables both our customers and us to reduce carbon emissions wherever we can.”