As business owners, we work hard to meet the needs of our customers. To say that organic products, natural ingredients, and eco-friendly thinking are in the wind lately is an understatement; and when it comes to sustainability, your typical beauty customer cares the most out of everyone. People mind what they put on their skin, rub on their faces, and bathe themselves in – and they don’t want their pamper sessions to spoil it for Mother nature. Use this little guide to find your way out of the confusion, making it to a greener and more sustainable way of operating your business.
Understanding Sustainability
The cosmetic industry doesn’t exactly have the best reputation for sustainability. How the two could even stand next to each other, has been questioned by environmentalists and laughed at by other experts. How can using the earth’s resources on furthering the world’s overconsumption even be remotely sustainable?
It can though, and we’re here to show people that your beauty business can be more eco-friendly and better for the environment in the long run. To be sustainable encompasses every aspect of your trade and is not always easy to pull off immediately – so if you’re embarking on this path, be prepared to walk for some time.
Sustainable Sourcing
Cosmetic companies today, who are looking for more sustainability in their practice, are finding ways to meet their customer’s needs through sourcing raw materials and finding ways to green their packaging.
A few of the green cosmetic giants take it even further than this and have started to track energy, water, and general resource use as well. They want to know that every ingredient they use has a positive, rather than negative impact on the area they source it from.
For a small business owner, it’s a good idea to start with your community and support the small businesses who can provide you with the ingredients you need – rather than the large corporations.
Considering the Social Impact
Your business needs to focus on the social impact of the ingredients you source. If you’re in it to win it, you should set up foundations to promote your good causes and make it clear that you’re on the fair trade side of the game. Start by having a look at this eco-friendly cosmetics packaging article and read up on success stories by other beauty giants like Avon who pulls off this whole thing with “supporting good causes through foundations”. It’s a nice and inspirational read to any business owner out there.
Green Formulas
The green trend has certainly benefited natural and organic cosmetics. That’s not to say that chemicals are bad for us and we should steer away, as everything is chemicals and you’re not waging war on nature by using them. However, by allowing natural ingredients to play a bigger part of your formula than the synthetic chemicals, you’re reassuring your customers that the products they’re purchasing don’t contain any harmful ingredients.
Seeing the Whole Picture
Going green is about protecting nature, considering the social impact of your sourcing, as well as making it safe and healthy for the individuals who use your products. This whole ‘sustainability project’ is starting to look quite complicated, right? To pull this off successfully, you need to be in it for the right reasons. It’s not enough to go green because everyone else is doing it; that’s called greenwashing, and you’d want to steer away from this.
Spend some time on reading up on the subject, team up with your local community, make everything you sell as short-traveled as possible and fill each bottle with love. It’s all you can do, after all, and your customers will reward you for it.