The Sustainable Cosmetics Summit drew to a successful close before Christmas, with the European edition finishing the sequence after the Asia-Pacific and Latin America editions.
The summits discussed some of the key sustainability challenges facing the cosmetic and personal care industry: approaches to tackling sustainability, traceability in supply chains, moving towards renewable materials, marketing communications, and engaging with consumers.
The European and Latin American editions gave case studies on how large multinationals are tackling sustainability. Alexandra Palt, CSR and sustainability director of L’Oréal, said the company is integrating sustainability into various departments so all new products have a beneficial environmental or social impact. According to Palt, a big challenge for L’Oréal is to create zero-waste systems. Ewerton Nunes of Johnson & Johnson said social aspects - such as the health of its customers and employees – were of paramount importance to the company. It has introduced global metrics to measure improvements in these areas.
