Water: it accounts for 60% of the human adult body and it covers 71% of the Earth’s surface. It’s life sustaining and plays a major role in the formulation and manufacturing of beauty, personal care and home care products. Happi interviewed three sustainability experts at leading beauty brands about this precious resource and how they are working to save it—and why these actions should matter to consumers.
 
Horst Robertz, managing director, sustainability, Babor
Tiina Isohanni, VP, R&D and sustainability, Lumene
Celeste Hilling,  CEO and founder, Skin Authority
 
HAPPI:Why is water conservation so important (or should be) to companies in the beauty business?
 

Horst Robertz: The production of our products needs lots of water and we are well aware of the challenges that come with that fact. At the same time consumers are getting more aware of environmental implications and want to do “the right thing“ when buying a product. That is why being sustainable has gained importance and many companies are looking into becoming “greener.” At Babor, being sustainable is deeply rooted in the brand's DNA. The founder Dr. Michael Babor believed in the power of natural, plant-based oils and his philosophy is still alive at Babor. 

We at Babor are dedicated to the beautiful. Especially when it comes to protecting something as beautiful as our planet. The water micro-filtration system is one milestone of our sustainability mission. We implemented the first one at our factory already in 1998. The water used in the production process is cleansed in an ultra-modern microfiltration system. This restores it nearly to drinking-water quality, and enables it to be recycled as cooling water, for example. We are very proud that we often are ahead of our times and ahead of official regulations. We are bringing our sustainability initiative into the future with the Green Agenda—our roadmap for the next five years. It defines milestones to become an even more sustainable company. We specifically are looking into reducing our carbon footprint, creating cleaner packaging and more sustainable formulations.
 
Tiina Isohanni: For Lumene, sustainability is the cornerstone of our business, covering concrete actions, such as raw materials manufacturing to retaining consumer satisfaction and social initiatives, including being a good corporate citizen. Participating in circular economy is Lumene’s way of mitigating climate change. We approach circular economy in a comprehensive manner examining the entire lifecycle of a product; starting from product concept design, to development, to the sourcing of natural raw materials, all the way through production, manufacturing, logistics, and the use of product and its post-consumer phase. We adopted the idea of circular economy approximately 20 years ago, through the introduction of upcycling and side-streams from the Finnish food industry. Since then, we have focused also on other circular economy efforts, such as: reducing the use of water, utilizing renewable energy and increasing the recyclability of product packaging. 

Water scarcity is a rapidly growing global problem, driven by two converging phenomena: growing freshwater consumption and depletion of usable freshwater resources. WWF estimates that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may be facing water shortages. It goes without saying water conservation should be of extreme importance to beauty products manufacturers.

At Lumene, we utilize clean Finnish water in our products and production, and therefore good water resources management is a top priority for us. The water we use in our productscomes partly from a lake located in the Lummenne watershed, and partly from a spring, located in the remote wilderness, close to the Arctic Circle. Even though Finland is the country of thousands of lakes—188,000 to be exact—and full of pure, high quality water (UNESCO World Water Assessment Program, 2003, and World Water Council, 2002 have ranked Finnish water the purest in the world), we want to protect our source and pay attention to how do we consume water. In 2010, Lumene launched the Lumene WaterSmart program with the aim of reducing water consumption. Through the program, we constantly work on reorganizing our production processes in order to find new ways to reduce our water consumption, as well as encourage both consumers and cosmetics companies to develop a more sustainable attitude toward water and diminish their water footprint.

Between 2007 to 2019, we have reduced the use of water in our production by approximately 40% by using the WaterSmart program. We didn’t reduce the amount of water in our products, because water is a vital ingredient in skin care products, because high quality water is an essential part of healthy skin, and for example an excellent carrier for different water soluble ingredientsa, but instead, in production, we invested in new water purifying systems with much better yield (less wasted water), and renewed our cleansing procedures for manufacturing equipment and filling lines. The Nordic ingredients we use mostly grow wild in the forests and need no irrigation or fertilization. Approximately 65% of the water we use is consumed during production to wash the equipment. Unnecessary water use is managed with good washing instructions. However, the use of water cannot be over-optimized, as hygiene and cleanliness are particularly important in production to ensure product safety. We monitor the amount of wastewater we generate each year. Our factory area in Finland has closable sewers so we can prevent unsuitable substances from entering the treatment plant. We have plans and equipment in case of leaks, and we practice these situations regularly with emergency services. All detergents we use in production are biodegradable.
 

Celeste Hilling: With a growing global population and only .04 of the 3% of the earth’s fresh water sources readily available, it is so important to preserve this precious resource. Also, waterless products contribute to the health of the planet in other ways as they tend to more compact so you utilize less packaging which reduces the amount of materials we have to consume as well as puts less waste in the landfills.  Because the formulas are also lighter, it saves on the fuel needed for shipping and the space required to store products.
 
 
HAPPI:  Is this something consumers should know more about? And how is your company and brand bringing this key concept to light with them?
 
Hilling: Yes, consumers benefit as waterless formulas present less possibility for bacterial contamination and require fewer chemical preservatives. Skin Authority is incorporating messaging about water formulation benefits through social media campaigns, webinars, direct marketing and on packaging.
 
Robertz: Consumers already are very aware of the sustainable implications of the beauty industry. Today’s consumers do more research and are better informed when making beauty product choices. They want to know where their product comes from, how it is produced and what’s in it. That is why at Babor we are being transparent about our history in terms of sustainability and our current initiatives and we are telling this story online, on social media and in this interview. 
 
Isohanni: As consumers are paying increasing attention to the sustainability of beauty products, the cosmetics manufacturers’ water consumption should be highlighted as water scarcity is a rapidly growing global problem. We are in constant dialogue with consumers, as they have an important role in the circular economy and water conservation. Our consumers often ask us about the purity and origin of the water we use, offering us an opportunity to openly communicate about our water conservation efforts throughout production. Clean water is the most essential ingredient in our products. Even if Finland is famous for its excellent water reservoir and purity of water, sustainable water management is a top priority in our operations and we promote the sustainable use of water. 
 
HAPPI:  What resources does your company’s R&D/sustainability team tap into to expand its knowledge about water-savings, waterless formulation and other areas?
 


Isohanni: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a set of 17 global goals provided by the UN to unite global stakeholders in the work towards a better and more sustainable future for everyone. Two of these are related to water (Clean Water and Sanitation and Life Below Water) and form the most important guidelines for Lumene’s water conservation.

Additionally, we have domestic nature conservation collaborations which offer us useful knowledge and practical tips about water-savings. We collaborate with The Finnish Water Way, International Water Strategy Finland, which aims for responsible and equitable water security. The strategy extends to 2030 and builds on the key concept of the Finnish Water Way, a Finnish approach to sustainable water management based on close cross-sectoral collaboration. We support nature conservation in Finland, where our products are manufactured, by preserving the Nordic nature which is the source of our ingredients. We protect wetlands and their fragile ecosystems with FANC (Finnish Association for Nature Conservation), whose knowledge and research we greatly benefit from. We also help to conserve oceans and marine environment by reducing micro-plastics and raw materials harmful to aquatic life in our products.
 
Hilling: Our research and development team stays continually engaged in the broader research community and trade associations as well as regulatory agencies to stay abreast of advancements. Internally, we are consistently working to replace the water in our formulations with marine- and plant-based hydrators, we also utilize hydrosols which are produced when essential oils are distilled. Not only does it make our formulas more concentrated which provides greater product performance with smaller quantities per use but the formulas are also less susceptible to bacterial growth. For example, our first waterless product was a lip protector as lip products tend to experience the highest levels of contamination as bacteria gets introduced to the water in the formula with each use. The waterless formula significantly reduces the bacterial exposure as well as allows us to use less preservatives or chemicals in the product process. There is a misconception that waterless formulas don’t need preservatives but they do. Just not as much.
 
Robertz: Babor has implemented an interdisciplinary sustainability board, that I chair. In that board we bring together the expertise of the Babor “microcosmos“ and reach out to partners. For example, together with climate partner we have calculated our corporate carbon footprint and are offsetting our emissions. That is why we are proud that we have managed to become a climate neutral company since the beginning of 2020. We have teamed up with EV100, an initiative of Climate Group, an internationally operating NGO, to find the best solutions in terms of e-mobility. And we are reaching out to our research partners to challenge all our formulations.