Blue Beauty: Plastic Negative Is Positive

We’ve been talking about reducing plastic consumption for years, but this year, the conversation reached a climax. We know that it takes village, but we believe the credit is yours. It’s all of you conscious beauty consumers who have pushed for more transparency, kept the conversation alive and ultimately put your money where your values are. Sure, Project Blue Beauty shines the spotlight on the blue beauty brands you need to know about, but nothing changes until consumer behavior changes. So, bravo to all of you blue beauty buyers.

In our commitment to keeping you informed and inspired about blue beauty, we’ve rounded up three brands that have made important strides in plastic reduction and environmental regeneration, along with an announcement of our a plastic negative initiative of our own. As these brands show us, the “war on plastic” has evolved from the reduce, reuse, recycle model to a regenerative model, where the environmental footprint is accounted for, and more plastic is removed from the environment than was used to create the product in the first place. They call it Plastic Negative, but it all adds up to a huge positive for the environment.

Innersense Organic Beauty

Because plastic has such a major impact on the environment, Innersense has not only taken a proactive approach to seriously reducing their usage of it but also decided to clean up 5-years’ worth of their past plastic output. They’ve teamed up with the Plastic Bank to collect plastic from around the globe to be turned into post-consumer plastic. They will collect more plastic than they’ve produced throughout 2020, making them the first organic beauty company to proactively reduce plastic waste beyond their own footprint, making them plastic negative. On top of that, they source all of their organic ingredients from within a 100-mile radius of their headquarters to support the local economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

LINNÉ

As a Certified Plastic Negative company, LINNÉ has pledged to remove twice as much plastic from the environment as is used in their product packaging. But they don’t stop there, a 1% For the Planet company, LINNÉ has pledged 1% of their top line revenue to vetted environmental causes, with a focus on intersectional organizations that focus on racial and environmental justice. Sustainability is a part of their bigger mission to promote consumer education, environmental preservation and ethnobotanical continuity. Founder Jenna Levine believes in keeping things simple from making sure their small-batch organic formulas are free of synthetics, carcinogens, environmental toxins and fillers to exclusively buying biocompatible ingredients from reputable sources. For them, total transparency isn’t just a catchphrase — it’s how they do business down to their clear glass and recyclable BPA-free plastic packaging.

Ursa Major

Also a Certified Plastic Negative business, this Vermont-based body and skincare company takes its passion for preserving the great outdoors to the next level with their partnership with rePurpose Global, a progressive non-profit that will remove two plastic bottles from the environment for every plastic bottle the brand sells. This proactive initiative began this past September, but their passion doesn’t stop there. As a certified B Corporation, their dedication to smart products extends into a sustainability model that uses renewable energy to manufacture and source from within the United States. And they are diligently working towards transitioning out of plastic altogether.

Beauty Heroes

We end this year feeling optimistic. The future of sustainability and ethical consumption is bright. As we like to say, it takes two to make a thing go blue. Companies and customers must both commit to making conscious choices.

And in the spirit of commitment, Beauty Heroes is excited to announce our own partnership with rePurpose Global, an organization that measures, intercepts and offsets waste and is now removing 1 pound of plastic from the environment for every order placed in our Beauty Store, launching our Certified Plastic Negative status. One pound of plastic per order is equal to two to three times more than what we put into the environment, which is less and less each year as adoption for zero waste products grows and brands transition away from excessive plastic packaging. And while we feel good knowing that we’re removing more plastic than we’re depositing into the environment, we’re taking one more step towards regeneration: for every order placed, we plant a tree through our partnership with One Tree Planted.

The goal for conscious companies like these is simple, but not easy: triple bottom line growth. This means delivering more healthy beauty to more conscious consumers while ensuring a net-positive environmental impact. And it’s progressive partners like rePurpose Global and the Plastic Bank – and progressive thinkers like you – who make it possible.