Environmental sustainability issues are changing the way beauty makers do business, whether it’s energy consumption, waste reduction, ingredient selection, manufacturing processes, or packaging solutions, it seems there is a greener way to do every bit of the business these days.
And, the SCS team has used this framework as a basis for its 2019 programming: “New technologies and sustainability are causing disruption in the cosmetic and personal care industry. Cosmetic brands and ingredient firms are investing in a raft of green initiatives, whilst technology is influencing raw materials, production processes, and distribution,” affirms a media release previewing this year’s SCS.
The 10th annual Sustainable Cosmetics Summit will be held in New York City on May 8 -10 at the Park Central New York on 7th Avenue.
Products
Among this year’s speakers is Linda Treska, founder and CEO of the waterless cosmetics brand Pinch of Colour. Treska founded her brand in 2016 and has known all along that her best consumers would “[care] for sustainable products” and be “environmentally conscious,” as she told Cosmetics Design less than a year after launching her brand: Indie Beauty Profile.
Pinch of Colour not only makes waterless beauty products, the brand’s very premise and as well as its social mission center on the notion that “water is a scarce and precious resource.” And early this year, Treska launched Blue Angel Charity, a nonprofit that will work closely with her makeup brand to ensure that clean water is a basic human right. Read more about Blue Angel Charity here on Cosmetics Design.
L’Oréal’s ecofriendly niche brand Seed Phytonutrients will also be represented at this year’s SCS. Shane Wolf, the brand’s general manager will be speaking about the brand’s local ingredient sourcing strategy as well as its innovative shower-proof paperboard bottle—a bottle that encourages consumers to dismantle it after use and recycle its component parts by putting a prize (a seed packet) inside. Learn more about Seed and other niche brands founded by multinationals here on Cosmetics Design.
Packaging
“Packaging pollution has become a major environmental issue for cosmetic and consumer goods industries, with about 300 millions of tonnes of plastic waste generated each year,” emphasizes the SCS media release. And so this year’s roster of speakers will include TerraCycle’s vice president of global business development Anthony Rossi. TerraCycle is a private company that specializes in hard-to-recycle materials; collecting, processing, and repurposing plastics, cigarette butts, chewing gum, etc.
A pre-conference workshop on May 8 will see Andrew Dent, executive vice president of Material ConneXion, helping beauty brands big and small think creatively and practically about using innovative sustainable materials to minimize packaging footprints.
Program
The final program is still taking shape, but numerous speakers have been confirmed. Beyond those mentioned above Piera Pericu of DuPont will give a talk entitled New Materials from Food Side Streams; Damien Perriman of Genomatica will discuss bio-based glycols for use in personal care product formulations; beauty tech innovator Sindhya Valloppillil Kalghatgi of Skingenie will present on the Prospects for Artificial Intelligence; and Dr. Ellen Kamhi will give a talk on Functional Ingredients for Natural Skincare.
Find the full agenda and further info on this year’s Sustainable Cosmetics Summit here.
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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.
