Voyant Beauty aligns with environmental, social and governance promises
A supplier of beauty, skincare, hand and body soaps, over-the-counter topical drugs, sun care, hair care, home beauty, hotel cosmetics and fragrance products, the company believes that the strategy “is key to both managing risks and protecting value, as well as identifying opportunities and value creation drivers.”
“While a very heavy lift, we feel strongly that taking this challenge on is something very needed within the world of outsourced contract manufacturers as it’s becoming more and more critical to share the same values as our brands, retailers and consumers,” Lorne Lucree, the company’s chief innovation officer and head of ESG, told Cosmetics-Design USA.
The ESG represents an “enormous cross functional effort” for the company that not only involves extensive examination of current processes, tracking and programs across multiple functional areas but defines a five-year roadmap with critical milestones and KPIs for each.
Sharing values down the supply chain
Lucree explains that adaptation and increased transparency of sourcing and development is an inevitable response to the push by beauty and personal care brands for traceability, zero waste, post-consumer recycled content, mono-material and refills.
“Now, we are seeing this focus shift further down the supply chain to the contract manufacturers utilizing these raw materials and packaging to produce finished goods,” he adds.
For Voyant Beauty, newer programs like Sephora Clean + Planet Positive and Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty that focus on delivering clean and safe-for-planet beauty further support the need for alignment in shared values.
“Being able to help them quickly define power and water usage, as well as know that we have specific plans and goals in place when it comes to scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, gives them the ability to be more transparent with their retailer partners and ultimately their customers,” Lucree says.
Inaugural proposal highlights: A steward for sustainability
The inaugural report not only prioritizes employee empowerment and formalizes its official statement on diversity, equity and inclusion but establishes the contract manufacturer as a steward of sustainability.
“An additional practice coming out of defining our ESG program is being able to articulate our Sustainable Stewardship approach – which we feel we can own uniquely. This entails our committing to being a steward for sustainable ingredient and packaging technologies,” Lucree says.
In 2020, Voyant Beauty developed and presented 23 unique innovation formulation concepts rooted in sustainability trends like upcycling, waterless, concentrated and bio based. It has also committed to offering sustainable packaging options like dissolvable pod technology - in line with the Blue Beauty movement to eliminate ocean plastic - and is implementing a network-wide chemical management policy to remove known chemicals and promote safer alternative ingredients.
