Boots UK has proved that valuing the products and services we get from nature is the future of commercially viable beauty products.
The health and beauty store has cut the sustainability impact of the Botanics skincare range by 32% in less than 18 months and created a blueprint for weaving natural capital into the heart of product development.
Boots, which is a 160-year-old business, prides itself on listening to its customers and taking a responsible approach to product development.
The company has moved beyond calculating the carbon footprint of its products to adopt a holistic approach. This entails also measuring impact on biodiversity and the provenance of raw materials.
The Botanics range has 180 products and combines plant extracts with the latest skincare technology. In order to improve its sustainability, Boots analysed the journey of every Botanics product from design to end-of-life, creating more sustainable, ethical sourcing practices as it went along. To make this possible Boots developed a sophisticated evaluation tool. Peer-reviewed by Forum for the Future, the web-based product sustainability assessment (PSA) tool was introduced in 2011.
Taking into account 24 criteria, product developers at Boots can build a product profile that allows them to evaluate the performance of individual ingredients, products and entire product ranges.
This analysis allows Boots to ireduce Botanics' environmental impact.
Two partnerships were central to the success of Boots's PSA. The company collaborated with the UK's central science laboratory to assess its raw materials portfolio for beauty products. In particular, this helped to identify the impact of chemical ingredients on water and land-based ecosystems and eliminate risky ingredients.
Second, Boots worked with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to understand how best to source vital plant extracts while also conserving biodiversity. This collaboration – unique in the skincare sector – was fundamental to Boots's work in successfully reformulating its Botanics range with sustainable plant extracts.
Boots's relentless focus on ethical, sustainable sourcing helped the company to achieve 100% traceability for all Botanics natural raw materials, more than doubling its previous score.
For example, through its work with Kew, the company has begun sourcing an organic, Fairtrade hibiscus extract from a cooperative in Burkina Faso. It has also begun using 100% sustainable palm oil derivatives.
The Guardian judges felt that the Boots Product Sustainability Tool gave a comprehensive overview of the supply chain and had "huge potential to improve the natural capital accountability of a huge array of consumer products". They also noted that Boots is not making a fanfare of its good efforts. Rather, the company is "just quietly getting on with it".
Boots' efforts to cut the impact of the Botanics range by 32% has helped to build a compelling boardroom narrative on the importance of conserving plant ingredients and eco-systems. Similarly, it has helped to improve the company's overall approach to sourcing natural raw materials.
Importantly, improving the sustainability performance of the Botanics range will boost the integrity of the brand and has created a commercially viable blueprint to enhance the environmental and ethical credentials of all Boots' beauty products.
Leading the development of sustainable products is one of the four major elements of Boots' mission to be the UK's most socially responsible health and beauty retailer.
Katharine Earley is a journalist and copywriter, specialising in sustainability.
