Emma Lewisham Is the World’s First Certified Carbon Positive Beauty Brand and Dr Jane Goodall Approves

New Zealand beauty brand Emma Lewisham has been on the market for just two years but already is making game-changing moves in the industry. As of now, the Emma Lewisham brand is the world’s first carbon-positive beauty brand, which also includes a 100 per cent circular designed business model.

“Our carbon positive certification means that we take more carbon emissions out of the atmosphere than we put in — which creates a ‘positive’ environmental impact,” founder Emma Lewisham told POPSUGAR Australia.

To achieve this amazing feat required creating a completely circular packaging system. This means that all of the packaging is reused over and over again before it’s recycled with a specialised partner, in this case, TerraCycle, as the final option.

“We developed these new refillable options so that instead of needing to send back our entire original vessel to be refilled, you can just send back your empty pod or refill pouch,” Lewisham said. “This significantly reduces carbon emissions due to the much lighter weight of our pods and pouches compared to the original vessels, because the heavier something is, the more carbon is emitted to transport it.”

As well as these truly industry-changing efforts, Emma Lewisham is also sharing the blueprint of its circular and carbon positive business model in beauty. This means other brands can access the intellectual property of the model to use in their own companies. These blueprints include everything from the refill designs to the sterilising processes, recycling and returns processes and carbon calculation guides.

To top it all off, Emma Lewisham has also received the endorsement of environmentalist and United Nations Messenger of Peace, Dr Jane Goodall, who supports the brand’s innovation in the realms of sustainable beauty. Dr Goodall wrote a letter applauding the move by the brand and urging others to follow in its footsteps.

“I admire Emma Lewisham’s passion for creating lasting change,” Dr Goodall wrote. “Sharing their sustainability IP industry-wide is a powerful step, and I urge all brands to follow their lead. When someone reaches out with a helping hand, I always hope that it can be taken. This is when true change begins — when we work together.”

We recently chatted with Lewisham (virtually, of course!) to find out more about what it took to get the Emma Lewisham brand to this point and celebrate this huge achievement for both a local brand and the beauty industry as a whole.

POPSUGAR Australia: Hi Emma, congratulations on the launch of the world’s first carbon-positive and 100 per cent circular designed beauty brand! That is such a huge achievement.

Can you please tell us a little about what it took to get the Emma Lewisham brand to this point?

Emma Lewisham: Thank you so much. To become certified carbon positive, we worked with Toitū Envirocare, which is a world-leading independent environmental certification agency. Over the past 12 months, we measured the carbon emissions emitted at each stage of our products’ lifecycle including growing, harvesting, transportation, product packaging and end-of-life.

This allowed us to clearly see where we could reduce carbon emissions and enabled us to implement an extensive carbon reduction strategy as the first point of call. After reducing each products’ carbon footprint as much as possible, we then offset our remaining carbon emissions by 125 per cent, to become the world’s first certified carbon positive beauty brand under Toitū’s Climate Positive programme. Our carbon positive certification means that we take more carbon emissions out of the atmosphere than we put in — which creates a ‘positive’ environmental impact.

Our circularity journey has been underway since inception. Being 100 per cent circularly designed means that all of our packaging has been specifically designed to be refilled many, many times before being recycled through our specialised partners, as a final point of call. We have invested heavily into the research and development of innovative packaging, machinery and business processes that allow each product to be refilled and ensure that our packaging is kept in circulation and diverted from landfills.

The reason we are so passionate about a circular and carbon positive business model is because each year the beauty industry is responsible for producing 120 billion units of packaging waste. The production of this single-use packaging is the industry’s largest contributor of carbon emissions. So, if the beauty industry is to play its role in meeting global climate goals, this carbon has to be reduced. And to reduce this carbon, we have to reduce packaging.

The circular model’s founding principle is to eliminate waste and pollution by keeping materials in use. In mapping our carbon emissions, we have been able to prove that when buying our circularly designed refills (as opposed to brand new packaging) carbon emissions are reduced by up to 74 per cent. In addition to reducing our products’ inherent carbon footprint through circular packaging, we chose to then offset what we can’t reduce in order to become carbon positive. This ensures that we are having a regenerative effect on our atmosphere — helping to reverse the effects of climate change.

PS: Could you please tell us a little bit about the new Emma Lewisham packaging that is also being unveiled?

EL: We have been slowly phasing in our new refillable packaging, however, we are very excited to be officially unveiling our new refill pod designs across most of our Emma Lewisham range alongside our refill pouches for our oils and exfoliant. We developed these new refillable options so that instead of needing to send back our entire original vessel to be refilled, you can just send back your empty pod or refill pouch. This significantly reduces carbon emissions due to the much lighter weight of our pods and pouches compared to the original vessels, because the heavier something is, the more carbon is emitted to transport it. 

Our refill pods simply slot into your original vessel and when empty, can be popped out and replaced with a new refill. Through the Emma Lewisham Beauty Circle (our free global take-back programme) we bring back all empty pods and pouches to be refilled or recycled.

PS: Why was the concept of ‘reuse’ so important to you versus the creation of recyclable packaging?

EL: While recycling is part of circularity, reuse (in beauty’s case refills), must always come first. The first reason being that typically, refilling requires significantly less energy and resources, therefore emits significantly fewer greenhouse gases.

The second and most important reason is that despite most beauty packaging being ‘technically recyclable’ it requires specialised systems — it is not recycled through local curbside recycling. The economics are just not there to justify recycling it so unless someone is prepared to cover the cost of having it recycled, it ends up either in landfills, scattered through our oceans or burnt into greenhouse gases.

If brands are to rely on the recyclability of their packaging, it is essential that they take responsibility for ensuring that it is actually recycled by implementing take-back programmes in partnership with specialised recyclers. At Emma Lewisham, we have partnered with a specialised recycler, Terracycle, to ensure our packaging truly is circular.

PS: How can other brands use Emma Lewisham’s new packaging design as a blueprint? What does that process look like if a brand wants to follow in the same footsteps?

EL: We hope that by sharing our Beauty Blueprint other brands can capitalise on our innovation and investment to accelerate their own transition to a circular and carbon positive model.

Our Beauty Blueprint contains all our intellectual property around things such as our refill designs, sterilising processes, recycling and returns processes, packaging supplier connections, take back procedures and carbon calculation guides. Brands can visit emmalewisham.com/beauty-blueprint to access this information, and for any additional or more specific details, we really encourage businesses to reach out to us.

We genuinely want to help bring about change. The problems we face are so much greater than the success of one business or brand, and if we are going to solve them, collaboration is key. We won’t be able to make a dent in the beauty industry’s waste and carbon problem alone, but if we collaborate instead of competing, we have the ability to create real change.

PS: The Emma Lewisham brand is only two years old and already you’ve made a game-changing contribution to the beauty industry. Was this the plan from the inception of Emma Lewisham?

EL: It was absolutely the plan since inception. As soon as I decided to develop Emma Lewisham, I was determined to create a circular model of beauty, where we reuse what already exists — keeping our resources in circulation, eliminating packaging waste and significantly reducing carbon emissions. All while proving that natural, sustainable skincare can outperform even the most recognised, high performing brands on the market. I knew that if we could match all of these things, that we could lead true transformation in the beauty industry and bring about systemic change. 

PS: To have Jane Goodall’s endorsement is amazing! How does it feel to have her tick of approval on the changes made by your company?

EL: Dr Jane Goodall’s endorsement of us paving the way for beauty for me, is an absolute dream come true. We are so beyond honoured to have received this as she very rarely endorses brands. And as someone who has dedicated more than 60 years of her life to the protection and conservation of our natural world, Jane’s recognition and approval is an incredibly validating moment for our whole team, as it is a result of many, many years of dedication and hard work.

PS: Now that you have achieved this massive change, what’s next for the Emma Lewisham brand? What else do you hope to achieve?

EL: We are dedicated to leading an industry-wide movement towards circular, carbon positive and transparent beauty, while continuing to set new benchmarks in beauty. Our next big goals are to halve our products’ inherent carbon footprints by 2023 and cut them to virtually zero by 2030. It’s a huge challenge but we know it can be done. We will also be working to become a certified B-Corp business by 2023.

I want Emma Lewisham to create lasting value — and to only grow while having a positive impact. I truly believe that we can thrive by giving more than we take and that we can profit from preventing problems, not creating them. Profits, to me, are only rewarding if they don’t come at an expense to people or the planet. So, I will continue to ensure that as a business we are uncompromising in these values.

Finally, moving forward, we will continue to share our knowledge and innovations in the hope that we can help other businesses speed up their transition to a circular and carbon positive business model. We hope to see a beauty industry where we are solving problems side by side, sharing resources and collaborating for the greater good.

You can shop Emma Lewisham via the brand’s website as well as at David Jones.