You might have seen the terms ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘carbon negative’ floating around the beauty community. These buzzwords are evident of more brands committing to sustainable practices for the environment, but how do they relate to esmi Skin Minerals?
esmi has always been passionate about producing vegan and cruelty-free skincare that is made in Australia. Our next goal is to continue this journey by lessening and eventually neutralising our carbon footprint. We’re excited to announce that from November 2022 we’re continuing our transition to becoming carbon neutral!
What does carbon neutral mean?
Carbon neutral means that our business, product and operations actions emit the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere as what we offset. Becoming carbon neutral can look like altering our packaging to contain fewer microplastics to promote new green initiatives within the brand office and warehouse.
Whilst certain changes may be small, they will make a big difference in the long term — showing our commitment to carbon neutrality and the environment. Now, let's dive deep into the new initiatives that will help esmi become a carbon neutral beauty brand.
Reducing our carbon footprint through product packaging
The esmi brand has been using unique Sugarcane bioplastic since 2019 in most of our tube products. What is sugarcane you may ask? The sugarcane crop is carbon negative (meaning it actually removes carbon from our atmosphere!), allowing the process of producing this type of packaging to be carbon neutral.
We use Sugarcane bioplastic as it is a sustainable, environmentally friendly material that uses renewable resources — this is a fossil-fuel-free plastic that is 100% recyclable (can we get a hell yes!).
Microplastics are also a cause for concern as they can be detrimental to the environment. Therefore, we also include biodegradable technology in our tubes, allowing the plastic and commercial packaging resins to biodegrade without leaving behind any microplastics. This is a game changer when it comes to skincare packaging and we are proud of it!
But what’s esmi doing now? From November 2022 we began moving our plastic packaging to have the following features:
- Product packaging is made of 25% to 35% recycled materials*
- Most of our caps and bottles* being 100% recyclable
- Most of our caps and bottles* are 100% biodegradable (if the packaging ends up in landfill).
- Removing a number of products from their boxes
- Infinite recyclability for our glass bottles (yes, we’re talking Skin Treats and Moisturiser jars!)
*Excludes Toner bottle, Skin Shield bottle, Skin Snack bottle & moisturiser lids.
Becoming carbon neutral through shipping initiatives
Changing shipping practices will also help esmi lead the way to a carbon neutral future. We hope that every purchase made from esmi will do something good for the environment including once it has left our warehouse.
To do this we’ve partnered with Shopify Planet — an app aiming to focus on carbon removal from Shopify stores (like us!) instead of offsetting carbon. With this software we can calculate the emissions produced by every parcel that’s shipped from our warehouse, ensuring we can neutralise our carbon footprint from shopping with the right data.
The contributions made each month to help neutralise carbon emissions will go towards funding cutting-edge carbon removal projects through the Shopify Sustainability Fund which backs the development of technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere.
At this point, you might also be asking how our shipping packaging is changing.
Well, esmi has always been environmentally friendly when sending parcels to ensure products arrive safe and intact. Our shipping packaging initiatives include:
- 100% recyclable shipping packaging that does not contain polypropylene film (which is harmful to the environment in many forms)
- The use of soy ink and water-based varnish that won’t interfere with the recycling process
- Paper packaging that is low on carbon
- Cornstarch used for filling in packages that is both biodegradable and compostable
- All paper materials coming from responsibly managed FSC-certified forests
- Parcels secured with paper packaging tape and natural rubber adhesive that is both recyclable and environmentally friendly
And, what about our office?
We can’t forget about the esmi headquarters where our office and warehouse team up to create an environmentally friendly workplace. We have our own recycling bins for cans and bottles and encourage green habits like sipping takeaway coffee from your own reusable cup and refusing single use plastic.
The office has a long way to go but implementing small changes means we’re continually growing towards being as carbon-neutral as possible. When REDcycle is up and running again, we will re-incorporate that into the business.
Joining a collection of carbon neutral beauty brands
Our esmi team and community are undoubtedly excited to join a collection of carbon neutral beauty brands that put the environment first. And, this is in no way the end of our journey. As a brand, we are always researching and implementing new initiatives and technologies to help us reduce our carbon footprint. It’s our responsibility and one the esmi brand is extremely passionate about.
