Key Takeaways:
In an attempt to reframe how sustainability is viewed in beauty, Coty released its FY25 Sustainability Report. This year, the company introduces the concept of “eco-desirability,” a term that reflects its ambition to combine environmental responsibility with the aspirational qualities that drive the beauty market. The report outlines how Coty aims to make sustainability synonymous with luxury, performance, and creativity, integrating it into the company's operations without compromise or afterthought.
At a time when consumers are demanding transparency and tangible progress from beauty conglomerates, Coty’s latest disclosures signal a deliberate shift from broad environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitment to measurable, design-led innovation. The company’s Beauty That Lasts strategy has evolved to focus on three pillars—product, planet, and people—anchored by the belief that desirable products can also be sustainable.
The report underscores measurable strides in areas such as ingredient transparency, circular packaging, supply chain decarbonization, and regulatory compliance, marking Coty’s first reporting cycle aligned with the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Coty Chief Executive Officer Sue Nabi said in a company press release, “Coty continues to prove that sustainability and desirability co-exist and elevate one another. Change in our world is the only constant. We embrace it and turn it into progress in beauty and beyond, for people and the planet.”
Key Report Highlights
Transparency and Ingredient Innovation
One of the most notable progressions from the FY25 Sustainability Report is the ambitions beyond packaging into product chemistry and consumer communication. The company recently launched its online transparency platform to give consumers clearer, more accessible information about what goes into its products. The initiative is part of Coty’s broader commitment to "radical transparency” across its supply chain and product development.
Coty also confirmed it has achieved 100% RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certification for all palm oil sourcing, including third-party manufacturing. The company also identified five key ingredient groups: ethanol, fragrance oils, silicones, surfactants, and propellants, where it plans to explore low-carbon alternatives. For each, Coty is assessing the carbon intensity, performance, and sourcing feasibility of potential replacements to maintain product efficacy while reducing environmental impact.
A key partnership with carbon-recycling leader LanzaTech enables Coty to incorporate ethanol derived from captured carbon into its fragrances, reducing its dependence on agricultural feedstocks. At the same time, the company is reformulating existing products to eliminate high-impact ingredients. Rimmel Lasting Finish Foundation has been reformulated to remove D5 silicone (cyclopentasiloxane), a widely used cosmetic ingredient identified by regulators as persistent and bioaccumulative and a significant carbon hotspot. Coty plans to phase out D5 across its wider portfolio, spanning aerosols, bodycare, and color cosmetics.
Coty’s framing of sustainability as a driver of desirability comes at a pivotal moment for the beauty sector. As brands balance aesthetics with accountability, “eco-desirability” positions sustainability not as a constraint, but as a catalyst for creativity and innovation. By bringing refillables and lighter-weight designs into prestige and mass categories alike, Coty is signaling that circular design can enhance, not diminish, brand equity.
The company’s pivot toward transparency and standardized disclosure also reflects mounting regulatory and investor scrutiny. Reporting under the CSRD with a “double materiality” lens, Coty joins a growing list of global beauty players embracing stricter sustainability reporting standards.
Ultimately, Coty’s F25 Sustainability Report underscores a new phase in the beauty industry’s sustainability evolution: one in which design, desirability, and disclosure are inextricably linked. As “eco-desirability” becomes a guiding principle, Coty is betting that the future of beauty will be both responsible and irresistibly aspirational, a combination that could set the tone for the next chapter of sustainable luxury.
