Biotechnology—the use of living organisms such as plants, yeast, or bacteria, to produce raw materials while preserving biodiversity and natural resources—is becoming a go-to innovation in beauty, influencing sustainable product creation.
In 2019, the global biotechnology ingredients market was valued at $1.61 billion, expected to grow $3.01 billion by 2027. Beauty conglomerates such as the Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) utilize the process to create some of their most desirable SKUs. Currently, products from across ELC’s portfolio of brands, including Estée Lauder and La Mer, leverage a number of bio-based materials, contributing to the large market value of biotech-based skincare—a $37.8 billion global market in 2020, which is predicted to scale at a CAGR of 7.4% until 2028. To further its biotechnology efforts, ELC recently announced the official opening of its new in-house BioTech Hub, located in Olen, Belgium.
The hub, which is situated a short distance from the company's manufacturing and distribution campus in Oevel, Belgium (where it has had a presence since the ‘60s), will focus exclusively on manufacturing cutting-edge, bio-based raw materials. ELC will utilize the base to identify and create proprietary, bio-based alternatives to traditional ingredients, with an aim to further advance its sustainability efforts across its product development and manufacturing process.
“Our prestige beauty products depend on the highest quality raw materials. By producing our own biotechnology based materials at one of our main manufacturing campuses, we are able to manufacture at-scale in a more responsible way,” commented Roberto Canevari, Executive Vice President, Global Supply Chain at ELC. “This is a great example of how our end-to-end value chain is partnering to advance innovation and sustainability across the enterprise.”
The site will be led by the expertise of Caroline Paulussen, PhD, who has extensive experience in microbiology and engineering. Paulussen’s appointment reinforces ELC’s commitment to advancing women in STEM within its company, as more than half of ELC’s scientists, engineers, and technical professionals, and all leaders of the company’s R&D and innovation laboratories worldwide, are women.
Paulussen will lead ELC’s engineers and scientists to partner with Advanced Technologies Pioneering (ATP) scientists based at the company’s Melville, NY, R&D labs to complement the existing efforts underway related to fermentation and bio-based materials, collaboratively innovating for the future. The team will also work closely with ELC’s Belgium-based manufacturing employees to create and pilot the production of these raw materials at scale, supporting the development of hero products.
“At ELC, our team of exceptional scientists leverage breakthrough innovation and cutting-edge technology, combined with a passion for sustainability, to drive the development of the efficacious and high-quality ingredients that go into the luxury products our consumers know and love,” said Carl Haney, Executive Vice President, Research, Product, and Innovation Officer at ELC. “This new Value Chain site will serve as a critical space for our scientists to continue embedding sustainability at the start of the product development process and build upon our strengths in fermentation and proprietary ingredients.”
The location will increase ELC’s capacity for the in-house production of raw materials, furthering the company’s optimization of production processes across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), as well as other parts of the world. The BioTech Hub has been undergoing production testing in the past few months, and is scheduled to move into commercial production from the start of 2025. With Belgium recognized as a biotech leader in Europe, the opening of ELC’s BioTech Hub underscores its commitment to innovation in the region.
“Our BioTech Hub will support our efforts to provide more responsible and cutting-edge beauty solutions to consumers,” said Jamal Chamariq, Senior Vice President of EMEA UK&I Travel Retail and Global Supply Chain at ELC. “The location of the new center in Belgium also will enable us to partner more closely with leaders in biotechnology, further enhancing our innovation ecosystem in Europe and beyond.”
Other categories within the industry have similarly been upping their biotechnology efforts in the past year. In fragrance, DSM-Firmenich began increasing its efforts behind this wave of innovation, entering a partnership with biotech start-up, Interstellar Lab, known for creating advanced biofarms for accelerating plant growth, boosting dedicated molecule production in botanical life, reducing energy and resource consumption, improving life cycle assessment of ingredients, and capturing CO2. The two companies are exploring botanical ingredient production through an ingredient research program. Areas of specialty include how environmental conditions impact plant yield and phenotype evaluation, with a focus on rare and endangered plant species—including “silent flowers” (those with no aromatic profile) like lilac, wisteria, violet, and more. Because of the partnership, Interstellar Lab’s biotech expertise and AI-controlled environment settings are becoming key factors in preserving biodiversity and finding ways to minimize climate impact on farming.
Biotechnology is quickly being adopted across the beauty industry, paving a path for a more sustainable future with high-quality products. As the biotechnology market continues to grow at pace, leading companies such as ELC are setting benchmarks by investing in in-house facilities that cement their dedication to a more sustainable environmentally beneficial future. These efforts not only advance sustainable ingredient development but also highlight the critical role of women in STEM fields, as evidenced by ELC’s leadership team. Additionally, the collaboration examples by ELC and ATP, as well as DSM-Firmenich and Interstellar Lab, indicate that the industry is coming together to advance biotechnology, and instead of competing head to head, utilizing strengths from various businesses to ensure the fastest and most efficient path to a sustainable sector full of science-based innovation.
