In the present day, consumers are keen to make conscious and ethical choices when shopping for their favorite products, with 88% of global consumers stating they consider sustainability when shopping. Despite this, several brands and retailers alike are still mass-producing products and brushing sustainability to the side, as 23% of retailers admit they are not investing in practices that would help to improve their environmental impact. The sluggish progress made between COP26 and COP27 offers little comfort when seeing that the pledge made by 103 countries to cut methane emissions to 30% below 2020 levels by 2030 has seemingly been forgotten with the “largest increase in global methane levels on record” occurring in 2021.
With this in mind, Provenance, a global leader within sustainability marketing technology for consumer goods brands, has launched a transparent beauty directory in a push to make both brands and consumers take more responsibility for their ethical impact when shopping. Having previously partnered with Cult Beauty in 2019, in a bid to end greenwashing through blockchain technology, and having collaborated with Beauty Heroes early this year to battle bluewashing, it’s no surprise that Provenance is continuing to push forward with new ways to encourage sustainable consumption.
The directory is a destination for shoppers to explore over 200 health and beauty brands that have a proven positive impact on people and the planet. The platform allows users to directly search for brands and filter their searches by the values that are most important to them, such as diversity-founded brands and vegan brands. Every brand across the directory has a profile that provides users with information on the social and environmental impact of their products and practices.
The platform was created after Provenance’s recent Skin Deep Beauty report found that 9 in 10 health and beauty shoppers believe sustainability and ethics-related considerations are important; however, 80% feel unsure about trusting the industry’s sustainability claims. To tackle this issue, every impact claim on the directory is backed up by evidence or independent verification to create consumer trust.
Provenance isn’t the only company to be debuting a way to identify if health and beauty products are ethical and clean. The multimillion-dollar start-up The Good Face Project has also debuted Good Face Launch, an initiative that works to ensure a brand’s formula meets all relevant restrictions by screening INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) lists against hundreds of geographic, retail, and third-party standards. Said to be a “better way to support product introductions by ensuring products meet all necessary standards,” the initiative works to ensure a brand’s formula meets all relevant requirements and is safe, posing no risk to consumers or the environment.
Brands undergoing the screening process will receive a Good Face seal of approval that they can showcase across their products and marketing avenues, to further ensure consumer trust. For a $25,000 annual subscription, brands can gain access to unlimited formula screenings, one turnkey custom-designed consumer panel, and permission to market their products with the Good Face Seal.
With the increasing development of ethical practices and programs, it appears that sustainability remains at the forefront of the minds of beauty business owners. With offerings such as Provenance’s directory and The Good Face Project, both consumers and businesses will have increasing accessibility to make more informed choices, which will hopefully result in encouraging steps towards a greener, more ethical industry.
