With Earth Day just past we’re highlighting cosmetic and beauty companies with strong social and environmental conscience.
Here are five world-renowned brands that show much love to Mother Earth.
Found in 1978, AVEDA is known widely for its botanical hair and skincare products carried in department stores, salons and spas worldwide. The company’s mission is to “care for the world we live in” and this is reflected in their many environmental and sustainable initiatives. Since 1999, AVEDA has raised more than $26 million through sales of its Light the Way™ Earth Month candle and local fundraising events. One hundred per cent of sales of this product are given to the company’s Earth Month partner Global Greengrants Fund, which works to protect water resources and provide access to clean, safe water in communities around the world.
One of the first pioneers of the cosmetics conscious movement is The Body Shop, started in 1976 by Anita Roddick in Brighton, England, based on the belief that "true beauty comes from the heart." Ingredients for the company’s hair and skincare products are 100 per cent vegetarian, sourced from all over the world from artisans and farmers. The company also has a long and impressive track record for being a responsible business; for example, establishing The Body Shop Foundation in 1990 to fund human rights and environmental protection groups; working with Greenpeace International in 2002 to promote renewable energy and partnering with MTV in 2007 to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS with the Spray to Change campaign.
If you’re looking for a LUSH Cosmetics store in the mall all you have to do is follow your nose. The company was started in the 1970s by Mark Constantine and Liz Weir in England, who set out to develop and sell hair and beauty products made from natural and fresh ingredients. Fast forward decades later, LUSH Cosmetics has legions of followers and strong ethics; in 2007 they launched the Charity Pot, where 100 per cent of sales of this product is donated to environmental, humanitarian and animal rights charities. Since then the company has donated more than $4, 750, 000 million to over 400 grassroots charities in 35 countries. They’ve also collaborated with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood on the Climate Revolution Knot-Wrap, a sustainable cloth wrapping paper that can double as a scarf or framed work of art.
From your department store make-up counter to the backstage at the most prestigious fashion shows in the world, countless women have worn MAC Cosmetics and filled their make-up cases with its colorful lipsticks. Originally founded in Toronto, Canada, by Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo in 1984, MAC has been a long-standing supporter of recycling through its Back to MAC Program, but is most notably a champion against HIV/AIDs through its VIVA GLAM lipstick. All money from the VIVA GLAM lipstick goes directly to the MAC AIDS Fund helping women, men and children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Since the Fund’s inception in 1994, MAC Cosmetics has raised more than $250 million.
Origins create some of the richest and luxurious products made from organic ingredients and natural essential oils. The company has a long-standing commitment to protecting the earth and is recognized as one of the top 30 companies by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership. Plus, since its inception in 2009 the company’s Plant-A-Tree program had aided in reforestation initiatives globally and to date Origins has planted more than 265,000 trees worldwide; just 35,000 trees shy of its goal of planting 300,000 trees by 2015.
