Global beauty brand, Aveda, announced last week it has become the first beauty company in the world to receive a Cradle to Cradle (C2C) sustainability endorsement, with seven Aveda products achieving Gold Level C2C certification.
The Gold-certified products are: Aveda Smooth Infusion Shampoo; Smooth Infusion Conditioner; Aveda Dry Remedy Moisturizing Shampoo; Dry Remedy Moisturizing Conditioner; Aveda Men Pure-Formance Shampoo; Aveda Men Pure-Formance Conditioner; and Green Science Firming Face Creme.
The company also achieved Silver C2C certification for its packaging.
Cradle to Cradle product certifications, administered by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC (MBDC) and its affiliate, the Hamburg, Germany-based Environmental Protection and Encouragement Agency (EPEA), recognise companies’ efforts in developing environmentally-intelligent products with a goal of eliminating waste entirely.
The endorsement adds to Aveda’s record of environmental sustainability. Throughout the company’s 30-year history, it has employed wind and solar energy in its manufacturing and distribution centres, as well as packaging its products in recyclable material and supporting organic, sustainable agriculture.
“As the first beauty company to achieve Cradle to Cradle endorsement, Aveda is recognised as a leader in intelligent design,” said Aveda President, Dominique Conseil. “Designing and manufacturing products can be environmentally responsible when environmental goals are factored into the concept at the very beginning.”
Darren Potter, Brand General Manager, Aveda Australasia said, “Aveda’s C2C endorsement is expected to signal an important change within the beauty industry and catalyse sustainable product development and manufacturing. Aveda’s C2C certification and endorsement are the culmination of 30 years of socially and environmentally responsible business practices. This recognition is awarded only to companies that can prove their products and packaging are designed for disassembly at the end of their lifetime, either returning harmlessly to the soil or going back into a ‘closed-loop industrial cycle’ to be reused.”
Professor Michael Braungart, CEO of EPEA, said: “Aveda has been at the forefront of the environmental movement within the beauty industry since its inception and they continue to innovate by fully embracing Cradle to Cradle design. Aveda is making a difference and ensuring that what they design is beneficial to the biosphere.”
In 2006, EPEA also endorsed Aveda’s Green Ingredient Policy, which it developed to help ensure product ingredient integrity.
MBDC co-founder William McDonough praised Aveda’s accomplishments and the company’s vision. “For our society to flourish, we must design products and systems based on patterns found in nature, eliminating the concept of waste entirely and creating an abundance that is healthy and sustaining,” he said.