Words by Smiley Team
Catering to increasingly eco-conscious shoppers, the retail sector is making vital moves towards sustainability. At the forefront of these changes, Estée Lauder has announced ambitious targets for its travel retail ranges.
After discovering that over 70 per cent of travellers check sustainability when considering purchases, the cosmetic company decided to set itself more stringent goals for its travel retail. This part of their operations covers beauty and skincare products sold from duty-free zones including airports, aeroplanes, cruise liners and border shops.
Its sustainability pledges include reducing its carbon emissions to net-zero across the transport of its products and all business travel retail by 2023. It will replace plastic film-wrap with FSC-certified paper cartons, incorporate sustainable materials into its retail displays and adopt sustainable practices across all its travel retail offices.
By eliminating film-wrapping, they will reduce plastic waste by 54,000 kilograms, the equivalent of eliminating 5.4 million 500ml plastic water bottles from their waste.
Senior vice president of corporate citizenship and sustainability Nancy Mahon said: “The Estée Lauder Companies’ commitment to citizenship and sustainability reflects our belief that our long-term business success depends on our ability to make conscious decisions to embed sustainable practices across our entire value chain.”
She explained: “We feel confident that the ambitious steps our travel retail team is taking will not only accelerate progress towards our company’s sustainability goals but will also make a tangible impact on the travel retail industry, enabling consumers to make more environmental choices.”
Since the launch of these sustainability goals, the company has progressed in both packaging and store design. Demonstrating this, their newly opened counters in Seoul, Korea were built with an average of 80 per cent reused display fixtures to improve their environmental impact.
Looking to the future, Estée Lauder’s global president of travel retail, Olivier Bottrie, said: “We recognize that this is the first step for travel retail in what will be an ongoing journey, but we look forward to being a part of the solution and feel that by taking these critical steps, The Estée Lauder Companies and travel retail is recommitting to its values to bring the best to everyone we touch.”
The company is mainly indebted to its sustainability leader Mahon for driving these initiatives. Encouraging other companies to adopt greener and more socially sustainable practices, she said: “I am now convinced that corporations like The Estée Lauder Companies can and must be catalysts, partners, donors and thought leaders in driving consequential change on issues like universal access to education, and in decreasing the impact of global warming and waste through sustainable business practices.”
