Inside Design: A Sustainable Plan
The aluminum collar for Origins’ Flower Fusion lipstick tube comprises at least 80% recycled content.
The latest innovations in environmentally friendly materials.
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorThe Estée Lauder Companies has made it a priority to incorporate more recycled materials into its packaging. The work of John Delfausse, Estée Lauder’s vice president of package development, has greatly influenced this mission.
During the past six years, Delfausse has taken the packaging of Aveda, an Estée Lauder company, to new levels of environmental friendliness. He has worked to incorporate extremely high levels of postconsumer recyclate (PCR) into Aveda’s packaging, sparking huge improvements in the industry’s development of earth-friendly plastic bottles and jars. Now, Delfausse has moved on to finding environmentally friendly solutions for aluminum and paperboard.
Regulating Recycled Content in Aluminum
Delfausse has joined forces with a group of suppliers who have been working toward a common goal during the past year—to be able to measure and define the percentage of recycled content in stock aluminum. They have succeeded.
United Aluminum, the largest raw-material supplier of rollstock aluminum in the industry, has committed itself to providing aluminum that consistently contains a minimum of 80% recycled content. The first suppliers to get on board with Delfausse in using this aluminum were Crown Risdon, Rexam Beauty & Pharma, and Anomatic. Eyelematic and Alcan Packaging are now also involved.
“This started as an objective for The Estée Lauder Companies, but it will impact the entire industry,” Delfausse says. The first products containing this type of aluminum have recently launched. Now, other cosmetic companies can request that any of the suppliers mentioned use this type of aluminum to create their matte- or satin-anodized aluminum packaging components.
Delfausse first came up with the concept for reforming aluminum after completing the groundbreaking packaging for Aveda’s Ukuru lip color. The lip color’s aluminum A-shell, which was produced by Crown Risdon, carried the claim, “could contain up to 65% PCR.” Delfausse, however, had hoped this claim could be more specific. He realized this wasn’t possible at the time because there were no standards in place for consistently measuring the amount of recycled content in aluminum. “There was no way of knowing the variation among different batches of aluminum, and it posed a challenge to make sure that the percentage of recycled content stayed consistent for each batch,” Delfausse says.
The team at United Aluminum met with Delfausse and the other suppliers involved during a bimonthly conference call. These meetings took place over the past year and a half. One challenge the group faced was to make sure that the aluminum containing the high percentage of PCR would function the same as virgin aluminum, with no sacrifice in color or quality.
“The current industry standard is a 9020 aluminum alloy. It works well within the standard range of anodization, and consistent colors can be achieved,” says Delfausse. However, with this alloy, it is difficult to define a level of PCR.
Aveda has very high standards stated in its mission for the use of recycled materials in its packaging and only claims the percentage of PCR, not preconsumer recycled materials. For this reason, Delfausse considered switching to another type of alloy. “We decided against that approach because we would have been recreating all of the existing industry standards for aluminum,” Delfausse explains. “We decided to stay with the 9020 alloy and to do our best to get any type of recycled material defined, whether it be postconsumer or not.”
Wind-Powered Paper Mills
The second area in which Delfausse has been able to make great changes is in the production of cartons. Soon, all of the cartons produced for Origins will be made from paperboard that comes from a factory powered by wind. Mohawk Papers is the supplier that uses windmills to harness this natural and renewable form of energy.
Mohawk Papers used wind power to produce the cartons for Origins’ Dr. Weil skin care line. The line’s bottles are made from green glass. Amber, clear, and green glasses are the only colored glasses that can be recycled and remade into new glass containers.
The first cartons made in this way were used by Origins for the launch of its new Dr. Weil skin care line. The first three Dr. Weil products launched last October. The paperboard used to make these cartons contains 50% PCR and 50% virgin fibers, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
“Paper is a renewable resource. The important thing to remember when you are using virgin fibers is to make sure that the trees that are supplying your fibers are grown sustainably,” says Delfausse. The FSC Certified Sustainable Seal means that the paper is produced from trees grown in sustainable forests.
Changes in Effect
In addition to Origins’ cartons, many packages within The Estée Lauder Companies are now being affected by the new aluminum agreement. All of the suppliers involved in the project have taken on at least one project using the new aluminum.
Alcan Packaging Henlopen and Anomatic are producing an applicator cap for Aveda’s mascara. The new cap will be on shelves by April and looks the same as the one currently on Aveda’s mascara. Eyelematic is working on a cap for a new Origins body cream, which will launch next fall. Crown Risdon has produced a collar for Origins’ Flower Fusion lipstick. Rexam and Anomatic are producing the collar for Estée Lauder Perfectionist makeup. This collar, containing 80% recycled content, will be used starting in March. The new aluminum components will look the same as existing packaging already being used for those products.
Consumers may not know that the packages have become more environmentally friendly. This is because Aveda only states a claim on its package if the material contains PCR. Currently, there are no plans by Estée Lauder’s marketing teams to communicate the information to the consumer. Origins, however, is planning to declare the use of wind power on its cartons.
“As long as it doesn’t cost more money or compromise quality, we will continue to make these kinds of changes to our packaging,” says Delfausse. “In the future, we might look into ways of promoting this to consumers, but that is a marketing issue. We have a responsibility to the communities in which we live and to our customers to do as much as we can in the area of sustainability.”
Crown Risdon is one supplier that believes in Delfausse’s mission. “It has been a great opportunity for us to be a part of this,” says Steve Pearlman, president, Crown Risdon. “We would love to expand this concept to other customers, but we’re not being asked by other customers to pursue anything like this. Maybe soon everyone will be more aware that these materials are available.”
The Road to a More Sustainable Future
What’s next? Delfausse is looking for ways to obtain FSC Certified wood for all of Estée Lauder’s pencils. He is encouraging Estée Lauder’s supplier base to buy sustainable energy, including wind power and solar power. There are plans for Aveda to be more actively involved in recycling efforts. Aveda and Origins will both be developing components made from bio-based resins.
“The saying used to be ‘reduce, reuse, recycle.’ That doesn’t work for our industry. There is no need to reduce, as long as you can recycle and use sustainable energy,” Delfausse says. One step at a time, Delfausse and The Estée Lauder Companies are leading the entire industry down a more sustainable path.