Dr Barbara Olioso: What does your Eco scoring system or Eco Label mean for the industry, and why it matters?
Dr Mark Smith: To-date Eco Labels have operated to fill gaps in existing legislation to provide verifiable, reliable and comparable validation for defined product characteristics. In the advent of greenwashing, Eco Labels offer verifiable support for cosmetic product claims such as natural or organic, providing consumers with the reassurance they need and an easy point of orientation for informed decision-making. For industry, Eco Labels linked to third-party certification schemes offer a means to trace defined characteristics throughout the chain of custody. Lastly, in the EU, future anti-greenwashing legislation embraces the use of third-party certification to substantiate compliant green claims. As such the current voluntary use of third-party certification will likely evolve into a mandatory means for the industry to verify green product claims from the mid-2020s onwards and communicate these to consumers.
Dr Barbara Olioso: Certifications have been playing an important role in the industry to define natural and organic cosmetics. How do you see your role evolving with the appearance of Eco scores?
Dr Mark Smith: Traditionally consumer interest for natural or organic cosmetics had focused on what is (or not) inside the product. Nowadays consumer interest has expanded to cover multiple environmental and social impact factors from across the supply chain. Although specific criteria covering portions of a product’s life cycle may already be found in existing Eco Labels, it’s undeniable that to meet consumer needs, reflect industry best-practice and support the drive for innovation linked to sustainability that Eco Labels will either choose to introduce further criteria of their own or refer to established Eco score systems when looking to account for an evaluation of a product’s entire life cycle. Whereas the former offers more flexibility, the latter may avoid duplication or redundancy, as well as any potential risk for consumer or market confusion.
Dr Barbara Olioso: What advice or information can you give to brands and ingredients’ suppliers to make certifications more accessible and straight forward? Any chance of collaboration with different schemes?
Dr Mark Smith: Avoiding duplication or redundancy is essential. A scheme should focus on gaps in legislation rather than repetition of existing requirements in law purely for marketing purposes. Therefore, the scope must be clearly defined to avoid misinterpretation and miscommunication. To avoid any barriers to initial review by potential applicants, the criteria must be free to access, clearly written and avoid elements that are open to interpretation or contradiction. Certification of raw materials offers a robust and verifiable means to support finished product manufacturer claims. Nevertheless, to avoid unnecessary duplication where technical and/or operational criteria between schemes are well aligned, mutual recognition and harmonisation, particularly in relation to raw material verification, would be practical. Such an approach still allows for differentiation at a finished product level based upon which substances can be used and how many must be used to support a given claim, but not which certificate those substances carry.
Dr Barbara Olioso: How are Eco Beauty Scores and certifications promoting sustainable innovation in the cosmetics industry and what ingredient innovation is needed the most?
Dr Mark Smith: Label schemes offer a framework for third-party certification to define a raw material or finished product’s characteristics. The criteria, or its interpretation, may be evolve the emerging trends and market needs. Therefore, in terms of sustainable innovation this provides a basis to introduce or exclude substances to drive suppliers and producers in a particular direction. Nevertheless, the process of adaptation requires public consultation with stakeholders, impact assessments and alignment of the technical criteria amendments with acceptable transition periods and clear mechanisms of control by certification bodies. Fundamentally, the aim of a natural or organic cosmetic standards should be to offer a framework to manufacturer and support products entirely made from renewable, bio-based raw materials. While this may be currently possible for coms manufacturers, it is not for every producer, everywhere or necessarily every formulation. Consequently, there are exemptions in existing label criteria where substances from petrochemical origin may be used, notably preservatives, and for some schemes semi-synthetic functionals (e.g., quats, cocamidopropyl betaine) used for hair care and other rinse-off applications.
Dr Barbara Olioso: How do Eco Beauty Scores and certifications influence product development—from ingredient selection to packaging?
Dr Mark Smith: In terms of the influence of certifications on NPD this will depend on current level of a manufacturer’s familiarity with a label scheme, and whether their existing formulas need to be adapted to accommodate the criteria necessary for certification. Consequently, certification may influence the early stages of NPD or rather apply retroactively to existing formulations looking for an added value. Nevertheless, certifications undoubtedly influence the positive selection of raw materials based upon verifiable attributes like sustainable sourcing, origin, green chemical manufacture and environmental fate considerations (e.g., biodegradability) to support finished product claims. However, the pace of change for packaging criteria is often slower than for formulations. This may be because the scheme owners look to avoid duplication with evolving baseline requirements (e.g., EU PPWR), as well as the need to strike a balance between sustainability criteria for packaging and other considerations such as its impact on product safety, access to compliant materials and adoption of the requirements to multinational stakeholders, and whether there can be adequate control of the rules by the certification body.
Dr Barbara Olioso: How do Eco certifications and Eco scores help prevent greenwashing?
Dr Mark Smith: Eco certification can assist to combat greenwashing by providing a verifiable framework to support the substantiation of green claims, which for private standards should require independent third-party certification by accredited bodies to ensure that any technical criteria is supported by a robust and standardised control procedure.
Dr Barbara Olioso: What trends are you observing in the cosmetics industry regarding sustainable beauty products and validation schemes?
Dr Mark Smith: The industry is gearing up for change in the form of Directive (EU) 2024/825 and the much-anticipated Green Claims Directive. Embracing sustainability is no longer a nice-to-have policy but an inevitably part of industrial best-practice. The principal trends relate to an increased emphasis on monitoring the impact of products across their life cycle and identifying areas of improvement. In terms of sourcing this means increased focus on ethical and sustainable practices encompassing not only social but environmental sustainability. Raw materials are increasingly being extracted, processed or modified using methods aligning with the principles of green chemistry – whether this is use of biotechnology, upcycling of waste streams or reducing solvent waste by recycling and reuse. Across the industry and its supply chains defossilisation and improved sustainability efforts are increasing, which opens opportunities for certification.
Dr Barbara Olioso: Any exciting news you would like to share?
Dr Mark Smith: Every 23rd November, NATRUE champions natural and sustainable beauty with a motivational initiative: the International Day of Natural Cosmetics. This year the event is expanded to Natural Cosmetics Week, running from 23-29 November 2024. This event is designed to encourage producers, manufacturers, and distributors of natural and organic cosmetics, as well as organisations and individuals, to promote, inspire and motivate both the beauty industry and consumers alike.
Interview conducted by Dr Barbara Olioso with Dr Mark Smith, NATRUE”s Director General. Originally published in the Sofw Journal in January (available here)