Blog by Aida Jallow - Business Development Manager at Urb-it

The beauty sector - comprising of skincare, cosmetics, haircare, fragrances and personal care - experienced mixed impact due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sales of fragrance and colour cosmetics predictably fell abruptly in 2020 as restrictions were implemented across nations which kept large proportions of populations at home with reduced socialising.

Although these categories are expected to grow again in 2022 as restrictions ease, it is expected consumers will continue to invest in self-care categories of skin care and hair care, which remained in demand during the pandemic and saw an increase in direct sales online by consumers.

It is expected skin care will see the strongest performance, growing 22% in 2021 and expected to grow a further 10% in 2022 by McKinsey, when it is estimates skin care will account for 34% of the global beauty market.  

An emerging trend and theme in the sector in recent years which accelerated during the pandemic is clean beauty.   This spans beauty categories, and according to Brandessence, will double in size globally between 2020 – 2027 when it is expected to be worth $11.5bn.

Although there is no clear definition, it is widely viewed as products made without harmful ingredients – often vegan or organic.   Though claims are not required to be certified so there is some scepticism as to the authenticity of said claims.

Clean beauty and sustainable beauty are often mixed up, but sustainable beauty isn’t just about the ingredients or the way the products are made; it’s how products are packed, shipped and delivered. The problem is that while products themselves could be entirely sustainable and ethical, the logistics and supply chains are often complex and multi-national. There is still heavy use of plastic and enormous volumes of disposables that go to landfill each year.

To help drive the change needed in the supply chain, in January 2022, a selection of B Corp certified beauty companies formed a new B Corp Beauty Coalition to improve the sustainability standards of the beauty industry. Its vision is to deliver ‘beauty for good’.

The Coalition includes The Body Shop, Aromatherapy Associates and newly certified B Corp, Rituals Cosmetics, whose mission is to enable collaboration and exchange between companies to identify and share better practices, implement improvement actions and publish their outcomes.

For consumers, the mission wants to help beauty customers easily navigate the category and influence the beauty industry to trigger broader changes to improve its social and environmental footprint.

The specific areas of focus include:

• ingredient sourcing and sustainability
  

• greener logistics

• packaging responsibility
  

• consistent and clear external messaging that customers can understand and trust.

As a sustainable logistics last mile delivery partner for brands across Europe’s largest cities, Urb-it welcomes the power of B Corp businesses to collaborate within a sector to drive genuine change.

The transport sector is the largest contributor of greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG) within the European Union, accounting for around 28% of total emissions.

According to the World Economic Forum, the last mile in the logistics transport chain - from local hub to consumers’ doors - is the most complex and expensive, accounting for 53% of total cost of shipping and 41% of total supply chain costs.

We are passionate and excited about the B Corp Beauty Coalition and what it will achieve. We want to drive change, not only across the beauty industry, but also for other retailers in their sustainability missions, extending the meaning of clean beauty throughout their business to give the concept authentic meaning.