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Every Tuesday on the CosmoFactory podcast: Discover the latest innovations along the cosmetics and personal care supply chain. Hear thought-provoking conversations with top beauty industry experts from around the world. Learn about next-level solutions and find inspiration to turn your own ideas into industry-changing innovations.
A PRODUCTION OF Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna
CosmoFactory is the first podcast from Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna—the most important beauty trade show in the world. Dedicated to all sectors of the industry, Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna welcomes over 250,000 visitors from 150 countries and regions and nearly 3,000 exhibitors to Bologna, Italy, each year. It’s where our diverse and international industry comes together to build business relationships and to discover the best brands and newest innovations across consumer beauty, professional beauty, and the entire supply chain. The trade show includes a robust program of exclusive educational content, featuring executives and key opinion leaders from every sector of the cosmetics, fragrance, and personal care industry. Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna is the most important event of the Cosmoprof international network, with exhibitions in Asia (Hong Kong), the US (Las Vegas and Miami), India (Mumbai) and Thailand (Bangkok). Thanks to its global exhibitions Cosmoprof connects a community of more than 500,000 beauty stakeholders and 10,000 companies from 190 countries and regions. Learn more today at Cosmoprof.com
CosmoFactory was co-developed in collaboration with supply-side expert Deanna Utroske, Host of the CosmoFactory podcast and Editor of the Beauty Insights newsletter.
This transcrip is automatically generated and manually edited.
Deanna: [00:00:00] This episode. is about the transition to a circular business model. It's about benchmarking sustainability and making measurable progress toward circularity. It's about developing and manufacturing cosmetic products for an international market. It's about ingredient and packaging choices that make a noticeable difference.
And it's about communicating environmental sustainability measures to the end consumer. My guest on the CosmoFactory podcast today is Alain Mavon, vice president of R and [00:01:00] D and sustainability at LUMENE Group. Welcome.
Alain: Thank you. And yeah, it's a pleasure to explain a little bit our journey towards circular beauty, basically in short.
Deanna: Very good. I'm, I'm looking forward to our conversation. Um, LUMENE Group, I believe was founded in 1970. So I'm hoping you can just get us started by sharing a bit of background on the company.
Alain: Absolutely. So LUMENE Group is, uh, we are a Finnish company. We are located in a city next to Helsinki, the capital. Um, it's, uh, what, a hundred million euro sales company. So we are, and we are growing at the moment. Uh, it's a house of three brands. We have, uh, LUMENE Brands, Part of the LUMENE Group, uh, developing beauty products, skincare, haircare, and cause color, cosmetic makeup.
Uh, another one, Katrine, which is more focusing on professional haircare and the last one is Eidawari Beauty. We acquired this company last year. It's also haircare and self [00:02:00] tan, but more like a Hindi brand. We're very nice, a different mood, a very colorful palette. Uh, and, uh, And also very much driven by the sun soil.
So a lot of, uh, strong fragrance and smell on the shampoo conditioner. And then obviously self tan, which is also quite trendy in the Nordics, uh, in the Nordics countries, North of Europe. But
Deanna: Yeah. No, thank you for that. Um, you reminded us that, um, LUMENE Group is based in Finland. Um, and, and we know that country is a leader in sustainability. I, I want to take just a second and also mentioned that, you know, back in episode six, um, I got to speak with Johanna Ranka, the CEO of a company called Nordic Beauty Inc, which is also in Finland.
Um, and in that CosmoFactory episode, she shared some insights into state sustainability, um, and Finnish culture. Can you share a little bit about, um, what Why we think of sustainability when we think of Finland, what's the connection there?
Alain: maybe, uh, first, uh, Finland is a small country, [00:03:00] 5. 5 million inhabitants, but a huge country with a huge forest. It's nature is everywhere. And I would say coming from France, uh, in Finland, you don't have it. Maybe the resource were not as as available as in a country like France because of the climate, for example, and people has been for a long time mindful with the resource they had in the hand.
It's also not like nowhere. There's no oil in the soil. There is no, you know, the resource act, I would say, quite limited. So people have to innovate, think differently and be definitely mindful with the Existing resources available. So I think that's my view from as a foreigner. I think that's where it comes from from That's where you come naturally to be to think sustainability when you develop product here in Finland That's also why I was attracted to join the minute.
Deanna: Yeah, sure. No, that makes sense. Um, at LUMENE Group, um, you lead both R& D and sustainability, um, and each of these I think we could call a framework for innovation. I'm [00:04:00] hoping you can talk with us about where R& D and sustainability intersect in your work, as well as, um, where those two objectives might diverge.
Alain: Yeah, absolutely. They they are intersect. I would say almost every every day when we develop formulation when we think packaging Uh, how the, how to make, um, the end of life of the product easier to the consumer with this monomaterials, for example, on the packaging and so on. But if you see sustainability is not just in R& D, it's also covering all the aspects of the company.
We have our own manufacturing, so sustainability is important here. We have also a strong social pillars. Which obviously sustainability is part of it all this ESG topic and all the governance, you know and you know nordics country are quite Respectful of the rules and so on. So we have a very strong sustainability strategy [00:05:00] which span from Or obviously on the entire, entire, uh, company, also how we interact with, uh, with the community and how we can, we can give back.
We have, for example, an initiative on supporting the restoration of wetland. You know, this wetland has been very much impacted in the past by the forest industry, but wetland are very important, uh, carbon sink. So, and it's also where many of our ingredients, you know, these different berries that are specific to the Nordics are growing.
So it's also giving back to nature because we get, nature is giving us a lot, so we need to give back. So that's where, uh, yes, sustainability is all across, but definitely in R& D it's, it's, it's a. Core part of our development. I would say, let's say the concept of eco design and moving further on your question towards circularity.
That's also something that is coming straight into the middle of [00:06:00] the discussion while we're developing.
Deanna: yeah, no, very good. Um, you've been in the role you have now, I believe for about three years. And as we've, we've made quite clear, you're very focused on transitioning the company to, um, what we would think of as a circular business model. Um, and this is an objective that many brands and beauty makers, um, have, you know, at least as a distant goal, um, at this point though, I would say that circularity is an ideal.
Um, and so I'm wondering how you get started on, on a goal like this that is really quite ambitious. Where do you begin?
Alain: I came so we have three years ago. I had a background also in the previous company more on the on the research, but already already involved into sustainability and and LUMENE was positioned at that time as as kind of pioneer pioneering, uh, sustainability and circularity as we were using and we launched our first upcycling gradient.
Uh in 2001, so 23 years ago where [00:07:00] I think today is quite trendy to speak about upcycle ingredient at that time It was not I think the word itself was probably not existing or just created but it was a leftover a side stream from food industry where That was developed. It's a it's a cloudberry seed oil.
So extracted from the seeds that That were burned or the leftover from when you extract the juice, you have the leftover and these seeds were burned. So it was probably a good idea to extract the oil, which is extremely rich in different omega, omega 3, omega 6, uh, free fatty acid, also beta carotene. And we use this ingredient, uh, since more than 20 years in various products.
So that was one way when, when the start of the journey today, we have in our portfolio, but 50 different, uh, Nordic ingredients and, uh, but 30 are not only all Nordics, but 30 upcycled. So it's, it's something we are formulating, uh, regularly, [00:08:00] but also packaging wise, we, we, we started the journey to, to, to modify and reduce, basically try different initiative.
But the ultimate one at the moment, we still need some pack to carry our formula, to protect our formula, make them available to the consumer. So the best way to be more circular, uh, is simplify the, the, the, the complexity of the formula of, sorry, of the, the pack. Monomaterials, easy to recycle, um, and reduce the, the, the, the way in particular. Then how to move from pioneering to leading. Uh, we basically find a way to, uh, quantify and measure how much circular we are.
Deanna: Yeah. Tell us about that. It's super interesting. Sure.
Alain: it's kind of a circle. So in a way, how, how far in the circle are we closer to 0% circularity or more? A hundred percent. [00:09:00] And there is a number which has been published a few two years ago. It's coming from the circularity gap, which measured the circularity of the global economy.
And this number is 7. 2%. So from there, it's which mean and, you know, meaning the global economy is 93 This is the business model that most of us are in. We take, we make, we consume, we waste. And we know that the, unfortunately, the consequence, the planet is suffering global warming. Excess of pollution and plastics everywhere up to the ocean and, uh, and biodiversity.
So we need to shift to something more, more respectful and circularity. And the concept of circular economies is different is, I think, the one of the relevant options. And, uh, to, to move from, obviously from linear to circular, it's not something that happened overnight. Uh, that's where this, uh, we use a tool called the CTI tool, which is CTI stands for [00:10:00] Circularity Transition Indicator.
And, uh, There is a set of indicators and the tool soft software that has been developed to facilitate your calculation and your measure. So in a very short, we took plenty of data from the company on the raw material side on the packer. pack component side, how much, what is the type of energy we use in a factory?
99 percent renewable source, the water use in the factory for the products, for cleaning, cleaning the vessels and so on, all the marketing materials. And then what's happening at the end of life of the product, biodegradability of formula, recyclability of packaging and so on. Altogether, we had about 300, 000 data points.
And we Ended up with one number, which is our percentage of circularity and we have 55 percent circular. That's the data on 23. So it's, it's, we can't exactly compare with the 7. 2 of the global [00:11:00] economy because it's not exactly the same tool, same calculation, but roughly we have an idea that we are quite advanced, I would say, on that journey.
Not much benchmark, uh, in, in the world available. We want to be open and transparent. We have communicated this number into our sustainability report. And, but mainly it's for us internally. It was really, and what I was very amazed, it's, it helps people. On all all the employees, even up to the people in the factory to understand what does it mean being circular?
What does it mean being better where we can impact and change some and improve? We have set now target to be 70 percent circular by 2030. So now we have we have we know how to measure. We were we know where we can Uh, make some change, review, uh, and improve our eco design and impact, uh, our, our [00:12:00] circularity.
We are also going down to the calculation at the product level. So we have very interesting discussion then with, with our market here. Uh, and, and the aim at the end is to, is to improve and, and find and switch from ingredients that are coming from the linear flow. And can we. Switch to something else. I will take an example, which was pushed by the regulation in Europe.
Uh, you know, we have been, uh, the two silicones, D five and D six has been done, so we have to remove them. But silicones are typically linear. They are, uh, manmade and they are not biodegradable. So they are typically on the linear flow. Uh, by removing them and, and switching to naturally derived ingredients, we, we were able to.
First, we had a mandatory, uh, and a regulatory demand to remove them, but we have improved the percentage of natural ingredients in formulas. If this was in makeup, [00:13:00] uh, some, some makeup products improve about by 10 percent more natural ingredients, but as they are more natural and coming from renewable sources, they are more circular.
So. It's, uh, this one was, was a pressure. So now we are pushing, pushing ourselves to be, to be ahead and improve by challenging us on, on the ingredient, the raw material we use similar to the packaging, maybe another example, switching from, uh, aluminum, we have different air spray we have, et cetera. So now we are.
It was slightly more expensive, but not much. But now we have transitioned to more recycled, recyclable aluminum. So it's falling onto the circular, uh, flow rather than the linear flow. So stop using virgin aluminum.
Deanna: Yeah. No, thank you for all of that. That's, that's very helpful. And when you first mentioned sort of benchmarking where you were at or looking at, um, where the world is at [00:14:00] in terms of our transition to circularity, you mentioned this circularity gap report, which I know, um, is an initiative of the circle economy foundation, which is based there in the Netherlands.
Um, And then you mentioned the CTI tool. Is that also a product from the Circle Economy Foundation, or is that unrelated?
Alain: It's, it's quite connected. It's, uh, initially, uh, and this tool is. Uh, it's called, I think Circle IQ, the startup that developed that. There is a free version that anyone can use. You don't have all the functionality in, uh, versus the paid version, but you can already do a kind of a rough estimate of your, your circularity using the free version.
So it's, it's available. It's, uh, Again, it's, there are probably some, some gaps. It's probably not perfect, but, uh, here it's not perfection that we, we, we look for. It's more having tools to measure what we do and then to create a target, uh, being relevant [00:15:00] KPIs. I maybe didn't mention, but this, this is one of the top five KPIs of the company.
So there is a full engagement from the top management, which I'm part of, but also from our board. So it's also a clearly a very important initiative in the company. So again, it's not something that we are just cooking in, in the, in, in a corner of the lab. Big engagement of the company, everyone in the company is involved on that.
So that's also really what makes, uh, this, this, uh, journey exciting. You know, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's a com company engagement to improve our circularity.
Deanna: Yeah, no, no, that's fantastic. I appreciate your sharing that. And certainly here on Cosmofactory, we like to, you know, provide useful information and resources that listeners can make use of as well. And this CTI tool sounds like, um, Something that other beauty makers might [00:16:00] be able to use. I'm curious, um, though, there are many, you know, climate data or climate management platforms available. I'm wondering if there are particular features of this one that made it more practical for a company that's in cosmetics or personal care. Or I guess maybe, um, I want to ask if there's anything about the beauty industry, right, that makes, makes our work distinct from other CPG companies. Um, when it comes to sustainability management, was this a, the CTI tool, a particularly good fit for beauty or, or can you think about, you know, why you chose it?
Help us think that through.
Alain: No, this has been developed, uh, with different by the different company in front. And I think circularity is not specific to, to cosmetics. We, we are, uh, dependent from nature. We are prov or creator of, of, uh, packaging ways. So, and, and we are sourcing, uh, Different ingredients from, from the chemical industry, from the mining, I think about the pigments or sourcing [00:17:00] from, from, uh, natural sources.
So no, I think it's not specific to, to cosmetic industry and, and knowing that there are, uh, and I CosmoPro many of them will be there, but there are some very great company that have engaged in this type of journey. I think some of them are probably more circular than us. Even they don't, they have not made that calculation.
Uh, you know, the one that thinking about refilling, uh, I think this tool can, uh, be used also to explore how the circular they are. And I would love that we would be more having this number because it's. It's a simple number. Everybody's understand a percentage. Uh, and if we engage into a race to be almost circular, that will be super, super, super exciting because that will benefit to the planet.
Deanna: right. That's some healthy competition, right?
Alain: Yes, I think it's a very healthy competition and I, I [00:18:00] didn't mention, but we got the B Corp certification, uh, in, in July, uh, and we're also part of the B Beauty Coalition. So it's also where we share different, different good practice, different ideas. So it's also, I think in this case, uh, Why I'm, I'm very open to, I have no, no, no particular connection with the CTI tool in this company is just that it's a tool that allows us to, to measure and progress and improve.
So I think worth. worth for others company to, to get into this journey. It's allow you to understand what you do because you need a lot of data to be quite accurate, but you can start very simply with one example or you can trickle across all, all across your company. So as I said, we have what 1000 data point.
It's quite extensive. But parallel to that, and maybe what I wanted to also clarify is not being circular is also [00:19:00] we it doesn't measure the life cycle. It's not measuring the life cycle life cycle assessment. It doesn't measure your CEO to emission reduction. So we also have in our strategy, the combination of Being more circular, but also reducing the CO2 emission.
And these have to go any Nance, if we want to really have an impact, because you can be very circular, but maybe some ingredients that are renewable, uh, well developed and so on, but coming from very far away, you have very, very long supply chain might be not that, uh, positive for the environment. So it should go and enhance and.
Definitely in Europe. We have now more and more regulation that push us to reduce our emissions. We also are engaged on the CO2 emission, but I think it's very important to bring that in perspective. It goes and it ends. And that's Also, anyway, when, when we select some, some raw materials [00:20:00] to transition away, it's also the CO2 emission impact back to the example.
So we've, we've the The aluminum back, uh, we know to create aluminum require a lot of energy. So it's, uh, but all of that is, is going into a clear sustainability strategy.
Deanna: Yeah. Yeah. No, that, that makes very good sense. I appreciate your sharing that and, um, you know, you've, you've mentioned the aluminum for packaging. You've mentioned, um, moving away from silicones. I'm wondering if there's other, um, other data driven changes that you've made, um, in ingredients or packaging.
Um, uh, forgive me for saying it this way, but, but that might be a little bit more surprising. Did the data show you anything that you, that, that you didn't realize? Yes.
Alain: we were honestly surprised because we have no clue of where we will land in terms of percentage of
Deanna: Right.
Alain: And we above 50%, which was, which was great. No, no. Yeah, it was a very good surprise not having any benchmark. So it was a [00:21:00] bit difficult to say. Yes We are it's great or not.
But anyway above 50 was great probably that's what was the most, most striking people understood what means circularity.
People get excited to understand more behind, and then you're going to explain because definitely all of this concept, um, maybe not the simple
one.
Deanna: Yeah. Some,
I'm wondering if there were any changes you made to the manufacturing infrastructure to bring the company closer to circularity. Is that, is that a piece of the equation?
Alain: yes, we are, we are with, with our colleague on manufacturing, for example, have a huge work on batch optimization to, for example, simplify the, the, the, the cleaning step in between the vessels. Uh, and we are revisiting some of the, the principle of formulation to reduce. Which is also connected to CO2 emission, but reducing the, the cleaning is reduced.
The quantity of water we use, uh, for, for cleaning, and then [00:22:00] that, obviously the water is treated afterwards, but it's anywhere has an impact and there is not going to, there is some loss. So it's this water even, it's retreated. There is some loss and it has an impact on the, on the, let's say, percentage of.
Of linearity. So we want to do that. Water is important as well. So it's also why we want to reduce and it's the batch optimization is a big project ongoing. It will have an improvement from a circularity point of view, but also from an efficacy, uh, on utilizing best the different equipment. So this also drive many positive benefits.
Into the company. We might I can't remember they have made the calculation. We will make some savings as well. So sometimes there's some extra cost. But by revisiting the way we work, you can really optimize some processes
Deanna: Yeah. No, that's fantastic. I appreciate that example. Um, and, and [00:23:00] one last question here in, in an earlier conversation, you shared with me, um, that a statement like 30 percent less waste can be more meaningful to the end consumer than it might be to say 30 percent less carbon emissions.
I'm wondering if you can talk a bit about, um, Thank you. How your work in informs consumer marketing and how companies may be along the supply chain can be involved really in this sustainability education and sharing accurate information with consumers.
Alain: Yeah, the point was we we back to circularity. We used some upcycling gradient from the forest industry. oil to produce, not us, but with some partners, some, uh, some plastic that will be used for our jar, uh, 50 ML jar. They are bio based basically. Uh, And we have reduced the weight, uh, by 44%, so we still have 50 ml of product inside, but less packaging.
Very complex to [00:24:00] explain in terms of life cycle assessment and CO2 emission reduction, which was 38%, but the weight was 44%. Very simple. People understand there is less, less, less of back. It's lighter. So there's less emission. It's also what we didn't communicate much, but it's reduced. As we reduce the size, we can put twice more boxes per pallet.
So we know we need less twice less truck to transport that in different stores. So, yes, the supply chain up front is we we We are so trying to source more and more closely to reduce the impact. We are also asking a lot to our supplier, more and more data on what is the journey of where they source the ingredients.
Having not just them our first contact, but understand the full journey. It's super, super important for us 'cause we built more and more data. Also for, for transparency reason, and then, then on the downstream, making sure that the [00:25:00] supply chain is optimized. We have been, uh, uh, reducing also, uh, air freight.
We are selling in China also a bit in the US. So now it's, so all of that has an impact on the CO2 emission and as well will improve our, our circularity. But yes, it's not just, we will be able to be more circular thanks to, uh, especially our, our supplier because that's where we can, we can impact. But at the end of life, you know, if we improve the recyclability of the packaging, Uh, we can really have a big impact and that's where some company, for example, consider re refilling.
So getting back the packaging to reuse. And it's one also aspect of the circularity. So yeah, again, I'm hope more and more we'll start calculating the circularity. I'm sure some company are really, really good.
Deanna: Yeah, yeah, no, that will be exciting to see.
Alain: okay.
Deanna: Exciting to see everyone's numbers there. Well, Alan, the passion you have for your work is very [00:26:00] evident. I've enjoyed speaking with you here today on the Cosmo Factory podcast. Thank you.
Alain: Yes. Thank you very much.