Lush chips in to tackle food waste
The UK-founded global skin care brand, known for its boutique-style retailing and ethical profile, has joined various companies in the country that have thrown their weight behind the Evening Standard-led initiative, which looks minimise the large amount of waste in the capital.
The programme, known as the Felix Project, has already raised over £800,000 in total, also backed by supermarket retail chain Sainsbury’s and banking group Citi.
Its the latest in a long history by Lush of maintaining a strong CSR profile across national and international levels, and offers further confirmation that sustainability and ethical concerns are now topping the agenda for many beauty industry players.
Sustainability: environment and ethics
Sustainability has regularly been a central focus for brand strategy of late - Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan and the L’Oréal Sustainability commitment offering to big examples from major beauty and personal care multinationals.
Emma Reinhold, Trade Relations Manager at Soil Association, recently confirmed to Cosmetics Design that sustainability has fast become an essential factor for the industry, noting that it “can and should be the foundation for all companies".
“Consumers are asking more questions about sustainability and are putting ethical matters into their purchasing criteria,” the industry expert explained. “By highlighting the importance of sustainability in manufacturing we are ultimately ensuring a better future for our industry and the planet.”
Lush’s approach
With its latest move to get involved with sustainable projects, Lush has confirmed itself again as committed to environmental CSR.
Mark Constantine, co-founder of the company, is reported in the Evening Standard as saying: “The scandal of food waste in the store, in the home and in the restaurant must be dealt with.
"We applaud the Evening Standard in campaigning on this critical issue. It is good business practice to cut out waste and just as importantly, it could save the British countryside where intensive farming practices of all kinds is killing wildlife.
“This seems particularly ridiculous when we then throw the food in the bin. At Lush we try our best to use every little scrap.
"We hope the funds donated to The Felix Project can help them scale up to redistribute more food for human consumption that would otherwise have been thrown out and wasted.”
