T he beauty industry is notorious for using attractive packaging to entice customers – a marketing ploy that doesn’t always translate to being environmentally friendly (we’re looking at you, single-use plastic). In 2020, nothing is prettier than the three Rs. Make reduce, reuse and recycle an essential part of your beauty routine by choosing products in recycled materials or in packaging that’s reusable, refillable or recyclable. In the latter case, check the official recycling guidelines in your municipality to ensure that your packaging is blue bin approved. For example, the City of Toronto, where I live, doesn’t recycle black plastic (you can also get all your recycling information in Toronto on the TOwaste app).   To reduce new plastic production, some beauty brands are making bottles out of post-consumer recycled plastic. Others are partnering up with organizations like TerraCycle to collect hard-to-recycle materials. In 2018, L’Occitane launched its recycling program, where participating boutiques collect and recycle used beauty, skincare and hair care packaging from any brand. Clarins recently added collection boxes for its used packaging to all of its Hudson’s Bay counters. Burt’s Bees, mean-while, offers prepaid mailing labels for its used products to be shipped directly to TerraCycle.   Others have embraced the circular economy, where companies take back their products after use to be reused or recycled (think old-school glass milk bottles). M.A.C, for example, rewards customers with free products when they return their primary packaging, such as foundation bottles and lipstick tubes, to the Back-to-M.A.C program. How’s that for better beauty with benefits?   When brands do their part by using earth-friendly packaging, it’s up to you to make sure that it’s disposed of properly. Take Kaia Naturals’s The Vitamin Cleanse, for example. These all-natural wipes are fully compostable, but if they’re tossed in the garbage or flushed down the drain, that bio-degradation isn’t going to happen. “If people don’t know how to deal with the end product, it won’t actually reach the objective,” says Kaia founder Mary Futher. “The manufacturer can only do so much. You have to do the rest.”  

Best Bets

Refillable: M.A.C. Loud & Clear Lipstick in Baroque The Internet, $24, maccosmetics.ca TerraCyclable: Burt’s Bees Voluminizing Mascara, $14, shoppersdrugmart.ca Reusable: Lastswab Beauty, $18, lastobject.com (Check out six ways to go eco-friendly in under 24 hours.) Some ingredients used in personal care products, such as preservatives and fragrances, have been linked to a host of negative health issues, from contact dermatitis to fertility problems. The Canadian Cancer Society reports that phthalates, found in some nail polishes and perfumes, are being studied for their potential link to cancer. That risk has led to the green beauty movement and a demand for more-natural products that contain ingredients that are easy to recognize, typically in the form of organic botanicals, such as aloe, shea butter and coconut oil.   Though buying organic was costly at one time, it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg because greater consumer demand for natural alternatives has given brands an incentive to find ways to bring prices down. “It was our goal to give women an accessible, organic cosmetic range that they can easily buy and use daily,” says Anne Requier, a skincare lab engineer at Garnier International who recently introduced the certified-organic Bio range to Canada.   At Herbal Essences, an endorsement by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK verifies the efficacy of the brand’s botanical ingredients, such as aloe. “Because they have the biggest plant collection in the world, they can go back and get the standard,” says Rachel Zipperian, principal scientist for Herbal Essences. “They know exactly what aloe is supposed to look like, and they’re able to confirm that the aloe we’re using is high in [anti-oxidant] polysaccharides.”   For some, the future lies in clean beauty, a term used to describe products that include synthetic ingredients that mimic natural ones but can also be more stable, sustainable and even pure because this process eliminates potential contamination from toxins, pesticides and heavy metals. One such example is squalene, which was traditionally harvested from shark livers and olives to add moisturizing benefits to skincare. The California-based brand Biossance takes a different approach thanks to parent company Amyris, which bioengineered a plant-based, stable squalene using fermented sugar cane from Brazil, a plant that requires less resources than olives. (Check out the best mini clean beauty products to test drive.)   When it comes to understanding what’s going in your body, the onus is ultimately on you. According to Health Canada’s guidelines, labelling cosmetic ingredients is important because it “helps Canadians make more informed decisions about the cosmetics they use since they are able to easily-identify ingredients they may be sensitive to.” Reading the label sounds simple enough, but is it something that most of us are doing? According to Biossance president Catherine Gore, the answer is no. “It’s not that clear that you have to,” she says.   There are resources that educate us on product ingredients, such as Clean at Sephora and Environmental Working Group, but sometimes this wealth of information can lead to confusion. To help cut through the noise, Gore and her team at Biossance launched The Clean Academy, a series of YouTube videos hosted by Queer Eye grooming expert Jonathan Van Ness. Their mission is to offer real answers to topics that confuse us most at the beauty counter. “The tricky thing is that there’s a lot of information and sometimes that can be a lot to absorb,” explains Gore. “It’s also quite complicated in terms of some of the answers. We wanted to offer a platform that helps do that in a fun and entertaining way.”  

Best Bets

Endorsed by Kew Gardens: Herbal Essences Bio Renew Potent Aloe & Hemp Shampoo and Conditioner, $8 each, herbalessences.ca EWG-Approved: Biossance Squalane + 10% Lactic Acid Resurfaving Night Serum, $82, biossance.com Certified Organic: Garnier Bio Lavandin Facial Oil, $25, walmart.ca (Check out the 12 toxic ingredients that can be found in beauty products.) Animal lovers, rejoice! Being cruelty-free is finally cool. And we have The Body Shop to thank for that. Back in 1989, it was the first global beauty company to lobby for an end to animal testing. Today, the company has been joined by many others, including makeup giant CoverGirl, which went cruelty-free in 2018. “Listening to our consumers, we started this journey with CoverGirl to demonstrate our commitment to this issue by achieving such an ambitious certification at scale,” said Camillo Pane, former chief executive officer of CoverGirl’s parent company, Coty. Broadly speaking, a cruelty-free designation means that the product was developed without any testing on animals, while vegan means that the product does not include any animal-derived ingredients.   To find out where your favourite brands stand, it’s important to do your research, as product formulation isn’t always transparent and animal testing may occur at the ingredient level. Leaping Bunny is an organization that vets beauty products for compliance at all points (CoverGirl is the largest makeup brand with Leaping Bunny’s stamp of approval). Its Cruelty-Free App makes it easy to check on the go.  

Best Bets

The Industry Giant: Covergirl Clean Fresh Skin Milk Foundation, $13, shoppersdrugmart.ca The Pioneer: The Body Shop Shea Body Butter, $21, thebodyshop.com The Makeup Maestro: Kat Von D Beauty Tattoo Liner, $27, sephora.com Now that you’ve learned about the 3Rs for beauty products, check out the sustainable wellness items our editors love.

Sir Fraser Stoddart a remporté le prix Nobel de chimie en 2016 pour ses travaux sur les molécules. Les soins Noble Panacea, The Absolute pour les peaux dévitalisées et The Brillant pour les épidermes fatigués, en sont l’application directe.

Une dose quotidienne de soin

Contenue dans des Doses Actives Individuelles, la formule intègre l’Organic Molecular Vessel : une structure moléculaire capable de protéger, puis de libérer progressivement sur la peau, jusqu’à 67 ingrédients actifs, comme dans le baume de nuit The Absolute. Et parce que “l’innovation nécessaire au progrès se doit d’être responsable”, ajoute Céline Talabaza, CEO de la marque, un partenariat avec TerraCycle, via un système d’enveloppes prépayées, a même été mis en place pour collecter les doses journalières.

When operators talk about waste, the first item that comes to mind is food. But there are plenty of other wasteful avenues anyone interested in creating a zero-waste establishment can explore. The challenge for many is knowing when and where to invest and, more often than not, they’re not seeing the whole picture, according to industry experts. “One hard idea to reconcile is operators are typically dealing with waste when it happens and factoring that into their costs,” says Josh Wolfe, corporate chef and director of Sales – Ontario for Food Service Solutions Inc. in Mississauga, Ont. “That’s a bit of a backward approach.” He likens it to the notion of defensive driving. “You can learn how to brake when sliding on ice or get out of dangerous situations. Or you can anticipate what’s around you and put your focus on keeping the right distances or slowing down when conditions are bad. If you do that, you won’t need to take corrective measures.”   Equipment can serve the same preventative purpose, he says. “There are a few processes that can come into play to help treat food differently to mitigate waste. In North America, we cook and serve and hot-hold food so it’s ready quickly. That’s outdated. Cook-chill is the way to go. It’s a much better process with the right combination of equipment.” That combination would typically include a blast chiller, vacuum sealing (to preserve food longer) and a combi and/or rapid-cook oven. “With cook-chill, you can buy large cases of proteins, apply cooking methods such as sous vide or a combi oven — both of which work hand in hand with the chiller — and finish items when ordered. You reduce waste and service time and you no longer have to pre-anticipate because you’re cooking precisely what you need.” Not only can operators reduce food waste, intelligent appliances only use energy when it’s required, he says. “They also help reduce waste through human error because they can be programmed to cook things consistently with little training.” Leaning more on technology can play an enormous role in reducing waste on many fronts, Wolfe notes. “There’s a new DRY AGER cabinet, for example, that manages its own moisture. Instead of losing 25 per cent of volume, dry-aging loses less than 10 per cent. That saves a tremendous amount of waste and increases revenues.” One other discipline chefs need to consider is quantifying their waste and its dollar value, he adds. “It’s easy to do that with labour and is measurable up front.” For Andrew Shakman, president and CEO of Leanpath in Beaverton, Ore., zero waste is all about measurement and analytics. “Historically, there’s been no easy way to measure food waste. In fact, it’s the most undermanaged part of most foodservice operations.” Leanpath’s food-waste equipment platform combines intelligent scales, cameras and touchscreen devices with cloud-based analytics and tools. “This equipment is about driving awareness and changing behaviours in kitchens. Waste reduction occurs when people are making smarter decisions on what they produce and serve. You can only do that when you operate from an informed position.” Even if you don’t look at the data, the improvement is almost immediate. “Having control-systems equipment people can see helps shape a kitchen’s culture and behaviour.” IKEA Canada began working with Leanpath’s food-waste tracking program in December 2018 as part of its global mandate to reduce food waste by 50 per cent by 2020. It reached the 31-per-cent mark within one year of implementing the program, reports Melissa Mirowski, Sustainability manager, IKEA Canada. More than 94,000 kgs. of food waste have been saved since the program started — the equivalent of approximately 200,000 meals. “With the program, we’ve been able to track all food waste in real time. The data is automatically updated onto the Leanpath platform where co-workers can see what is wasted, how much and why. The predictive reporting helps us identify ways to prevent waste through efficient meal planning and material handling. The biggest surprise was that something so simple could create such a big impact across the board.” A NEW TAKE ON DISPOSABLES Beyond food, there are other ways to keep items out of waste streams, says Chris Knight, consultant with The Fifteen Group in Toronto. “Purchasing second-hand equipment is an opportunity for restaurants to save money and be effective in their cost management. It also keeps things out of landfill and recycling plants.” Another area that is gaining momentum is biodegradable takeout packaging. “The improvements we’re seeing are unbelievable. We’re now seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of different packaging using natural products — from corn-based to hemp-based to soy — that do a good job. Even the major chains are working on making the transition to more natural packaging products. They cost more than Styrofoam or plastic, but [operators] can recoup that with a price adjustment.” For those with one-time-use objects that have no place to go, TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Boxes group in Trenton, N.J., has been running a program for hard-to-recycle items not accepted in traditional waste-management streams, explains Rhandi Goodman, global VP. Customers simply order one of its cardboard waste boxes for recycling specific items (e.g. hairnets, gloves, chip bags, plastic wrap, rigid containers, disposable cutlery, coffee cups) to be shipped to their venue. Each box includes a shipping label so it can be sent back for recycling. “Operators can pick what items they want to collect and place them in a designated area,” she says.   SMALLER IDEAS DELIVERING A BIG IMPACT Zero-waste initiatives don’t necessarily have to be on a grand scale to make a difference. Many smaller outlets, including cafés, are equally committed to reducing waste in their operations. At Golden Gecko Coffee in Toronto, Jake Healy says he’s always searching for innovative, environmentally sustainable options for his restaurant. “I find Kickstarter (a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity) useful to find innovative crowdsourcing projects,” he says. He’s always open to trying out programs focused on eliminating the use of disposable coffee cups and recently joined a pilot project with Reego, a new reusable takeout-cup concept where the café charges a one-time $5 deposit for a cup and lid that can be switched for a clean one at any other cafe participating in the program. The company claims if only one-per-cent of Toronto’s takeout coffees were served in reusable takeout containers instead of single-use disposable, more than seven-million disposable cups and lids would be kept out of landfills and oceans. Healy has also sourced a plant-based reusable HuskeeCup for in-store customers. “Reusable cups really help reduce the waste stream in the coffee industry,” he says. Christie Peters, chef/co-owner of The Hollows and Primal in Saskatoon, says she’s always had a zero-waste mindset since opening her first restaurant in 2011. Because Saskatoon didn’t have the compost or pickup systems you would typically see, “I had to come up with my own systems, working with local farmers and other partners to be able to run a no-waste operation.” She only uses biodegradable papers and napkins and harvests honey from a beehive on the restaurant’s roof. She also does whole-animal butchery, using the bones for stocks and sauces and dries and burns them for the compost. “We just got a hammer mill for grinding the bones and bloodmeals for our garden.” All equipment is second hand, including a dehydrator and “a beautiful old combi steam oven we use for canning and preserving,” she says. “We do a ton of canning, pickling, fermenting, drying, freezing and smoking.” Tables and chairs are reclaimed and refurbished pieces. “If anything breaks, we get it repaired. We don’t throw it out. The waste water from the water-cooled fridge is looped to water the patio plants. “We’re looking to push that further and put in a holding tank for flushing toilets.” Her newest project is an aquaponic system at Primal where fish fertilize greens. “People think sustainability is expensive. But the less waste you create, the more money you save. Why buy fertilizer for your garden when you can compost? Why pay for garbage pickup when you can exchange that compost with the farmers you work with? We have one dumpster for our two restaurants that gets picked up once a month. It’s never full. We’re pretty proud of that.” Written by Denise Deveau          

新时代商业文明第三辑

Scary fact #1: We dump around 2.12 billion tons of waste every year. Scary fact #2: As it stands, 75 percent of waste—including beauty products—in the U.S. is recyclable, yet only 30 percent is actually being recycled, according to the EPA. Unfortunately, your beauty routine has a major environmental impact, thanks to the overwhelming consumption of plastic and ingredients that may not be eco-friendly. Although it’s important to note that being sustainable is more than just a trend—it's the right thing to do all year long—with Earth Day coming around, there’s no better time to give your beauty routine an eco-friendly makeover. Here are five mistakes you’re probably making right now, and the appropriate solutions to fix them.

You’re not recycling your empties.

  Let’s kick it off with the most egregious beauty sin: not recycling your empties. Throwing your beauty products into the trash is a small move that has big consequences for our landmines and oceans.   The solution: Get yourself a dual compartment bin ($65; homedepot.com), that has a section for waste and another for recyclables. That way, when you go to throw any trash away, you’ll be reminded to recycle whenever possible.   If you don’t have a go-to source for dropping off your recyclables, beauty brands like Unilever have partnered up with Terracycle to collect hard-to-recycle items from around the world and convert them into consumer products. Not only will they pay for all shipping costs, they’ll also make a donation to charity for each brigade collection they receive.   Also, keep an eye out for beauty brands that offer recycling options in-house. L’Occitane has a great initiative where you can take any full-sized product from any brand to the store and it will give you 10 percent off any new full-sized product you buy that day. Origins allows you to bring back any empty Origins containers to the counter and the brand will ensure they are recycled. And Back to MAC is a program that gifts shoppers a free lipstick once they have returned six full-size empties to the store.  

2You’re buying from unsustainable brands.

  The beauty world is full of murky waters, especially when it comes to product sourcing. From vaguely worded promises to unclear labeling systems, brands that tout “cruelty-free” can have some misleading fine print.   The solution: Do your research! Ensure the brand is truly cruelty-free and against animal testing. The leaping bunny symbol is a guarantee that none of the products have been tested on animals. Sephora also has a green checkmark indicating products that are free of certain questionable and unwanted ingredients. Put down any product that contains phthalates, mercury, toluene, lead, or formaldehyde, as these chemicals are considered to be some of the most damaging to the planet.   When you’re shopping, look for sustainable beauty brands that have thoughtful packaging. Try to avoid Styrofoam, cartons, and PVCs where possible. Any packaging made with recycled material will be recyclable and likely list a disclaimer on the container. Case in point: Tata Harper‘s packaging is bottled in reusable and recyclable glass (with soy ink used for the labeling), while 85 percent of Aveda’s skincare and haircare products are made of 100 percent recycled materials.  

3You’re using disposable makeup wipes every day.

  As useful as single-use makeup wipes are, the cotton used to create makeup removal pads and buds are not biodegradable and don’t easily break down, causing too much trash to stack up in our landfills. What’s worse is that some are actually individually wrapped in plastic, doubling the amount of waste produced.   The solution: If you use a small mountain of cotton balls or wipes on the daily, consider switching to washable, reusable pads, like the Makeup Eraser Cloth ($20; sephora.com), that only require water to work. Not only will you be doing a huge favor for the environment, you also won’t have to restock as often and you’ll be saving your skin from all those harmful pesticides in regular cotton balls.  

4You’re not taking advantage of refill programs.

  Chances are you have some holy grail beauty products that you swear by—and you simply toss 'em and order another when you reach the bottom of the tube. Well, you might want to check if your favorites are refillable. More and more beauty brands are starting to offer intelligent refill systems that allow you to reuse your existing jars and containers.   The solution: Limit your packaging consumption with refillable makeup and skincare products. Myro, a chic deodorant company, has a subscription service that periodically sends you new scent cartridge refills that are ready to be popped in whenever you're running low. Rituals, an ayurveda-inspired bath and body brand, offers eco-friendly refills for their skincare and body products—just take out the bottom of the jar and replace. And Kjar Weis is a sustainable makeup brand with gorgeous compacts that can be used again and again. Simply remove the cartridge and refill with a fresh one when you hit pan.   But wait, there’s more! Loop is a program that gives customers the chance to buy products from beauty brands, like Dove, Pantene, and The Body Shop, while renting the packaging. You just pay for the contents and a deposit for the bottle and it’s delivered to your door via a carbon-neutral mode of transport. Let Loop know when you’re running low, return the empty bottle to be cleaned, and they’ll send a new product to you in reused packaging.  

5You’re a serial beauty dater.

  Every beauty lover is probably guilty of this one (myself included). Do you like to use different beauty products on rotation? From those products, do you tend to barely dip in before moving on the next one? If you’ve answered yes, you’re a serial beauty dater. This mindset feeds into the buy-and-throw-away mentality, which takes a hard toll on the environment (and your bank account).   The solution: Streamline your beauty routine! A good system to practice: Only add one new product to your routine once you’ve finished another one.   If you want to experiment, try doing it with brands that remove packaging from its products altogether. Lush, Ethique, and Love Beauty and Planet all have shampoo bars that come wrapped in recyclable paper that clean your hair without ingredients that hurt the environment when they go down the drain. Meow Meow Tweet and Davines also has a wide range of products, from bar soaps to facial products, that utilize paper tubes instead of plastic.   Now, if you do have a stash of products you just don't want anymore, lilah b. has a system that takes away your unwanted beauty goods (even if it's not theirs) for free. Just e-mail declutter@lilahbeauty.com to receive a prepaid return shipping label and ship over your unwanted stuff. They'll work with a dedicated partner to process and recycle them so you get to declutter and give back to the system.

For the consumers part, it is making a conscious effort to be more aware of selecting brands that have ethical and sustainable practices. While companies are showing a sense of social responsibility by implementing sustainable and ethical practices such as fair wages and minimizing any environmental impact in the process of manufacturing products. Many brands have incorporated sustainability through recycling efforts and rewarding consumers with incentives in exchange for the empty products containers returned. Here is a rundown of how some companies have implemented their sustainable campaigns:

The Long Beach Environmental Alliance (LBEA) began with a cigarette butt clean-up in downtown Long Beach.   The focus has been on collecting discarded cigarettes, a ubiquitous element of refuse that litters streets and ultimately washes out into the ocean.   “All of the cigarette butts are so easy to miss, if you’re driving on the street or walking too fast. If you stop and look closely, they’re there, on the sidewalks, in the gutters and all around our public bus stops,” John Kindred, co-founder of LBEA, said.   Cigarettes pose a huge detriment to both local and global marine life. According to the FDA, cigarettes contain as many as 93 potentially harmful constituents that are either carcinogens, respiratory toxicants, cardiovascular toxicants, reproductive or developmental toxicants, or addictive. In 2018, the Ocean Conservancy group recovered 2,412,151 cigarette butts as part of their International Coastal Cleanup effort. 842,837 of those were collected on American shores.   A study paid for by the University of California Tobacco Related Disease Research Program found that “leachate from cigarette butts is acutely toxic to representative marine and freshwater fish species” through a number of controlled tests.   “All of that gets in the food we eat,” Kindred said.   Kindred started the Long Beach Environmental Alliance in 2017 with co-founder Sokha Ny. Their mission statement reads, “Working together for local solutions to environmental issues through action, passion, and advocacy in the city of Long Beach.”   A cigarette but collection planned this coming Saturday, March 28, was canceled after "Safer At Home" restrictions prompted by the coronavirus pandemic was put into place. When collected, cigarette butts are sent to TerraCycle, a waste recycling organization. The residual tobacco from the refuse is used to make compost, while the non-biodegradable plastic filters in cigarettes are repurposed into construction pallets and other industrial products.   Before the ban on gatherings, the Long Beach Environmental Alliance conducted a beach clean-up event every fourth Sunday at Alamitos Beach. Kindred said cleanups are a great opportunity for students to log service hours.   “I tell the students that there is no greater way to see the impact we make on our environment than volunteering,” Kindred said.   LBEA will be attending a variety of Earth Month events at Cal State Long Beach in April. Events are posted to the group’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LBEnvironmentalAlliance.  

A visão geral da NRF 2020, recém realizada em New York, onde estiveram 40 mil agentes de 100 países representando 16 mil varejistas, indica que as expectativas foram correspondidas.

Today, environmentally conscious parents can feed their babies organic baby food and use recyclable non-BPA plastics. They can buy 100 percent fair trade cotton clothing and hand-crafted toys. These are easy choices.   But many parents still face the diaper dilemma. Baby's go through a lot of diapers and that means either using cloth which is labor intensive for a new mom or dad or going the disposable route. While this is more convenient, 20 billion diapers (even the greener brands) are tossed into landfills in the US every year according to the EPA and they can take 500 years to decompose. One company came up with a better option.   Parents can now ship their baby's dirty diapers  to be composted through a diaper subscription company called Dyper. The company that makes sustainable bamboo diapers has operated a subscription service since 2018 according to Fast Company.   The diapers are free of chlorine, latex, alcohol, perfumes, PVC, lotions, the chemicals tributyltin, or phthalates, and ink. While the diapers have always been compostable, city dwellers have had no way to do so until now.   “We talked to many moms that wish that they had that opportunity to compost, because they’re living in New York City in an apartment on the 24th floor and they have no option to do that,” but Taylor Shearer, content manager at Dyper told Fast Company.   Dyper just teamed up with TerraCycle to launch its ReDyper program where subscribers can send back the soiled diapers in special bags and boxes that meet the UN's HazMat shipping standards. When the box is full, parents only have to print out a prepaid shipping label and ship them. TerraCycle will compost the diapers to be used in places like the green areas of highway medians.   “It’s got to be super convenient. It’s got to be, frankly, as close to convenient as possible relative to throwing it out,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. The company has run a small recycling center in Amsterdam for Pampers but nothing on this large a scale or with compostable diapers before.   There is an additional charge for the ReDyper system over the cost of the regular Dyper subscription. While these diapers cost more than picking up disposables at a local store, the value of these diapers are that they are eco-friendly.   “The value isn’t just calculated on the specific cost. We are not the least expensive and we’re not the most expensive, but we feel when we take this whole approach of using safe ingredients such as bamboo and nontoxic chemicals, and we don’t print on our diapers and our boxes, and offsetting, and trying to compost and getting people to compost, we feel the value is very real,” Bruce Miller, president of Dyper.   The company pledges to keep reinventing their products and improving their supply chain to become as  environmentally friendly as possible. Now we can protect our babies from chemicals and protect our planet too.