Sustainability
Our approach to sustainability focuses on people, planet and products.
Making our beauty products more sustainable
We’ve made a promise that every new product we create will include a sustainability gain.
We’re on an ambitious journey to reduce the environmental footprint of our packaging. We’re reducing use of virgin plastic and are aiming for 100% of our packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2030. We’re also working towards using more renewable and biodegradable ingredients and for our beauty products, with the promise that all new formulas will have a lower total environmental impact when measured by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
Responsible ingredient sourcing
Sourcing ingredients responsibly has always been important to us and we’re working hard to improve further. This starts with ingredient sourcing
We’re working on transparency and traceability across all raw materials, with a focus on those ingredients that have particular social or environmental concerns. We have pledged that our critical supply chains for the palm oil, mica, paper, alcohol, soy and cotton will be fully traceable and/or certified by 2025. .Read more in our Corporate Responsibility report here.
We’re tackling responsible sourcing of these critical materials in partnership with organisations such as Responsible Mica Initiative (RMI), which works to strengthen local health, education and women’s empowerment in mica communities in India. Avon is also a member of Action for Sustainable Derivatives (ASD), a collaboration that tackles environmental and social issues relating to palm oil and palm derivative supply chains. Projects include ASD’s Respect in Palm, which supports women palm workers in Indonesia, who may face gender-based violence (GBV). The project aims to prevent and address this through workplace training.
Making our packaging 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable
We’re making progress on our ambitions to make all of our packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2030. We’re increasing the amount of recycled plastic we use and decreasing the amount of packaging overall. More than 80% of our packaging is already recyclable, reusable or compostable, but we recognise that we still have more to do to reduce the environmental impact of our packaging.
We’ve already reduced virgin plastic content across many of our brands, including Avon Naturals, Advance Techniques and Avon Senses. In 2023, on average we used 34.5% less plastic in our Beauty+ product packaging.
Sustainable Product Innovations
Our fragrance oil in Today Tomorrow Always Everlasting is 73.5% biodegradable, and it’s production now involves fewer carbon emissions and less water.
Our Far Away Beyond the Moon fragrance contains sustainable and upcycled Sandalwood Album Pol, and uses eco-friendly technology to capture the scent while leaving the Belle de Nuit flower intact.
Our product and packaging innovations often go hand in hand. Our reinvented eyeshadow pallets show how we rethink all elements of a product and its packaging to increase their sustainability, lowering their carbon footprint and making them more recyclable without passing the cost onto our customers.
Reducing carbon emissions
We continue to focus on reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption, as well as increasing the use of renewable energy to reduce our carbon footprint. Having surpassed our 2020 target (with 53 percent GHG emissions reductions from 2005 baseline) on scopes 1&2, we are now working towards Science Based Targets. We have set ambitious SBTs for 2030, and have work underway to reduce the carbon emissions created by our business – from our factories and distribution network through to the carbon footprint of each product we develop.
Waste and recovery
Our recycling rate globally is now 93.4% , which means we have exceeded our target of 90% by 2020. We continue to educate and train our manufacturing associates around the world on the importance of a responsible approach to waste reduction. We’ve also implemented waste reduction programmes, such as converting waste into energy and reusing wastewater sludge. Our goal is to increase recycling to 95% by 2025 and strive for zero waste to landfill. Our sites in the UK and Brazil have already achieved zero waste to landfill.
Recycling tips
Small changes can make a big difference. There are things we can all do, every day to reduce our environmental footprint. Here are our top recycling tips.
Do you recycle your Avon brochure? Once you’ve finished with it, be sure to share it with someone who might like to use it or, put it into your paper recycling.
Plastic bottles, like shampoos, conditioners and shower gels, are accepted by most recycling programmes - make sure that you’ve emptied and cleaned them out before placing in the appropriate recycling bin.
Aerosols, like hairsprays and deodorants, can be recycled in most household collection schemes - make sure they’ve been completely finished before recycling. DON’T FORGET: trigger heads and pumps must be detached and put in your normal bin.
Glass bottles (except nail varnish) are widely recyclable – again, make sure they have been emptied and cleaned before putting them in the recycling bin.
The carton boxes and paper inserts your beauty products arrive in are accepted by most recycling programmes, so pop them into your recycling bin.
