The world’s biggest beauty B Corps come together to improve the industry

“We concluded that our respective solo efforts to enable positive change can be enhanced through a partnership of mutual commitment.” 

Over 30 leading B Corp beauty brands, spread across four continents, have joined together to form the B Corp Beauty Coalition. 

The aim of the coalition is to provide space for the world’s sustainable beauty brands to come together to discuss how to deliver their vision of “beauty for good”. 

Davide Bollati, president of the sustainable haircare brand and B Corp Davines, is one of the founding members of the B Corp Beauty Coalition. He said that the idea formed after a number of beauty leaders got together and discussed the discomfort they felt around the social and environmental footprint being left by the beauty industry as a whole. 

“We concluded that our respective solo efforts to enable positive change can be enhanced through a partnership of mutual commitment,”  Bollati said. 

“So, we have decided to form a coalition to leverage our combined strengths and deliver tangible benefits to beauty customers, communities, and the planet we share.”

Brands that have already signed up include beauty stalwarts such as The Body Shop, Dr Bronner, Weleda and New Zealand-based Ethique. 

Brianne West is the founder and CEO of Ethique, a B Corp selling a wide range of solid beauty bars. West first heard about the plan to bring beauty B Corps together through word of mouth and quickly reached out to see if Ethique could be part of it. 

“People are generally surprised to hear that the beauty industry is really quite small and friendly, in that we’re always talking to each other and sharing ideas,” West told Pro Bono News. 

“There’s obviously a certain amount of competition, which is fair enough as people need to protect their intellectual property, but because B Corps put other things before profit it makes sense that we work together to drive change.” 

West explains that as the coalition only launched last month, members are still working things out and other beauty B Corps are encouraged to reach out and get involved. Regular meetings are in progress, decisions are being made around who will sit on internal boards and a series of goal-setting workshops are imminent. 

The focus of the coalition will rest on four key issues. Each of these issues will have its own board made up of members with expertise in the area. 

The key issues being looked at are ingredient sourcing and sustainability; greener logistics; packaging responsibility; and consistent and clear external customer messaging. 

“There are so many pitfalls out there that it’s always seemed crazy to me that I can’t easily pass on what I’ve learned to other companies who are trying to do the same thing,” West says. 

“If, as a business owner, your opinion is that if you do that you’re going to lose your competitive advantage then you’re competing on the wrong things. As B Corps, we’re all trying to do the same thing. So why not join forces and make life easier and share resources? It’s ridiculous not to.” 

On a more personal level, West says she was keen to have a seat at the collective table because of her belief that good business has the power to tackle the world’s big issues. 

“I believe in regenerative, not just sustainable, business. We need to regenerate our planet and I believe that business is probably the fastest way to do that,” she says. 

“If you can bring businesses together to inspire an industry to do the right thing, while also remaining profitable, then I think that will inspire other industries to do the same thing. For example, with Ethique, we’re not just here to sell shampoo bars, we’re here to inspire the consumer and, therefore, inspire other brands to do better across the board.

“I think these sorts of coalitions are the way forward. As businesses, we can compete on, say, product quality and marketing but we shouldn’t be looking at other beauty businesses and thinking ‘oh, our packaging is recyclable but yours isn’t’, we should be helping them find their own recycled packaging. Being ‘better’ at that stuff isn’t a win because if the planet loses, we all lose.”

You can find out more about the B Corp Beauty Coalition here