Before enrolling in this course the only sustainable brand that came to my mind was the British skincare company LUSH so it’s only fair that I write my first blog post about it.
Lush has always been at the forefront of sustainability with its handmade products made with ethically sourced materials making the product completely vegetarian, 95 percent vegan and cruelty-free. While Lush takes on many actions under their sustainable environmental ethos, the two that interest me the most is the LUSH NAKED line and how they use less harmful materials if packaging is needed which is made very clear to its consumers on their website stating –
“Put simply, we’d rather put our money into quality and ethical ingredients than the packaging around it. When we do have packaging, we make sure it’s less harmful to the environment based on its materials, reusability and recyclability.”
LUSH NAKED
Lush has made strides in providing products that do not require any packaging at all and these make up 65% of their product line. Inventors at the company put more emphasis on using the material in the product itself which has led them to remove water content from products creating solid products with alternate natural materials. This leads to zero waste being produced as the refrain from using single use packaging reducing the companies footprint. These products include their bath bombs, shampoo bars and soaps which we can see the the image below.
Less Harmful Packaging
As we can see in the back of the image above, LUSH does sell products that do come in packaging of pots, lids and bottles. However, they use materials that are regenerative and recycled from curb-side recycling programs which reduced their footprints. In addition, LUSH also makes its plastic packaging 10 percent thinner than other brands which has led to to save 13,500 pounds of plastic. LUSH also integrates consumers into being sustainable by incentivising them – if one takes five or more of their empty LUSH containers back to the store, they get a free face mask. Then, they take the returned containers and mould them into new packaging again making it a cycle therefore having close to zero waste.
LUSH’s sustainable initiatives and how they market them cater to both the internal and external “locus of interest” as consumers buy them because they know the product is sustainable and it did not sacrifice the quality of the product respectively.
Sources
https://www.lushusa.com/stories/article_our-values-vegetarian.html
https://www.lush.ca/en/stories/article_ourpackaging.html
https://www.lush.ca/en/stories/article_our-environmental-ethos.html
Elizabeth Bourgault
January 28, 2022 — 11:37 am
Hello Janvi,
This was such an interesting blog post! I just wanted to clarify what you meant by “locus of interest” at the end of your post. If I interpreted this correctly, you are saying that LUSH’s sustainability initiatives cater to both internal and external interests of consumers. The way I interpret this is that LUSH caters to internal locus of interest/control being that consumers are making a difference individually by choosing to support this brand. It is also external locus of control because LUSH itself, as a big corporation, is taking steps towards sustainability that are external to the consumer and out of the consumers control. Just wondering if my interpretation is correct?
-Elizabeth Bourgault
DanielVallespirLopez
April 14, 2022 — 2:23 pm
Hi Jhanvi!
Lush is a brand that I didn’t know before and it’s always good to know new brands that are so interested in sustainability. What surprised me about the post is that Lush, even being a brand that shows its huge commitment to sustainable practices, never stands still and is always looking for improvements or new initiatives to improve the world we live in. At the end of the post, when you mentioned the fact that they take returned packaging and mold it into new packaging again so as not to create waste, it reminded me of Patagonia and their Wornwear workshop, an initiative I talked about in my first post. I think these are two great initiatives to finally put an end to the massive production of waste on our planet.
Nice post! I really liked it!
DanielVallespirLopez
April 14, 2022 — 2:33 pm
Hi Jhanvi!
Lush is a brand that I didn’t know before and it’s always well to know new brands that are so interested in sustainability. What surprised me about the post is that Lush, even being a brand that shows its huge commitment to sustainable practices, never stands still and is always looking for improvements or new initiatives to improve the world we live in. At the end of the post, when you mentioned the fact that they take returned packaging and mold it into new packaging again so as not to create waste, it reminded me of Patagonia and their Wornwear workshop, an initiative I talked about in my first post. I think these are two great initiatives to finally put an end to the massive production of waste on our planet.
Nice post! I really liked it!