Sustainability
Caring for skin and earth
Our mission has always been to be a force for good in business and to make products that are healthier, greener and kinder to us and the planet. We also want to make it easy for you to find more sustainable and healthier products that also make a visible difference to your skin.
We want to go beyond sustainable beauty to eventually become regenerative. Regenerative means our impact is not zero, it is actually positive: restorative for the planet and restorative for body and mind.
We're the caring beauty standard
We believe that business has a responsibility to do better and we are independently verified to guarantee our ethical credentials. We build organic goodness into our products so you know you can do good and look good naturally.
We’re a certified B Corp
Becoming a B Corp means that our business is a force for good. We go beyond beauty and put people and the planet first.
To become a B Corp we have passed a rigorous assessment, which didn’t just evaluate our products; it assessed the whole of our business. We’ve met high standards of social and environmental performance. It’s hard to become a B Corp, and we were one of the first 1000 in the UK.
Evolve Beauty has changed its Articles of Association to treat ALL stakeholders equally and embedded a triple bottom line approach. Our B Impact Score of 92 from the B Impact Assessment is publicly available on the B Corp website.
We have measured and offset our emissions
From the ingredients we source, the packaging we use, the waste that we create and our own wonderful team, we understand that what we do has an impact: both positive and negative. We fully measure and offset our carbon footprint across scope 1, 2 and 3 (defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) which includes the carbon footprint of our entire supply chain. So far we have offset 894 tonnes of CO2 by supporting projects in the
Amazon rainforest and Indonesian Peatlands.
Going beyond offsetting towards net zero
As well as offsetting our scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon, we are one of the only small independent beauty brands to set a science based target for emissions intensity across scope 1, 2 and 3 (not including offsets) which will help to achieve the global goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 2 degrees. Evolve Organic Beauty has committed to halve its carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
We use renewable energy
We use 100% renewable energy in our eco studio in Hertfordshire with energy efficient lighting which makes our scope 1 and 2 emissions close to 0, saving an average of 1 kg of CO2 for every kWh
We champion diversity and fairness in the workplace
We employ over 30 people from 12 different nationalities. The majority of senior roles are held by women with women making the vast majority of our team. We are living wage and living hours certified which means everyone is paid a real living wage and we do not use zero hours contracts.
We use organic and natural ingredients
Organic ingredients are better for the soil as well as better for you as they have been grown without harmful pesticides. Following an organic lifestyle can reduce the amount of pesticides absorbed by the human body. Organic ingredients have also been shown to have more antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, making them more nutritious and efficacious for your skin. Organic ingredients are also better for the planet: an average of 3.5 tonnes of extra carbon dioxide/hectare is sequestered by the soils they grow in compared to conventional farming. If all our land capable of being farmed or ranched was managed with soil health in mind, it could trap all the annual CO2 emissions produced by humans and then some.
We are organic and naturally certified
We independently certify our organic products with ECOCERT to the robust COSMOS organic and natural standard. COSMOS promotes the use of products from organic agriculture, and respects biodiversity. It encourages using natural resources responsibly, this includes championing processing and manufacturing systems that are clean and respectful of human health and the planet. To be certified at least 95% of the physically processed ingredients must be organic, the product must contain no GMOs or nanoparticles and all ingredients must have been screened to check for harmful synthetic chemicals and contaminants. We undergo an annual audit with full traceability for all organic raw materials and products.
we manufacture in small batches in our own studio
We manufacture our products in small batches which on average reduces energy consumed during production and means our product is fresher when it gets to you, giving you the benefits of all of the natural actives inside. Filling and distributing our products in our own studio reduces the environmental costs of transporting filled products from factory to warehouse.
we are kind to animals
Evolve believes that beauty products should be cruelty free. We are proud to be Leaping Bunny approved. A global programme, Leaping Bunny requires cruelty free standards over and above legal requirements.
All of our own brand personal care products are approved under the cruelty Free International Leaping Bunny programme, the internationally recognisable gold standard for cruelty free products. We adhere to a fixed cut-off date policy and proactively monitor our suppliers to ensure that our products continue to adhere to the Leaping Bunny criteria. Our supplier monitoring system is also independently audited.
For more information about Cruelty Free International, Leaping Bunny and Leaping Bunny criteria, please visit www.crueltyfreeinternational.org
We are moving towards zero waste
Our aim is to reduce all of our waste to zero and become circular as a business. 63% of our packaging contains some recycled content, and all of our plastic bottles are 100% PCR plastic, giving 2.3 tonnes of plastic waste a new life. 100% of our glass packaging, plastic bottles and lids and paper cartons are recyclable. We only use PET and PP plastic in our packaging as this has been shown to be inert and not interact with the environment or products. We also offer plastic free refills on all 100ml products which has saved over 2000 pumps from landfill.
WE USE PREVENTED OCEAN PLASTIC
We’re passionate about reducing plastic waste, we already do our bit with pump-free options and plastic-free refills on all 100ml products, which has saved over 6000 pumps from landfill. But, we always want to do more – that’s why we’ve switched to Prevented Ocean Plastic (POP). This clever scheme rescues and recycles plastic waste from coastlines before it enters the ocean. So, every time you buy one of our 250ml bottles you’re doing your bit, too.
We use upcycled ingredients
We use upcycled ingredients from the food industry including coconut, sugar cane, maca, raspberry and avocado. These are byproducts of the food industry that would otherwise go to waste which means they have a lower carbon footprint as well as helping us with our zero waste target.
We safeguard healthy waterways
Microplastics are a problem in seas, rivers and streams. We’ve never used plastic microbeads in any of our scrubs and polishes, instead we use organic sugar, upcycled coconut particles and naturally rounded quartz crystals.
We also only use mineral based zinc oxide as a sunscreen rather than chemical sunscreens which can harm water systems and reefs
We save endangered rainforest
We champion the preservation of forests and wildlife through sourcing of sustainable and organic raw materials. We are working to eliminate unsustainable palm oil from our products and aim to do so by the end of 2023. The lack of pesticides in growing organic products enhances biodiversity by up to 50% more than conventional farming.
We work with Earthly to safeguard threatened Amazon rainforest to offset the amount of CO2 we produce every year across scope 1, 2 and 3. So far we have offset 894 tonnes of CO2 by supporting projects in the Amazon rainforest and Indonesian Peatlands saving 839,000 sqm of endangered rainforest. We have also planted 21,533 trees.
We work to improve soil health
Our soil is under pressure. Generating three centimetres of top soil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue all of the world's top soil could be gone within 60 years, a senior UN official said. Regenerative and organic agriculture helps to improve soil health. We purchase regenerative ingredients such as Kalahari Melon Seed oil which help to reduce desertification and improve soil health.
We support low income workers in developing countries
Wherever possible, we choose to use ingredients that are fair or fairly traded to support low income workers in developing countries. This helps to achieve social justice and also helps to safeguard vulnerable environments by practising sustainable agroforestry.
We also only use fairly traded Mica (as there are ethical issues in this supply chain).
We source low impact packaging materials
We have switched our cartons from FSC kraft paper to 100% recyclable FSC grass paper cartons to help limit deforestation. Grass paper reduces water usage by 99.9% and carbon dioxide production by 75%. When we do use wood based paper, we always purchase FSC® paper to reduce deforestation. This ensures forests are responsibly managed and ensures chain of custody exists. This means that the paper we use is from an approved, traceable source, from producer to end user.
To protect our products in their boxes we use shredded recycled cardboard and paper which is also fully recyclable. We also use biodegradable packing peanuts made from corn starch to protect products when they’re on their way to you. These dissolve under running water which means zero waste.