Sustainability

The Green Claims Directive has moved one step closer to becoming European Union law. Once passed, within 24 months CO2 offset-based claims like "carbon neutral" will be banned altogether, claims like “environmentally friendly” will require substantive backing and sustainability labels in general will need to be approved beforehand by certification schemes or public authorities. 

Colgate-Palmolive Co. misleadingly claims its Colgate and Tom’s of Maine toothpaste tubes are recyclable when most end up in landfills, according to Truth in Advertising, Inc. The group is calling for greenwashing investigations by the US Federal Trade Commission and California and Connecticut attorneys general.

In the second part of HBW Insight’s exclusive interview with OTC industry veteran Birgit Schuhbauer, we discuss the trends that will shape the future of consumer health. Drawing on her extensive experience in OTC, most recently as global vice president of J&J’s Self Care franchise and president of the AESGP, Schuhbauer gives her views on consumer shifts towards self-care and prevention, digitalization and e-commerce, supply chain resilience and sustainability. Schuhbauer also offers an insiders perspective on moves by companies like Kenvue and Haleon to spin out as independent OTC players, and the implications for Rx-to-OTC switch.

Cosmetics Europe says the European Commission’s proposed recast of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive places responsibility for micro-pollutants in urban wastewater squarely on the cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries, ignoring other sources. The proposal would require Member States to provide for extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems to fund upgrades to wastewater treatment plants and administrative costs.

Kenvue is partnering with Tesco supermarkets in the UK to enable consumers to recycle plastic packaging from brands like Calpol. 

The London-based firm is targeting underlying sales growth in excess of 5% for fiscal 2023 overall as price growth continues to moderate in the back half of the year. CFO Graeme Pitkethly and new CEO Hein Schumacher broke down H1 results on 25 July, a year after the firm restructured operations and shed 17% of SKUs. 

Shiseido has provided YEN1bn to the Chitose Group-led Matsuri project to accelerate a circular business model for developing and mass-producing microalgae-based ingredients for cosmetics and containers. According to Chitose, algae has the potential to become the foundation of an advanced decarbonized society.

In this episode, HBW Insight looks at yet another piece of EU sustainability legislation, this time the Green Claims Code. Sustainability expert Jo Stephenson, managing director of PHD Marketing, explains the background to the legislation, which proposes detailed rules for companies that wish to make environmental claims. Although companies are not required to make green claims, and may choose not to given these stricter rules, Stephenson points out that companies will soon be required to record and report extensive environmental data, so may as well use this information to create robust and credible green claims. Being used to strict rules on making health claims, consumer healthcare firms are in a good position to embrace and even benefit from this new framework, Stephenson also points out.

The Ninth Circuit agreed with California's Northern District that plaintiff Sean McGinity did not sufficiently show that a reasonable consumer would be misled by the “Nature Fusion” claim on Pantene Pro-V products when taking into account both front and back labels. However, the representation does flirt with “greenwashing,” two of the judges said.

Sustainability is “plagued with paradoxes,” including beauty and personal-care consumers’ environmentally conscious packaging demands and stated preferences and “what actually drives their purchasing behavior,” bareLUXE observes in a study published on 7 June.

“Cell-free biomanufacturing is not science fiction: it is here,” says L’Oreal’s Barbara Lavernos deputy chief executive officer in charge of research, innovation and technology, on the beauty giant’s investment in Debut Biotechnology, Inc. to drive development of sustainable, next-generation active ingredients for cosmetics. More news in brief.

Europe's consumer health industry is faced with proliferating regulations under the EU's Green Deal policy program. Proposed revisions to the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, for example, expect pharmaceutical and cosmetics manufacturers to pay for the removal of micro-pollutants that are mostly flushed into the wastewater system by consumers. While the European Commission says it is “sympathetic” to industry's concerns, such as those raised at the AESGP Annual Meeting and in recent publications, its director for zero pollution and green cities, Veronica Manfredi, stressed that “there are no excuses, there can be no business as usual” given the urgency of the situation. 

European consumer health companies today have the luxury of voluntarily setting sustainability goals. But with regulations looming and pressure from retailers and consumers mounting, such requirements will soon be mandatory, Haleon’s Joe Muscat warned at the recent AESGP Annual Meeting in Paris, France. To ride the climate wave, while achieving their objectives, OTC firms need to work together, he explained.

The European Commission shocked participants at this year's AESGP Annual Meeting by warning that OTC antifungals, like treatments for athlete’s foot, and OTC antivirals, like cold sore creams, could soon become prescription-only within the region, under proposed revisions to the EU pharma legislation. There is hope, however. The proposals are still open to feedback from industry, the AESGP points out, and even if this proposal becomes law, member states can waive this prescription requirement under certain conditions.

Cosmetics industry stakeholders agree the US Federal Trade Commission’s “Green Guides” are ripe for an update. Issues old and new need to be addressed and state-level laws and regulations taken into account along with national and international programs and standards, say leading companies, trade associations, and consumer advocacy groups in comments to the agency.

“Establishing a collective will allow us to better reach and engage with our consumers in a way that feels approachable and relatable,” says L’Oreal Paris US, which has brought on prominent makeup artists Allan Avendaño, Claudia Betancur, and Erica Taylor as the first members of its League of Experts. More cosmetics news.