Sustainability

The European Council adopts its negotiating position with regards to the Green Claims Directive, which aims to prevent greenwashing and empower consumers in making informed, environmentally conscious purchasing decisions. While small and medium-sized enterprises stand to specifically benefit from the Council's more flexible approach, companies in general may be allowed to make certain explicit environmental claims without third-party verification.

The Personal Care Products Council’s "Beauty of Impact, Economic & Social Contributions Report 2024" illustrates the strength of the US personal-care industry, which added $308.7bn to gross domestic product and accounted for 4.6 million jobs in 2022.

Industry can look forward to a global OTC market compound annual growth rate of around 7% over the next few years, according to IQVIA Consumer Health. Innovation will be key to ensure individual companies realize this level of growth. IQVIA CH's Amit Shukla and Simon-Kucher & Partners' Clemens Oberhammer point to some key consumer trends to keep an eye on at the recent AESGP Annual Meeting in Brussels. 

Failing to take sufficient action on climate change could be a costly business for consumer health companies. However, the good news from the AESGP's 60th Annual Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, is that at least half of the cost of decarbonizing will be balanced by savings, according to Boston Consulting Group. And climate change adaption will present firms with a wide variety of opportunities for product innovation, IQVIA Consumer Health's Volker Spitzer tells delegates.

Should the consumer health industry be exempt from the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive? This question is hotly debated by representatives from major flexible packaging supplier Amcor and OTC manufacturer Perrigo at the 60th AESGP Annual Meeting in Brussels, Belgium. 

The Association of the European Self-Care Industry's 60th Annual Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, opens with a rousing call to action from president Jonathan Workman. Looking to the upcoming EU elections, Workman urges industry to push for widening access to OTC medicines through switch, digital and sustainable investment, improved health literacy and regulatory flexibility.

Bezos Earth Fund, founded with $10b in 2020 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, makes five-year grant to launch Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

In this episode of HBW Insight's Over the Counter podcast, we unpack the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) with the help of ESG expert Jasper Crone, drilling down into exactly what consumer health companies need to know about this enormously complex and significant piece of EU legislation.

Packaging manufacturer Logoplaste – supplier to major consumer health and cosmetics firms – speaks to HBW Insight about plastics and working with industry to develop alternatives.

The negotiated revision of the Classification, Labeling and Packaging (CLP) regulation met with industry approval in April, even if it just kicks the can down the road with regard to classification of more-than-one-constituent substances (MOCS). DSM-Firmenich announces partnerships with plants in mind, Symrise’s new CEO maintains growth targets, and more news in brief.

A survey of 1,000 EU health consumers commissioned by AESGP finds that OTC users see numerous benefits of digital patient information leaflets, but are agreed that information should also continue to be available in paper form.

Herbal and nutritional supplement direct seller has reached 85% solar power use at its US facilities while also reducing landfill waste from those sites more than 90%, cutting its US shipping routes by half and consolidating four distribution centers in Europe into one operating on wind power.

In this episode of the updated Over The Counter podcast, HBW Insight speaks to sustainable packaging expert Tony Perrotta about the complexities of replacing plastic pill packs in medicines packaging. Perrotta is a partner at PA Consulting, which set up the Blister Pack Collective alongside consumer health players Haleon, Bayer and Sanofi. They are working with PulPac, which has invented a dry molded fiber alternative to plastic, which the Collective hopes to commercialize within 12-24 months. We discuss whether regulators will accept such alternatives, given the safety and stability requirements for medicines, and the challenges of recycling, given the multitude of different frameworks and processes across the world. Perrotta also reveals that one of the partners in PA Consulting’s Bottle Collective, which hopes to replace plastic bottles in the food, personal care and consumer health industries, will soon launch its first market trial.

Cataloging materials by category across US states or even internationally, chasing down information from supply partners, and other aspects of extended producer responsibility (EPR) program compliance can be a lot easier in collaboration with a software solutions vendor or other third party, says Michael Washburn, principal at Washburn Consulting.

London-based Unilever is resetting targets including virgin plastic reductions and increases in packaging that is recyclable, reusable or compostable. Based on a report last year from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on industry progress against goals to reduce plastic waste, Unilever will not be alone in having to recalibrate.

Thousands of companies operating within the EU will soon be required to identify across their whole supply chain any adverse impact on the environment and human rights. Failure to do so could mean fines of up to 5% of worldwide net sales.