The winners of Organic Monitor’s Sustainable Beauty Awards were recently celebrated at an awards reception on October 21st, at the Marriott Champs Elysées hotel in Paris. The event was hosted alongside the European edition of the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit in Paris.

At the reception, Amarjit Sahota, founder and president, Organic Monitor, stated: “As well as giving industry recognition, we hope the awards will inspire others in the beauty industry to take the green road.”

The winners are:

SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING: Laboratoires Expanscience, which is based in France, and has reduced the packaging footprint of its Mustela range of baby care products. By deploying the ecodesign approach, it is removing about 60 tons of plastics from product packaging.

Runner-Up: The Ireland-based You Organic Skincare, which has a low environmental footprint for its novel packaging. It uses aluminium foil packaging pouches for its organic body care products.

SUSTAINABILITY PIONEER:L’Oreal USA – Garnier for its beauty brigade program, which diverts beauty packaging from landfills. Working with Terracycle, the program has collected 2.5 million pieces of packaging waste and upcycled it into new products.

Runner-Up: Greek company, Apivita, because of the social impact of its pastilles project, launched in 2012 in partnership with Medicins Sans Frontiers, with all proceeds going to social causes.

SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP: Weleda, for its value-creation model. Since 1921, the Swiss company has spearheaded a number of projects that cover various aspects of sustainability.

Runner-Up: Firmenich, for its holistic approach to sustainability, which involves partnering with NGOs and stake-holders.

SUSTAINABLE INGREDIENT: International Flavors & Fragrances, for its LMR Rose Water Essential. The ultraconcentrated material has a significantly lower ecological impact than traditional rose waters.

Runner-Up: AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry, for its Recentia serum. The material is produced by Zeta Fraction technology, a novel sustainable processing technique.

GREEN FORMULATIONS: Jasmin Aromatique, for its range of certified organic beauty products. The Australian company received high ratings for its organic skin care formulations.

Runner-Up: Bulgaria-based Alteya Organics, for its line of rose water-based skin care products.

These were the Finalists in each category – and here is how each category was defined, during the nomination process.

Photos, clockwise L-R: Mustela by Laboratoires Expanscience is the Sustainable Packaging winner; You Organic Skincare is the Sustainable Packaging runner-up; L’Oreal USA won the Sustainability Pioneer award; Weleda won the Sustainability Leadership award.