More than 160 executives attended The European edition of the Sustainable Cosmetics Summitthat ran from November 28-30th. Participants at the three-day event discussed new directions for sustainability in the cosmetics industry. Topics on the agenda included greenwashing and false marketing claims, food & cosmetics convergence, growing use of plant-based feedstock, green formulations and distribution innovations. Bertil Heerink, director general of the European Cosmetics Association (Colipa), opened the summit with his keynote ‘Sustainability: A New Paradigm for the Cosmetics industry’. He urged cosmetic companies to focus on the social and economic pillars of sustainability.

The premier session, titled Sustainability Best-Practices, looked at the various ways cosmetic companies are tackling the sustainability challenge. Laurent Gilbert from L’Oreal explained the company took a ‘holistic approach’ to sustainability. The cosmetics giant has set a number of environmental objectives, such as reducing its carbon footprint and waste by 50% by 2015. L’Oreal is adopting the principles of green chemistry to develop sustainable products, and using about 500 Ecocert-certified ingredients in its formulations. Other papers in the premier session covered climate change, novel approaches to retailing sustainable cosmetics, and ecological packaging. For more information see www.sustainablecosmeticssummit.com