Beiersdorf expands its climate-neutralized approach to NIVEA’s Core Assortment and enhances holistic “Climate Care” strategy

• With its “Climate Care” mission, Beiersdorf is progressing with implementing its holistic climate approach, especially on the product level.
• Two core products of the NIVEA assortment, NIVEA Soft and the NIVEA shower range, are going to be climate-neutralized in 2022.
• After an intensive packaging and formula optimization, the products’ CO₂ footprint has been reduced significantly and remaining emissions are balanced through certified climate projects.

Hamburg, April 21, 2022 – This year’s international Earth Day takes place under the motto “Invest in Our Planet“. Supporting this call to action as part of its “Climate Care” mission, Beiersdorf is announcing further progress of its product transformation towards sustainability and relaunching two bestsellers. Last year, the skin care company began supporting natural carbon absorption projects and seeks to add this pillar to its climate engagement activities to take a holistic climate approach the company refers to as “Climate Care”. At the core of its climate engagement, Beiersdorf is transforming operations across its business and entire value chain to reduce emissions wherever possible. Here, product formulas and packaging play a key role. “We have set ourselves one of the most ambitious targets of our industry when it comes to the reduction of our emissions. I am proud to say that we are progressing well, especially when seeing our first core assortment and large-scale NIVEA products now walking the talk with a significantly reduced CO₂ footprint,” says Vincent Warnery, CEO at Beiersdorf AG.

With the first climate-neutralized products launched in April last year, Beiersdorf started a new approach towards sustainability and climate action on the product level. The reduction of the CO₂ footprint of its products plays a key role for the transformation of the company. So far, the company has managed to lower its CO₂ emissions by 12.7% absolutely between 2018 and the end of 2021. By 2025, this figure is to reach 30% in absolute terms. This climate target of Beiersdorf is approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and in line with climate science to limit global warming to 1.5 °C.

One of the most iconic products in the NIVEA assortment and available across the globe, is the moisturizing NIVEA Soft, with its extra delicate texture. It is known and loved by consumers all ages for its excellent skin hydration and freshness effect. During 2022, this bestseller will be relaunched with improved hydration benefits and a significantly better environmental footprint. A real challenge while maintaining the high quality of the formula and the sensorial experience of refreshing moisture that now even delivers improved 48 hours hydration.

The evolved NIVEA Soft will be coming to shelves with 100% natural jojoba oil and a 98% biodegradable formula. This new formulation will lead to a reduction of about 40% of CO₂ emissions in the formula’s footprint. This qualified it for Beiersdorf to take the investment of balancing the remaining emissions to let NIVEA Soft become a 100% climate-neutralized product. “With this great milestone in our product transformation towards more sustainable formulas, we enable millions of consumers around the world a more sustainable skin care routine and hence, make their own contribution to climate protection,” states Géraldine Weilandt, Vice President GBU Body Care, Sun & Creme at Beiersdorf AG.

The popular NIVEA Shower assortment is also undergoing a significant transformation in 2022. This optimization is creating a strong climate-impact on the packaging side. It will make the NIVEA Female and Universal Shower assortment more sustainable than ever and for this reason, it will also be set to become 100% climate-neutralized. With significantly less packaging material, the new NIVEA Shower products introduce a new light-weight bottle that allows to reduce packaging-related CO₂ emissions by 32%. 

Packaging has been designed for circularity and has been improved in several aspects. Beiersdorf made its shower bottles lightweight, shedding more than 20% of material and using a minimum of 96% post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) for the bottles (except cap and labels). Plus, as a nice benefit to consumers, the new bottles can be placed up-side down in the shower for an optimized rest-emptying. “We are very excited to see the concept of light-weight packaging now implemented across our NIVEA Shower assortment. We sell more than 175 million bottles a year in about 70 markets – this improvement creates real impact. In combination with the newly improved skin friendly and more sustainable formulas, as well as the new head stand bottle for better rest-emptying we are able to reduce our impact on the environment, to deliver towards our ambitious climate targets and to offer an even better consumer experience at the same time,” states Patrick Hoven, Global Vice President NIVEA MEN & NIVEA Personal Care at Beiersdorf AG.

For the launch of the NIVEA MEN Climate Care Moisturizer in May, Beiersdorf is going to be the first company in the cosmetics industry to use Carbon Capture Utilization Technology (CCU). Through this process carbon dioxide is collected and chemically fermented into cosmetic grade ethanol. The sustainable formula is 100% free of microplastic, silicones, mineral oils, and PEG/PEG derivates. Due to its sustainable ingredients and low CO₂ footprint, the product is a natural fit to Beiersdorf’s portfolio of climate-neutralized products.

In the course of the last year, Beiersdorf had opened a new chapter on its climate approach. The company is supporting certified climate projects, which lead to CO₂ absorption in natural ways, for example through afforestation. Trees absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and the carbon is stored in their biomass, e.g., tree trunks, roots and leaves. Thus, through afforestation, Beiersdorf can balance remaining product-based emissions.

When selecting its climate projects, Beiersdorf ensures that its positive impact is real, measurable, permanent, and third-party verified. This is achieved by working with expert organizations and supporting only projects which are certified and regularly audited based on external international standards, such as the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) or the Gold Standard. “I believe, investing in our planet is our responsibility and hence, it is a fundamental part of our climate approach,” says Jean-François Pascal, Vice President Corporate Sustainability at Beiersdorf AG. “By supporting climate projects that store carbon from the atmosphere, we can achieve a balance between CO₂ emissions and CO₂ absorbed by nature. Continuing our dedicated and holistic ‘Climate Care’ mission in 2022, I am convinced we are creating a positive impact for our planet.”