“As we strongly
believe the global plastic problem cannot be solved in silos, but a broader
collaboration and joined forces are needed, we are taking action beyond our own
business. We are teaming up with our suppliers, trade partners, NGOs,
scientific institutions and also with other players in our industry”, explains
Jean-Francois Pascal, Vice President Corporate Sustainability at Beiersdorf. "We
want to really drive the topic forward and contribute to the change we need
within a broader context.” Not just words, Beiersdorf takes action and was one
among 29 other companies to sign the business call for a UN treaty on plastic pollution initiated by the
WWF, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG.). In
a joint approach, the call is to push governments to negotiate and agree on a UN
treaty on plastic pollution.
In the
area of “Reuse” for example, the first in-store shower gel refill stations were
launched in cooperation with one major German retailer, the drugstore chain dm,
in selected stores. With the aim to drive reusability and to reduce single use
plastic, the customized refill machine was designed to provide the highest hygiene
standards, intuitive handling and innovativeness – and it won two awards:
design MUSE award and Sustainability Readers Award 2020 Packaging Europe.
Beiersdorf also partners with Terracycle in the Zero
Waste Initiative Loop. With this approach, used-up product packaging is collected
at consumers’ homes, cleaned and refilled in order to allow multiple
usage-loops for consumers. Beiersdorf is taking part in the testing phase of
this approach with two NIVEA MEN After Shave products.
In the context of “Recycle”, Beiersdorf has joined the
HOLYGRAIL 2.0 initiative
by the European Brand Association AIM to collaborate with more than 80 other
companies to trial run the viability of digital watermarking technologies for a
more accurate waste sorting and leverage it to a larger scale. This year also, in
a collaborative approach with Werner & Mertz and the Fraunhofer Institute
for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV), Beiersdorf has developed a first industry-standard for cosmetic grade recycled plastic. It aims to increase
the quality of recycled plastic content made available by recycling companies
and push the use of mechanical post-consumer plastic across all industry
players. This industry-standard will be available to the public within this year.