Are cosmetic enterprises serious about environmental protection? On the one hand, L'Oreal, Unilever, o'shudan and other foreign-funded cosmetics enterprises have successively announced major plans related to environmental protection and sustainability; On the other hand, South Korean cosmetics brand yueshifengyin fell into a storm due to "false environmental protection". Cosmetics enterprises focus on the concept of environmental protection and sustainability. Is it really environmental protection or something else?

French skin care brand o'shudan said that by 2025, all o'shudan stores will provide empty bottle recycling services. Enterprise drawing

Cosmetics enterprises are keen on environmental protection

Water saving, zero carbon emission, recycling packaging boxes... This year, cosmetics enterprises are particularly keen on environmental protection. L'Oreal, a French cosmetics giant, has built a zero carbon plant and a water recycling plant in China; Unilever, a foreign daily chemical giant, launched the plastic cleaning operation to build China's first large-scale AI closed-loop plastic recycling system; French skin care brand o'shudan promotes empty bottle recycling and recyclable packaging all over the world.

"Cosmetics enterprises generally start with product packaging and adopt sustainable and renewable green packaging." the relevant staff of Jinsheng Xincai, which has long provided plastic packaging containers for cosmetics enterprises such as Estee Lauder and L'Oreal, told China Business Daily that cosmetics enterprises are pursuing to reduce the use of plastic products in packaging and use some degradable Environmentally friendly material substitution.

The relevant person in charge of o'shudan told reporters that since 2019, o'shudan has launched a 360 degree commitment project worldwide, focusing on promoting waste reduction for a long time, and promoting a series of sustainable measures such as empty bottle recycling, recyclable packaging, low-carbon logistics and transportation all over the world. By 2025, all o'shudan stores will provide empty bottle recycling services, hoping to call on consumers keen on environmental protection to reduce the burden on the earth.

L'Oreal also implemented the empty bottle recycling plan. Its relevant person in charge told reporters that in the past two years, Lancome, Keyan and other well-known brands have participated in the plan. Taking Lancome as an example, more than 300 stores in China have launched empty bottle recycling projects, recycling nearly 2 million empty bottles.

Or because it is profitable

Why are cosmetics enterprises keen on environmental protection? Fabry, President and CEO of L'Oreal China, replied: "investing in sustainable development is the most long-term value decision. The transformation to sustainable development is related to the long-term development and success of L'Oreal Group. If a company's development model is not closely related to the future of mankind and the environment, it will not have long-term vitality."

In the eyes of enterprises, sustainable investment also means winning more consumers. The relevant person in charge of L'Oreal said that China's young generation can clearly clarify their views on the topic of sustainable development. They will focus on those brands that pay more attention to sustainable development actions, such as those with sustainable packaging and consumer participation, and will regard these brands as industry leaders.

However, beauty blogger Xiao Chen told China Business Daily: "If we don't mention the outer packaging of cosmetics in the live broadcast, no one will pay attention to the packaging of a bottle of toner and a lipstick except environmentalists. If enterprises really use the packaging of green and sustainable materials, we will also focus on it when selling goods, which is a good marketing selling point. It doesn't rule out that some enterprises do follow the trend because of their marketing value It's safe. "

Recently, yueshifengyin, a Korean cosmetics brand focusing on the concept of naturalistic skin care, was complained by consumers because of "false environmental protection". It is reported that the outer package of yueshifengyin products is written with eye-catching words "Hello, I'm a paper bottle", but after tearing open the paper bottle, you can see that there is a plastic bottle inside.

Yueshifengyin's idea has always been to launch naturalistic environmental protection skin care products for young consumer groups. "Under the banner of environmental protection, we can't accept it if we don't do environmental protection." a consumer told China Business Daily that yueshifengyin's practice lowered her overall impression of the brand.

Liu Junhai, Professor of the Law School of Renmin University of China, told reporters that following the trend of environmental protection can not only enable enterprises to obtain advantages with lower costs in market competition, but also achieve the effect of rubbing hot spots. In the long run, it will cause the phenomenon that bad money expels good money, which will have a negative impact on the whole industry. For enterprises that invest high costs in environmental protection, this is an unfair competition. In addition, "fake environmental protection" enterprises also infringe on consumers' right to know, choice and fair trade.

"Environmental protection" needs strength

For cosmetics enterprises, the difference between true environmental protection and follow-up environmental protection is in cost investment. Adding the concept of sustainability and green environmental protection will indeed increase the cost.

A person in charge of a degradable material packaging factory told reporters that compared with plastic products, the price of degradable materials is much more expensive. If degradable materials are used, the cost spent by enterprises on packaging will increase greatly, which is bound to affect profits. For enterprises with small scale and low product profit rate, it will cause certain pressure.

L'OREAL official said that when adopting more sustainable production mode, it would increase short-term cost, but L'OREAL also found a way to offset the cost. In the aspect of electronic business, L'OREAL introduced 100% degradable green packages, replacing the filling and the outer packaging for environmental protection materials. Compared with plastic foam, the unit cost of green package is higher, but with the same L'Oreal optimizes the supply chain efficiency, transportation cost and storage cost, so as to achieve balance.

It is worth noting that for yueshifengyin, whose income and net profit have declined in recent two years, it may be "powerless" to add costs in sustainability and green environmental protection. According to the financial report, yueshifengyin's sales in 2020 were 2.02 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 37%, and the operating profit decreased by 89%. For yueshifengyin, who has always advertised naturalistic environmental protection, this "false environmental protection" The storm has undoubtedly reduced its image in the eyes of consumers. Can yueshifengyin reverse the decline in the future?