For companies that have the potential to create huge amounts of waste, sustainability involves sourcing materials and ingredients in ways that won't deplete natural resources. That means that if a brand uses too much of any one resource without restoring it — for example, chopping down trees without planting new ones — they risk destroying ecosystems and harming the Earth.
L'Occitane is a great example of a brand committed to not draining natural resources. The company uses almond oil in many of its products and has planted 15,000 almond trees to help replenish the resource. As for the shea butter used in many of the brand's products, the company has a partnership with women in Burkina Faso. L'Occitane provides business development training 10,000 women to ethically process the ingredient.
With The Body Shop, Brown stressed that the brand tries to make as little of an impact on the environment as possible. "We strive to harvest natural ingredients with as low an impact as possible, while also developing innovative packaging solutions," she explained.
Image Source: Getty / lechatnoir