Our Ecological Footprint

Lush believes the time is right for revolution. Our vision is to create a cosmetics revolution to save the planet. When a customer holds a Lush product in their hands, they’re holding so much more than just that product; they’re holding a complex web of relationships, flow of materials, creativity, human labor, movement, and life that had to be arranged in a way that put that product in their hands.

Every move we make on this journey is an opportunity to leave the world lusher than we found it. We do this through the way we source raw materials, manufacture and transport our products, operate our shops, advise customers to use our products, and support communities and causes.

Climate emergency

We have a climate emergency and we’re as much a part of the problem as we are the solution, because everything we do has an impact on the environment. Our largest impacts are the energy we consume, the upstream impacts of our ingredients and packaging, and the transportation of our ingredients, products and people. We’ve been working on ways to lessen our impact in these areas.

Energy

Our vision is to run energy-efficient buildings, free of fossil fuels and powered by 100 percent renewable energy.

In our shops, we improved the lighting and rolled out an energy management system, which greatly reduced our energy consumption. In our factories, we implemented energy efficiency projects in our processes, equipment and buildings. This work is ongoing as part of a continuous improvement process.

In 2022, we reached a milestone with 100 percent of our North American operations being powered by renewable energy. Our approach includes purchasing high quality Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to cover our electricity consumption to support the development of renewable energy projects in North America. The remaining gas we use in our manufacturing and retail is 100 percent renewable natural gas from biogas facilities in British Columbia and Michigan.

Movement of goods and people

Lush aims to radically reduce transport emissions. Shipping goods from suppliers to our factories, shops and customers is one of our main contributors to the climate emergency. Our vision is to reduce the emissions we create from transporting products and to promote smarter business travel and commuting plans.

To limit our freight emissions, we prioritize using lower-carbon impact modes of transport, bringing in raw materials by ocean instead of air, prioritizing rail over truck for shipments between factories, and reducing air shipments out to shops. We look to continually streamline our inventory and supply chain planning and management in addition to more collaboration with carriers to demand long-term low-carbon solutions.

For employees working in our facilities and offices, we have a Community Bike Share program to reduce vehicle use between buildings. We also subsidize public transit to encourage and support employees to use these environmentally-friendly commuting options.

Hold water sacred

 

Our business depends on water, whether it’s in the growing and production of ingredients, the manufacturing of products, or final use by customers. Our vision is to have closed-loop process water systems at our factories and support ecological restoration projects in our supply chain and communities to deliver a cleaner watershed.

We rolled out water meters in key areas to help capture real-time consumption data and better identify and target efficiency improvements. However, we recognize we have more to do in our factories, shops, and our supply chain.

Zero waste

Our vision is to be zero waste at every stage of our products’ lifecycles, and for our customers to take home naked products, reusable packaging, or materials that can be readily recycled.

Lush shops partner with dozens of local composting partners who help us divert nearly 2700 pounds of organics annually from landfill. At our factories, we expanded our waste collection to 14 different material streams, so it’s diverted away from landfill and ensures that we have clean material streams for recycling. To reduce the packaging waste we get in our factories, we’re working with suppliers to explore reduction and reuse opportunities. Annual waste audits in our shops and manufacturing facilities enable us to track what materials are going into which waste/recycling streams, and tackle recycling and re-use opportunities for the tricky materials still going to landfill.

We also care about supporting the zero-waste lifestyles of our customers by innovating and promoting more naked products, offering more reusable packaging, and growing our Bring It Back program. Bring It Back encourages customers to return their used pots in exchange for a $1 discount (one pot per purchase) or a free fresh face mask (five pots per purchase).

Engagement

People are at the heart of everything we do. Shutting down the entire business to join the Global Climate Strike, “Banning the Cup” to fight single-use disposables, and rolling up our sleeves for waste audits and competitions are just a few of the ways Lushies have participated in the revolution.

Our vision is for our employees to embody Lush’s ethics at work and at home, and for Lush to be a catalyst for change in our industry and the communities we operate in.