Nontoxic skincare and cosmetics brand Beautycounter has teamed up with a group of likeminded organizations to introduce the Chemical Footprint Project (CFP). The project, an initiative of BizNGO and the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production and Pure Strategies, is using a model similar to carbon footprinting to establish the first-ever common metric on corporate chemicals management.
Founder Gregg Renfrew launched Beautycounter in 2013 to offer products that are both safe and highly effective. Though the U.S. government has banned just 11 ingredients from personal-care products to date, the party plan company has established its own “Never List” that currently includes 1,500 ingredients restricted from its products.
As Renfrew shared in an Oct. 2 interview on Bloomberg TV’s Market Makers, her vision is to see Congress modernize regulations against known toxins. In the meantime, Beautycounter and its partners in the Chemical Footprint Project are providing a means for consumers and investors to identify organizations committed to using safer chemicals.
“Beautycounter’s mission is to get safe products into everyone’s hands, so carefully evaluating potential ingredients and materials are core to our business and our purpose,” explained Mia Davis, Head of Health and Safety at Beautycounter. “We look forward to helping to advance CFP as a measure for improving business decisions and supply chain transparency, and ultimately, as a way to ensure people have access to safer products.”
The CFP’s members include corporations and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) ranging from healthcare to retail. Beautycounter is a member of the CFP Steering Committee, which also includes representatives from Target Corp., Staples Inc., Boston Common Asset Management, Kaiser Permanente, Partners Healthcare, ChemSec, Environmental Defense Fund, and the U.S. Green Building Council, among others. The group will host a free webinar on Jan. 21 to share more about the project’s launch.
