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“Our actions over the next 10 years will determine the state of the ocean for the next 10,000 years,” goes the famous quote from renowned marine biologist Sylvia Earle. Healthy oceans are vital to life on earth, yet we have caused them significant harm through climate change: our oceans absorb around 90 per cent of the heat generated by rising emissions, leading to acidification and biodiversity loss, according to the UN.
The beauty industry has played a large part in damaging our oceans, particularly through the proliferation of plastic waste. “Even in the most remote areas you can spot body lotion tubes, pumps, mascara wands, sheet face masks and even pedicure toe separators, both ashore and below the surface,” says Alisha Morsella, a PhD candidate in planetary health and ocean pollution, and a certified diver currently based in the Philippines.
Upwards of 100 million tonnes of plastic is estimated to be floating in our oceans, according to the UN, where it ends up as concentrated marine debris known as ‘garbage patches’. Without meaningful action, plastic waste entering marine ecosystems is expected to triple by 2040. As consumers wake up to this, brands are responding by positioning themselves not only as ‘green’, but as ‘ocean friendly’ in marketing campaigns, too. Through claims such as ‘ocean friendly’ and ‘reef safe’, the ‘blue beauty’ marketing trend is picking up among brands large and small. This becomes a deluge on World Oceans Day, which is celebrated annually on 8 June and is increasingly being co-opted by the beauty industry as a marketing opportunity — much like Earth Day.
Many claims suggest brands are doing more for ocean health than they actually are, say experts. Common “bluewashing” strategies include focusing on a single element of a product that suggests it is ocean friendly as a whole; touting ingredients as ‘sustainably sourced’ without explaining what that means, or offering the supply chain transparency needed to substantiate it; and the liberal, often-misleading use of terms like ‘biodegradable’ and ‘recyclable’.
While blue beauty may have grown out of an interest in supporting ocean health, the risk is that brands are masking the impacts caused by their products, packaging and operations, says Lorraine Dallmeier, chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. “I am sceptical of the term ‘blue beauty’ because it inherently implies that the brand is by its very existence doing good by the marine environment, when the majority of these brands are simply aiming to do less harm or latching onto one aspect of ocean conservation awareness rather than looking at their company’s impacts in a cohesive manner,” she says.
The need for long-term commitments
Many brands attempt to address their environmental impacts via charitable donations or purchasing plastic offsets, while simultaneously producing more harmful packaging. “Both of these activities have their merits, but they don’t inherently make a beauty brand ocean friendly,” says Dallmeier. Other campaigns marking World Oceans Day are often single-day activities involving one-off lump-sum donations, or are tied to only a portion of sales.
A crop of brands is now emerging that hopes to chart a new path for the industry with long-term commitments to ocean conservation and/or developing products that can help regenerate marine ecosystems. Osea, Captain Blankenship and Mwani Zanzibar are among those promising to prioritise sustainable product formulations and embed ocean-positive initiatives into their operations and supply chain. Meanwhile, startups including Upwell Materials and Carbonwave are looking to replace the beauty industry’s ocean-damaging petroleum and animal-based products with waxes and emulsifiers made from macro and microalgae.
Osea, which markets itself as “skincare from the sea”, partners with sea reforestation organisation SeaTrees — whose blue carbon restoration projects are developed across five ecosystem types, including mangrove forests, kelp forests, seagrass meadows, coral reefs and coastal watersheds — to support several ongoing projects, including the regeneration of the giant kelp forest in Palos Verdes, California; planting mangrove trees in Indonesia and Kenya; and preserving mangrove rainforests as a habitat for critically endangered species in Cambodia and the Gulf of Thailand.
Dallmeier stresses that for a beauty brand to call itself ocean friendly, it should ensure that it is actively improving and regenerating marine environments. At a minimum, brands should be using biodegradable ingredients — meaning they are decomposed by bacteria or other organisms in a matter of days or weeks — use no packaging, or packaging that is recycled and can realistically be recycled again, and be taking action to reduce their climate footprint year-on-year.
The beauty of seaweed
Seaweed has recently come into the spotlight as a powerful nature-based solution in the fight against climate change. “When undertaken properly, regenerative ocean farming of these underwater forests can support the health of our oceans in a myriad of ways, including absorbing planet-warming gases, boosting marine biodiversity and shielding against ocean acidification,” says environmental engineer and scientist Dr Tracy Fanara.
Many seaweed species — such as bladderwrack, rockweed, undaria and sugar kelp — are finding their way into beauty formulations. “Not only does seaweed offer excellent potential for a brand’s environmental responsibility, but it’s also an amazing ingredient for our skin,” says Dallmeier, who has observed a significant uptick in its use.
While seaweed is fast growing and may be seen as a ‘super crop’, experts stress that it must be harvested in a way that makes room for regrowth. “It can be ecologically damaging if seaweed is over harvested or harvested without proper care, given it’s a habitat for so many species,” warns Fanara.
Osea says it is committed to ensuring its seaweed suppliers practise sustainable-harvesting methods. That includes leaving the root system (known as the ‘holdfast’) and the stem (called the ‘stipe’) intact to allow for optimal regeneration, says the brand’s founder Jenefer Palmer — as well as observing reproductive seasons for each species in order to respect ecosystem renewal.
Jana Blankenship, founder of seaweed-powered haircare brand Captain Blankenship, says she sources directly from farmers and cooperatives to enable supply chain transparency and support sustainable farming and harvesting practices. Suppliers include a local farm in Maine near Blankenship’s home and a kelp farmer in Alaska through innovative new ingredient supplier Macro Oceans, who produces a cold-pressed seaweed extract.
In Zanzibar, seaweed is one of the largest sources of income and plays a key role in the island’s economy. Seaweed farming has been a generational activity that has been passed down for decades, and of the farmers on the island, over 80 per cent of them are women. Macroalgae skincare brand Mwani Zanzibar taps this tradition and resource to support a resilient blue economy, employing women to farm a variety of seaweeds — including ulva, turbinaria, sargassum and Eucheumatoids — to make their products. Known as the “Mwani Mamas”, these seaweed farmers are the backbone of the brand.
The blue biotech boom
There’s another argument for turning to the sea for ingredients, according to Jasmina Aganovic, a chemical and biological engineer, and CEO of biotech startup Arcaea. She once argued in a Ted Talk that the earth cannot grow enough plants to supply the global beauty industry. Demand for natural ingredients is outstripping supply, which she says presents an opportunity to turn to biotechnology and lab-synthesised cosmetics ingredients — both to reduce the industry’s sourcing footprint and to tap more of the benefits of nature without exploiting it. There are untold substances in nature that could become new ingredients or bring new functions to a product, for example, but would be unsustainable or unethical to research in or source from the wild at scale.
“Oceans play host to many different forms of life, many of which we haven’t been able to access yet. With the rise of biotechnology, this now becomes a reality,” says Aganovic.
With blue biotechnology, microorganisms and algae are used to produce ingredients for various industries via modifications that allow the ingredients to produce specific traits or functions that are appealing to companies and customers. While controversial considering the risks associated with biotechnology and its potential for negative unintended consequences, proponents of blue biotech say it offers a sustainable way to tap into the ocean’s riches.
Aiming to rid the beauty industry of its reliance on petroleum and animal-based products, Massachusetts-based startup Upwell Materials creates ingredients from microalgae. Ocean-derived wax — alongside a line-up of other algae-based ingredients, including a butter, oil and humectant — holds multi-application potential, as well as the ability to outperform its petroleum-based predecessor, according to the brand.
Carbonwave is another brand experimenting with upcycling seaweed into biomaterials. Sargassum, a macroalgae that accumulates near shores and on beaches, is diverted from landfills and turned into a cutting-edge cosmetic emulsifier.
It’s not enough
While smaller brands are making inroads into embedding ocean conservation into their operations, the industry at large is still operating within the same wasteful, damaging model.
Large brands tend to communicate in vague terms, which sometimes means their efforts are similarly vague when the opposite is urgently needed — both for the sake of the planet and to earn or maintain customers’ trust in an era of greenwashing-induced scepticism. Experts say the model startups such as Osea and Mwani Zanzibar are leading with is one that traditional beauty giants can and should learn from. Increasing transparency across their supply chains and furthering their efforts to improve them, as well as providing customers with more evidence of their actions and commitments, are all important measures that can get the needle moving for brands.
Dallmeier says beauty brands shouldn’t be calling themselves ocean friendly or blue unless they are playing an active role in regenerating and improving marine environments. “Our ecosystems are interconnected as part of a larger biome,” she explains. “Until the beauty industry starts to look at its planetary boundaries as a whole, calling yourself ‘blue’ simply isn’t enough.”
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