The winners of the inaugural Sustainable Beauty Awards were recently announced at a dedicated awards reception in Paris. Attended by more than160 executives, the awards reception honored operators making a valuable contribution to the sustainable development of the beauty industry.

Award winners were chosen from three finalists, selected from over 100 international entries. Reflecting the diverse nature of sustainability, the winners comprise dedicated natural and organic cosmetic firms, as well as multinationals involved in finished products and ingredients.

The 2013 winners and runner-ups by award category:

Sustainability Pioneer
The winner is L’Oreal USA – Garnier for its beauty brigade program, which diverts beauty packaging from landfill. Working with Terracycle, the program has collected 2.5 million pieces of packaging waste and upcycled it into new products. Organic Monitor commends the programe because of the high environmental footprint of packaging waste, which comprises a third of household landfill waste.

The Greek company Apivita is sustainability pioneer runner-up because of the social impact of its pastilles project. In partnership with Medicins Sans Frontiers, Apivita launched sweet pastilles in 2012 with all proceeds given to social causes.

Sustainability Leadership
Weleda is winner of the sustainability leadership award because of its value-creation model. Since 1921, the Swiss company has spearheaded a number of projects that cover various aspects of sustainability.

The flavours and fragrances multinational Firmenich is runner-up for its holistic approach to sustainability, which involves partnering with NGOs and stake-holders.

Sustainable Packaging
The award winner is France-based Laboratoires Expanscience for the reduced packaging footprint of its Mustela range of baby care products. By deploying the eco design approach, it is removing about 60 tonnes of plastics from product packaging.

The Irish company You Organic Skincare is runner-up for the low environmental footprint of its novel packaging. It uses aluminum foil packaging pouches for its organic body care products.

Sustainable Ingredient
International Flavors & Fragrances is winner with LMR Rose Water Essential. The ultraconcentrated material has a significantly lower ecological impact than traditional rose waters.

AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry is runner-up with Recentia serum. Produced by Zeta Fraction technology, the material is produced by a novel sustainable processing technique.

Green Formulations
Jasmin Aromatique is winner with its range of certified organic beauty products. The Australian company received high ratings for its organic skin care formulations.

Bulgaria-based Alteya Organics is runner-up with its line of rose water-based skin care products.

The Sustainability Beauty Awards were launched by Organic Monitor to recognize sustainability achievements of operators in the beauty industry. Speaking at the awards reception in Paris, Amarjit Sahota (founder and president of Organic Monitor) stated: “As well as giving industry recognition, we hope the awards will inspire others in the beauty industry to take the green road.”

The awards reception took place on Oct. 21 at the Paris Marriott Champs Elysées hotel, hosted alongside the European edition of the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit.