Our commitment to the Earth:
The To do List for Climate and Nature

INTRODUCING THE TO DO LIST FOR CLIMATE AND NATURE

Leaving the world Lusher Than We Found It

Our commitment to the Earth.

We find ourselves in the middle of multiple crises affecting the lives of humans and the more-than-human. The climate, ecological and economic crises are changing our planet in ways that are unpredictable and challenging. The need for deep and systemic change is clearer than ever.

In front of us is this unique opportunity to re-imagine our businesses and communities so that all life can flourish. At Lush, we started on this journey many decades ago, integrating care for the Earth, for communities, for animals into how we do business.

We want to do more. These times call for bold action in the present and not long-term commitments for the future. We want to be rebels. Going against business as usual to support and protect the wild. We want to make the world Lusher, with equity and justice at the heart of this transformation. When asked if the Earth is better off because Lush exists, we want to be able to answer with a resounding “yes”!

Our ambition to leave the world Lusher than we found it encompasses the living Earth, People, and Animals. For each of these, we have created an action-packed and bold pathway of how we can make a meaningful contribution.

EARTH: The To do List for Climate and Nature

Our overall aim is to remove all fossil fuel use from our direct operations, including our retail stores, our offices, manufacturing sites and the vehicles we own by 2030. We are also working to reduce the climate and nature impact of our supply webs, while creating more opportunities for nature to thrive and help to remove emissions. Ultimately, we want to have a net positive supply web by 2030.

To make it simple for everyone at Lush to understand and contribute, we summarise that into a five broad actions that all our colleagues, suppliers and customers can be part of.

Protect forests, protect wildlife.

Our core strategy is to use our supply webs and buying power to help protect biodiversity hotspots and carbon sinks like mangroves, wetlands, forests, and healthy soil. This can be done by eliminating risk of deforestation in the supply chain, increasing the amount of materials benefiting communities living in harmony with the wild and supporting projects and demonstrations sites that help to rewild the landscapes we buy materials from.

100% renewable power everywhere

In order to get there as quickly as possible, we need a combination of powering down – reduce first, replacing all fossil gas and powering up with renewables. We invent, manufacture and retail our products in buildings that we control, so invest in energy efficiency like LED lighting, choose to source our electricity from deep green suppliers wherever it is possible, and buy renewable energy certificates where it is not possible. We are almost fossil gas-free in retail and gradually electrifying our factories.

Make our materials regenerative and circular

This is a big and ambitious task. We are working towards a climate positive supply web for our materials and making our packaging circular – with people and livelihoods at the heart of our initiatives.

To reduce the impact on the environment of our raw materials and increase the benefits, especially for agricultural materials, we prioritise sourcing materials from regenerative farming like agroforestry, we fund regenerative interventions in the landscapes we source from and invest in farmer training and demonstration sites. We have been on this journey for nearly 15 years. Find out more here.

On the circular front, we borrowed the strategy from Ellen McArthur Foundation and focus on eliminating waste, circulating materials at their highest value and regenerating nature. To eliminate waste, we invented cosmetics like the shampoo and conditioner bars, bath bombs and bubble bars and made soap cool again, allowing our customers to shop naked if they choose to. Since 2008, we have sourced recycled plastic for our pots and bottles, the latter are now made with “prevented ocean plastic”. Our gift boxes, ribbons and paper are made from recycled materials and agriculture wastes. All the cotton we use is organic, and some are even regenerative organic!

Radically reduce our transport emissions

This is one of the most challenging of the actions to do in the short term, because we rely on bigger shifts in infrastructure. We do not think it will be possible to completely eliminate emissions from transport by 2030, but there are few things we can do. Drastically reduce business flights and air freight, electrify road freight – our own vehicles and through our freight partners, and support early adopters of new alternative fuels with proven sustainability benefits. We are conscious of transitional strategies like HVOs from waste fats and oils and have used them with care where needed.

Advocate for climate justice and adaptation

It is clear that those least responsible for causing the climate emergency are already suffering its worst impacts. Reducing the harm communities are already facing, being in solidarity with climate activists and indigenous communities often protecting the environment with their lives and doing all of the actions above from a lens of climate justice is key. Lush is a British business and the UK has a historic responsibility to do more than its fair share.

We vow to educate and raise awareness about climate justice inside and outside Lush, listen to, support and stand with frontline communities, apply a climate justice lens into our decisions.

Part of this work is done through our campaigns and charitable giving. It is also embedded in how we support our suppliers and in our commitment to divest our finances from fossil fuel developments.

That’s the what. Show me the how.

We have been slowly building a better understanding of our carbon footprint and our overall impact under the different areas of the To Do List for Climate and Nature.

We started looking at the emissions from our direct operations, then for the financial year that ended in 2021 we did a deep dive into the supply chain and customer use, understanding the carbon impact of over 2500 materials and identify the ones that were most impactful. The soon to be published footprint for the financial year that ended in 2022 includes more of our indirect emissions, like digital fulfilment, all purchases, waste, etc.

Check out the video below for some highlights and browse through our reports published below as part of our financial reporting.

global pack report • TO DO LIST FOR CLIMATE AND NATURE • AUG 2023

DIRECTORS’ REPORT • TO DO LIST FOR CLIMATE AND NATURE • SEP 2022

CORE KPIs TO ASSESS OUR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH • JUL 2020 • FY19