British skincare and spa brand Elemis has announced its new status as a Certified B Corp after almost two years of implementing changes to processes, and practices and launching new initiatives across the business.

Elemis joins a community of over 6,000 Certified B Corps in 87 countries and 159 industries that take people, environment and profit into consideration in equal measure when making business decisions. Other spa and wellbeing brands which have achieved B Corp status include The Body Shop, Comfort Zone, Aromatherapy Associates and Aesop.

Sold in 103 countries, Elemis plans to use its global voice to "elevate B Corp awareness around the world to build a better tomorrow".

“If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s to be kind, not just to ourselves or to each other but to our planet too,” said Oriele Frank, co-founder and chief product and sustainability officer at Elemis.

“We wholeheartedly believe that this certification is just the beginning for a B Corp business – we’ll use this as our baseline. If we do not measure, we cannot improve.

“We, as part of L’Occitane Group, are on a journey with the ambition to become the most sustainable premium British skincare brand and we plan to accomplish more action-based commitments in 2023 making continuous improvements to our positive impact mission, in fact, the only impact we intend to make is positive.”

The assessment process

To certify as a B Corp, performance is analysed across five key areas; governance, workers, community, environment and customers.

B Corp is the most comprehensive sustainability audit available, which doesn’t just evaluate products, but also rigorously assesses the whole business to meet high verified standards of social and environmentally responsible practices, transparency and corporate accountability.

The environment, biodiversity, human rights, climate protection, employees and customers are all top priorities.

Elemis’ new sustainability strategyBuilding on this achievement, the next step for Elemis is moving forward with its comprehensive new sustainability strategy.

This focuses on:

• Sourcing accountability – by working with suppliers and supporting regenerative farming programmes, Elemis wants to ensure full traceability of all its raw materials and improve its impact on land and water use.

• Protect and restoring biodiversity – Elemis’ vision is to protect and restore nature’s biodiversity with a focus on carbon sink projects, such as its peatlands restoration project, which sequesters carbon by absorbing and holding onto it from the atmosphere for up to 60 years.

• Energy efficiency – Elemis has made a pledge to reduce its carbon emissions throughout its value chain, in line with near term science-based targets by 2030. As part of this, renewable energy is used at all Elemis facilities.

• Smarter formulations – working to create smarter formulations with natural ingredients combined with nature-based biotech will help reduce Elemis’ impact on the planet and protect and preserve future biodiversity.

• Packaging minimisation – progress has begun on refreshing the brand’s entire packaging portfolio. Potential updates will include reducing size, moving to new widely recyclable alternatives and recycled content, or being reusable.

• Empowering people – high on the agenda is a focus on health and wellness, diversity and inclusion. From employees to farmers, the focus is on sharing knowledge, facilitating education and collaborating hand-in-hand to promote a more impactful relationship with Elemis.

Noella Gabriel, co-founder and global president, concluded: “We’ve always considered our impact on people and planet to be as important as our results-driven formulas and treatments for healthy skin and body.

“Being certified to the highest verified standards of transparency and accountability provides further assurances to our customers that we do what we say we do, and that we're committed to driving long-term positive changes as a responsible, ethical business while delivering exceptional skincare.”