In today’s ever-changing world, it is better to have friends than enemies. This has been the strategy of 14 big enterprises in the beauty market, who have decided to cooperate to transform their value chain and make it more sustainable.
Chanel, L’Oréal, Sisley, L’Occitane and many more form now “Pulp In Action”, a consortium aiming at developing new cellulose fibre materials to replace plastic, in order to tackle one of the biggest issues of cosmetics: plastic packaging.
The consortium is working with laboratories, to research and develop innovative and sustainable materials, and a consulting firm, (RE)SET, who organises consultations and ensure that the new materials will be functional for the companies. After only one year of cooperation, fifteen packaging are ready to be tested.
Even if the urgency to get rid of plastic is no longer debated, this is rather revolutionary for cosmetics companies, who use plastic because it can be shaped and adapted to many products and preserves their quality. As Géraldine Poivert, co-founder of (RE)SET, said “plastic is a great material, with properties that are difficult to find elsewhere”.
It is for this very reason that cosmetics companies have decided to “work at the sector level to decide on new standards”, acknowledges Poivert.
Was it necessary to form a consortium?
Innovation is a risky and expensive process. In this case, these 14 companies want to challenge the monopoly of plastic established on packaging and “Then, there is always the risk that the consumer will not be onboard”, notes Géraldine Poivert.
In order to mitigate these risks, it is better to work together to reduce costs, find suppliers more easily, have a greater place on the market and better chances to find customers.
In other words, “Competitors have a common interest, which is also the general interest: that of redefining standards.”, says Poivert.
Cross-industry cooperation is not an easy task for companies, but consortia are multiplying to accompany the revolution.
The From Archive to Alive project: a pan-European consortium to raise awareness on climate change
Just as “Pulp In Action”, the FaTa consortium has a common interest, which is raise awareness of young generations on climate change and the importance to preserve the environment. To do this, a special e-learning module has been developed by the partners, to explore what is climate change, and what can artists do to fight it.
Discover the whole e-learning course on https://archive2alive.eu/.