Eco-responsibility in Cosmetic Valley

By: Alban Muller and Hervé Sachot

Posted: February 19, 2010

(La version Française est disponible ici./The French version is available here.)

by Alban Muller, Alban Muller International:

What is Cosmetic Valley’s philosophy toward eco-responsibility?
Cosmetic Valley is an association supported both by local authorities (state, district, cities, etc.) and companies, as part of a French governmental program of “competitive clusters.” Of the 67 French clusters, Cosmetic Valley is rated among the 20 best, with its 196 members in a vertical system that produces “seeds” to the final product, with the aim to improve the capacity of its members to compete better on the international markets. Since the companies within the cluster are so diverse, we needed to find a common approach to achieve our goals and we chose eco-responsibility. This approach has been summarized into a charter and was signed under the eyes of our minister of ecology, Chantal Jouanna, and the president of our senate, Gerard Larcher, on Oct. 16, 2009.

This charter focuses on four primary components:

• Environnent (energy, waste, transport)
• Impact of Products (safety, eco-toxicity, bioaccumulation)
• Continuous Progress Approach (communicating on the action and progress made, making co-workers aware and active regarding eco-responsibility)
• Societal Relations (fair trade, developing human resources, sponsorship).

This charter was immediately adopted by 35 companies, among them some very large groups that will have a very positive impact on the environment due to the large volume of products they sell and ship. Eco-responsibility leads us to a better management of all our actions, taking all aspects into account—both direct (i.e., What is in the product?) and indirect (i.e., How do I make this product in the best way, and what do I do with the waste generated?).