The Beauty of Sustainability
Here at Bella we are in the business of making beauty sustainable. Bella Botanicals is an environmentally conscious company, aiming for a small carbon footprint. Our goal is to help you look and feel your best, while being mindful of our impact on the environment.
The Ugly Side of Your Average Beauty Product
Each year, 120 billion units of packaging in the beauty industry are produced, & most of those are single use items. To make matters worse, much of that packaging is mixed-material, which can’t even be recycled.
Many of us are also guilty of spontaneous beauty purchases based on impulse or pretty packaging …. only to never really use it; and then throw it out a year later. A mind-blowing 80% of these products are never used!
That rate of consumption simply isn’t sustainable or responsible. It’s like a bad habit we need to drop. At Bella Botanicals, we are doing our part to help you look good while feeling great about it.
An Environmental Conscience
Carbon Footprint
As a company, we work really hard to be mindful of our impact on the environment; and that goodness is passed along to you with every purchase. One of our business goals is to operate with a low carbon footprint.
A carbon footprint measures your impact on the environment. One way a footprint size is represented is in the number of Earths that would be needed if everyone lived the same lifestyle as you. It looks at many of your consumer choices across several categories, from travel, to diet, to beauty products.
If you’re curious what your footprint is, take the quiz: https://www.footprintcalculator.org
If everyone in the world lived like the average American, we would need more than 5 Earths to support that! That’s astonishing!
One major cause of this overshoot is the fact that we tend to feel that we’re only one person, my choices can’t have that big of an impact. But, if most of us think that way, major negative environmental impacts will result.
Sustainability
Sustainability can be defined in many ways. It generally involves living in balance with nature. It’s living in a way that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Leaving the world at least as good as we found it, if not better. Sustainability is a pretty simple ideal, yet it can seem very difficult to put into practice. It comes down to our everyday choices. We must make choices with their environmental impact in mind; we owe it to future generations.
Sustainability can become overwhelming when we think of all the different forms it can take, according to what we’re told: giving up plastic straws, bringing our own utensils to a restaurant, swearing off anything disposable,only using public transportation, showering less, living off the grid …. It feels as if you have to give up all of life’s little luxuries to live sustainably. But, that’s not true!
It helps to keep in mind that you don’t have to do everything all at once. Just like any big endeavors, we can bite off small chunks at a time to make it manageable. And, you really don’t have to give up everything you enjoy in life for the sake of the environment, you just need to become more aware of the impact of your choices, & change accordingly.
The big thing is: do what you can, when you can.
And, the good news is that small changes in our environmental mindset can really add up!
Small Choices … Big Impact
When considering skincare products, you should be mindful of the packaging, the processing, and the ingredients.
Here are some small things you can easily do to lessen your impact on the environment:
Avoid single-use plastics:
Each person generates about 4.5 pounds of garbage per day. And, although recycling efforts have greatly increased, 133 million tons of trash still ends up in landfills every year! What doesn’t end up in landfills has accumulated in our oceans, & the harsh negative impacts of that are far-reaching.
Think about it this way: By the time you’re throwing an item in the trash, the critical moment of choice for reducing your impact is long gone. You made that choice when you purchased the item.
Choose organically & ethically sourced products whenever possible:
With every purchase, you are casting a vote. So, put your money behind products & services that are doing good in the world.
Look for items made with certified fair-trade ingredients, where the workers contributing to that product have been paid a fair wage.
Choose products with less packaging:
This goes back to responsible consumerism. Before you throw an item in your cart, consider the packaging … the energy & resources that went into making that packaging, and where it’s going to end up when you’re done with it.
Purchase items that have been packaged minimally, and/or with recyclable materials.
Shop Local:
This choice is awesome on so many levels. Not only are you keeping money flowing in your local economy to support your neighbors, you’re lowering your environmental impact by cutting back on the transportation involved in moving products all over the world.
Transport of goods has a huge impact on our personal carbon footprint as well as that of a business.. The more we can purchase locally, the better for the environment.
Simplify Routines:
Your skincare routine shouldn’t require 12 steps and 24 products. Ask yourself what you really need. Are there products you have that essentially do the same thing as another?
Find what works, what’s good for you, and stick with that. If you actually use every product in your beauty cabinet, then that’s good for your pocketbook and the environment.
Of course, we’d recommend our Bella Botanicals super simple 3-step skincare routine for naturally beautiful skin, which you can check out here!
https://www.mybellabotanicals.com/blogs/news/3-steps-to-naturally-beautiful-skin
Buy Beauty Products that are Natural & Organic:
Check the ingredients list on your products. If we’re honest, most of us don’t read that at all. But, if you want to make environmentally sound choices that are also good for your skin, look for products made from natural, non-toxic, plant-based ingredients that have been ethically sourced.
Also consider how many ingredients were used to make the product. A good rule of thumb is ‘the fewer, the better’.
How Bella Botanicals Makes Beauty Sustainable
We’re not just about great skin … we’re about a great environment too!
Our environmental impact is part of our business conscience. We care deeply about creating healthy products for our customers, but not at the expense of the environment.
The ‘big name’ companies in the skincare industry really struggle to provide a product that is environmentally friendly. They’re typically operating globally, which means production, packaging, and transportation on a massive scale. All of that makes for a pretty giant carbon footprint, with the consequences of that being passed along to the buyer.
When you purchase from Bella Botanicals, you are making an environmentally conscious decision, and we love that! We are a small, local business that has the luxury of being picky about our carbon footprint, and can pass that goodness along to you.
If you care about the environment like us, and want to make decisions that support sustainability, we invite you to take a closer look at our products and what goes into their creation.
How Bella Botanicals Handles the Big 3 Categories of Sustainable Beauty
Production:
Our products are made in house, in a sterile environment. These aren’t products being pumped out by machines on an assembly line, they are made in small batches, by hand, and expertly crafted. This low structural overhead for our production also helps keep our footprint small.
Packaging:
We use glass or metal containers whenever possible, using plastic only when absolutely necessary. And, bonus: glass just feels way more luxurious and high end than plastic! Any other packaging we use is minimal & recyclable. We even reuse the packaging we get from our raw ingredient suppliers to package orders.
Ingredients:
We use fair-trade ingredients whenever possible, to assure that the ingredients are being farmed in a sustainable manner. As we move forward with our products containing CBD, it is our goal to source as much of that locally as possible.
Are You Like Us?
If the health and sustainability of our environment is important to you, but you want to be able to balance that with some of the luxuries of this beautiful life we get to live, then Bella Botanicals products are for YOU! We make a great fit!
Some concerns with switching to natural skincare is that it might not give you the results you’re after, it might dull your skin, that it’s maybe not as powerful as a product with a litany of ingredients. But, we’re proving, one happy customer at a time, that you are missing out if you don’t give our products a try.
Natural skincare, in our formulations, gives you glowing, healthy skin by nourishing it in just the way it needs. This is one small change in your routine that can have a big impact! Not only are you contributing to a better future for the Earth, you get naturally beautiful skin out of the deal!! It’s a total win-win!
Sources:
https://www.greenchildmagazine.com/reduce-your-impact-on-the-environment/
https://www.instyle.com/beauty/how-reduce-your-beauty-carbon-footprint
https://www.sustain.ucla.edu/about-us/what-is-sustainability/
Written by Pamela Hansen