Our 2021 Impact Summary

Happy New Year 🎉 

We love creating new products that help you #giveupthebottle for good. And 2021 was a year where we took our conscious and concentrated innovations to a whole new level! 

It’s hard to believe that over nine years ago, plastic wasn’t the global concern that it is today. More importantly, solid beauty or personal care products certainly weren’t a ‘thing’.  

Think you’ll pop down to your local supermarket for a plastic-free shampoo solution? Mate, you’re dreaming. 

Now however, plastic-free beauty bars are pretty commonplace, and how exciting is that? It just goes to show the change that consumer demand can create.  

Right from the start, our mission has been clear - regenerate our planet through business so people and our planet can flourish. 

Of course, we couldn’t do any of this without you joining our mission to #giveupthebottle. 

So, let’s crack into it! Here are our 2021 milestones that you contributed to.  

Plastic saved in 2021  

Over nine years ago, Brianne made the very first Ethique plastic-free shampoo bar (Mintasy) with the goal of one day being able to save one million plastic bottles from being made and disposed of.  

We’re proud as punch to see just how far our #giveupthebottle revolution has come. 

Our next goal? To save half a billion plastic bottles by 2030 🎉 

Here’s where you can learn more about the environmental issues of plastic and how Ethique products create an easy solution - and nope, you don’t have to compromise on your good hair days.

Water saved in 2021 

A typical bottle of liquid shampoo contains up to 70% water. Liquid conditioner is even more so at 95% water. Water is needed, but it is literally on tap in our bathrooms, so let’s take it out. Our highly concentrated solid bars are not only an easy solution to the plastic pollution problem, but also save water which is an essential resource in decline. 

In 2021 alone, we saved 👇 

Trees planted in 2021 

We kickstarted our  tree planting mission on Earth Day 2020 with Ecologi, a gold standard accredited carbon credit provider. Ecologi work with NGOs, indigenous people and locals to plant seedlings in places such as Madagascar and Sri Lanka.  

Since then, we have planted a total of 379,000 trees in our forest! 

Our 2021 goal was to increase our forest cover to 400,000 trees – something we didn’t quite reach but will hit in the next couple of months.  

So, we’re digging our heels in and are committing to plant a total of one million trees by the end of 2022 – and we’re already on track! 

Check out our forest here. Oh and while you’re at it, here’s where you can learn more about our tree planting project and all the good stuff that the Ecologi team get up to.

New Ethique products in 2021 

Who doesn’t love a new plastic-free swap?!   

From lip balms, a solid face moisturiser that contains niacinamide & hyaluronic acid,  a shampoo and conditioner formulated for curly hair and more, we took our plastic-free innovations to a whole new level. 

The best part, of course, is the excellent feedback that our newest products have received. There’s nothing quite like the excitement of seeing our creations in your hands and hearing exactly what you think of them. A big thank you to all of you who have left reviews, emailed in or shared your feedback with us on social – each message brings a huge smile to our faces 😊 😊  

Our R&D team are back in the lab after  the holidays, and we are gearing up for even more clever little Ethique bars to be released this year. (Hint: Not all will be bars either... 🤫) Want to be the first to know? Sign up for our Regenerative Rewards loyalty programme and newsletter. Keep your eyes peeled! 

Carbon footprint  

Carbon offsets are something all companies should be doing, but they are certainly not the solution to our climate crisis – more of a mitigation tactic as we race towards a fossil fuel-free future. We are always working to reduce our emissions (including our team’s personal emissions) bBy choosing sea freight instead of air, powering our offices with renewable energy and encouraging alternative modes of transport. We reduced our carbon footprint by a massive 60% from 2018 to 2020, which we are absolutely stoked with. 

Supporting others  

To date, we have worked with more than 270 community groups and organisations all over the world on plastic-free initiatives, tree planting, beach clean-up projects and more! 

Know of any community groups who could use our help? Here’s where they can get in touch with our team of Miracle Workers and learn more about Ethique sponsorship requests 😊  

Some of our 2022 goals

• Save 12,000,000 single-use plastic bottles (taking our total to 30 million bottles saved!).
• Increase our forest to over 1,000,000 trees.
• Extend our product availability throughout parts of Europe and Asia.
• Convince more businesses to join us in regenerating our planet.

Let’s look at our best NEW innovations of 2021

Plastic-free lip balms 

Have you ever lost a plastic lip balm tube and wondered just where it might end up? Sadly, we throw away almost 200 million plastic lip balm tubes every year, and less than 7% of them are ever recycled.  

So, we created plastic-free lip balms that care for your lips, people and the planet! 

Available in the following options:

• So Cocoa - decadent chocolate lip balm
• Sugarplum - tinted and minty lip balm
• Nectar - unscented lip balm

Learn more about the positive impact you can help us make simply by swapping your lip balm. 

P.S. Once you’re done caring for your lips, bury the tube in the soil or a plant pot where it will naturally break down and support new growth. Here’s an example of our home-compostable packaging in action! 

Quench - Light-weight solid face moisturiser for all skin types  

In response to all the requests we receive for skincare that includes more active ingredients, we created Quench, a lightweight moisturiser for all skin types that powerfully boosts skin’s hydration. Quench is formulated with niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, vitamin B5 and jojoba to help promote smooth, healthy-looking and hydrated skin.  

The result? A product that instantly turned into a best-seller for us in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand! 

Learn more about the positive impact you can help us make simply by swapping your face moisturiser! 

Deep Green - Solid face cleanser for balanced to oily skin 

Deep Green swooped in to replace our In Your Face cleanser for balanced to oily skin which we sadly had to stop making due to sourcing challenges. 

The great news? Deep Green is now even more popular – just check out the reviews! 

Formulated with clay (problematic skin’s kryptonite), sea salt, castor oil and sweet orange oil, Deep Green is a gentle, yet effective, deep-cleanser. This delicious blend of ingredients combats excess sebum and dirt without drying skin out - it’s the perfect cleanser for balanced to oily skin and also works a treat as a make-up remover. 

Learn more about the positive impact you can help us make simply by swapping your face cleanser!  

Plastic-free deodorants, face moisturisers and butter blocks in tubes! 

Next up on the list are the many products we popped into home-compostable tubes to make for easy application and storage. 

Deodorant tubes were one of our most requested products of 2020 and 2021 but it took us some time to find a plastic-free tube that we could be confident could safely store our products, no matter where they were going or where they were stored. As most tubes on the market have plastic coatings, we also wanted to make sure there were no hidden plastics!

Lime & Lemongrass and Unscented solid cream body cleansers 

For all of our customers who can’t use soap or don’t like the feeling of soap on their skin, we created our cream body cleansers. Soap-free, pH balanced and filled to the brim with hydrating ingredients for a super gentle cleanse, without sacrificing that glorious creamy lather. 

Read our blog to learn more about our cream body cleansers and how they’re different to bodywashes. 

Learn more about the positive impact you can help us make simply by swapping to our plastic-free cream body cleansers. 

Our Curly Duo: Professor Curl solid shampoo and Curliosity solid conditioner for coily, curly and wavy hair  

The proof is in the curl! 🌀 We’re all about sustainability without having to sacrifice on quality and performance, and our Curly range is no exception.  

Formulated in line with curl care principles, this plastic-free Curly duo is carefully crafted with a luxurious blend of nourishing ingredients like shea butter and cocoa butter for soft and defined curls.  

Of course, we had to get our customers with curly, coily and wavy hair who had been requesting this range for a long time, to try it out as our part of our Curly Crowd.

The results:

• 87% of testers loved the look of their curls after using this new duo. 
  
• 88% of testers said their hair was softer & more manageable. 
  
• 90% would recommend to friends & family with curly hair. 
  

Learn more about the positive impact you can help us make simply by swapping to our plastic-free Curly Duo.  

Looking back on 2021, we feel so stoked with all the support we continue to receive. In 2012, Ethique was started because we wanted to shake up the cosmetics industry and rid the world of single-use plastics (or at least, the ones in our bathrooms).  

Ten years later and we’ve achieved some incredible things - like saving over 15 million plastic bottles from ending up in landfill!! Small collective acts can and do make a HUGE difference. 

Have any ideas for what you want to see from us next? Send your product or scent suggestions to our Miracle Workers via hello@ethique.com and we’ll add it to our ideas board!