Emma Lewisham
This natural-born disruptor is making skincare fit for the future.
Things that don’t make sense really rankle Emma Lewisham. When the New Zealand businesswoman was thinking about starting a brand, she couldn’t comprehend the gap for natural, high-end skincare that was backed by science. Working with chemists and physiologists, she launched an eponymous line of clinically tested, plant-driven products in 2019.
But exacting formulations were just part of Lewisham’s mission. “From the get-go I wanted to be sustainable,” she says of her product packaging. “I went out to recycling plants and councils in New Zealand and Australia and the story was: ‘We’re not recycling recyclable beauty packaging – it’s too complex so no pumps can be recycled, this glass is going into landfill, anything below 30 millilitres is going into landfill.’”
Versed in the circular economy by a previous corporate job, she saw taking responsibility for packaging as a game changer. “We offer a free return shipping label at checkout on our website and in early 2023 we’ll be in Mecca, where you’ll be able to return product packaging to drop-off boxes inside stores,” she says. Online, products are stamped with a carbon load, a bit like a nutritional panel on food. “Our refillable products have a 74 per cent smaller carbon score.”
Lewisham estimates that there are 120 billion units of beauty packaging created annually and, as she told legendary activist Jane Goodall on the Hopecast podcast, if the whole industry went circular, emissions could drop by 70 per cent.
Credited as the world’s first carbon-positive beauty brand, Emma Lewisham is B Corp certified for its transparent supply chain. Ingredients are audited for social and biodiversity impact, while conscious shipping and local warehousing reduce freight emissions. “A lot can be minimised with good forecasting.”
Lewisham is now sharing her blueprint with big players such as David Jones and even competitors. “Where we are in the world now, we don’t want to compete on sustainability.”