Hera Beauty achieves eco accreditation

The effects of climate change are already altering our world.

Here in the UK, we’re experiencing more frequent instances of extreme weather conditions. These include widespread flooding, heat waves, and droughts. Globally, the climate crisis presents a threat to human health and puts many of our wildlife species at risk of extinction. So what can we do to make a difference?

Here at Hera Beauty, sustainability has always been at the heart of who we are. There’s a multitude of reasons why caring for the environment matters. But to put it simply, we want to create a positive legacy for future generations.

As a beauty manufacturer, our day-to-day operations inevitably have a potential impact on the environment. However, we’re determined to reduce that impact by continuously improving our environmental performance. Acting sustainably is vital for preserving resources, enhancing biodiversity, and addressing social and economic inequalities.

We know it’s also the right way to do business. By putting the environment front and centre of all our decisions we can reduce waste, increase efficiency, encourage innovation, and become more resilient to future challenges.

Gaining environmental certification
When you’re looking to launch your own beauty range, choosing a manufacturer to partner with can be a tough decision-making process. It needs to be the right ‘fit’ for you and your business. We understand that you have high standards when it comes to the environmental and social impact of the products you choose.

At Hera Beauty, we set high sustainability standards for ourselves, making it even easier for our partners to do the same. We take our responsibility to people and the planet very seriously, and value the importance of being independently audited for our environmental impact. In this way, we can demonstrate transparency, integrity, and hold ourselves accountable for delivering continuous improvement.

Since 2023, we’ve demonstrated our commitment to a recognised standard with certification from the national accreditation scheme, Investors in the Environment (iiE). Our October 2023 audit resulted in us achieving Bronze Accreditation for the first time - thanks to the hard work and dedication of our amazing team.

What did we do?
iiE accreditation requires organisations to provide comprehensive evidence that they’ve met the criteria, set targets to reduce environmental impact, and acted to continually improve their performance over a sustained period.

To start, we created an Environmental Management System (EMS) outlining our current impacts and targets, including an overarching goal to achieve Net Zero by 2050. As part of our certification, we identified key environmental aspects that contribute to our carbon footprint and started monitoring our resource usage.

Alongside physical improvements at our Cambridgeshire facility - such as installing PIR motion sensor lighting and strip curtains on all shutter doors to prevent heat loss - we also recorded electricity, gas and water usage regularly. To reduce waste, we introduced a clearly labelled recycling system, and started shredding inbound cardboard to reuse in the packing of products.

To reduce printing, we overhauled our supplier invoice system to make it paperless, which is predicted to save 6,000 sheets per annum. When it comes to packing, we use 100% recyclable wrapping film, and the quantity of plastic has been significantly reduced (by around 35%) by choosing a thinner but still high-quality material.

Our team has been instrumental in developing ideas and actions. An innovative new product development pipeline has been put in place that includes upcycled, waterless and cold process formulations. Our Green Team communicates and shares all environmental initiatives across the organisation, including themed noticeboard displays, email updates, and an ideas suggestion box.

From the day-to-day initiatives, such as switching to plant-based milk in the staff canteen and encouraging virtual meetings to minimise unnecessary travel, through to bigger events such as our recent team litter pick (where we collected around 10 bags of rubbish in Peterborough) - the ideas keep coming!

For the future
Now that we’ve achieved our Bronze award, our environmental ambition certainly doesn't stop here. We’d love to reach Silver accreditation next and we want to keep building on what we’ve managed to accomplish so far.

Hera Beauty has set targets of an annual reduction of 2% for each measured resource. We’re also planning at least two significant projects in 2024, including wider team engagement in community initiatives, biodiversity projects and the development of a staff travel plan. We also aim to spread awareness of the importance of sustainability across our supply chain to promote responsible social and environmental practices.

It’s worth repeating: sustainability really is at the heart of everything we do. Discover more about our work here.