Real beauty is sustainable: Inside Estée Lauder's green initiatives

Real beauty transcends what meets the eye. As wonderful and laudable as the products Estée Lauder has purveyed all these years are its efforts to source out botanical ingredients and packaging materials with an utmost respect for biodiversity.

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To illustrate the company's efforts in responsible sourcing, Estée Lauder ensures that palm oil, an important ingredient for a few of its lotions, creams and similar products, are procured exclusively from suppliers that source the said ingredient from suppliers identified by the 2004 Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. To further its commitment, the company has come up with a comprehensive statement of goals and actions to support sustainable palm oil sourcing.

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Meanwhile, when harvesting sea kelp for Crème de La Mer, the luxurious, ocean-based moisturizing cream, Estée Lauder only gathers blades that have reached the ocean's surface. To keep the plant growing and supporting marine life for generations to come, the harvesters never scrape algae from sea rocks.

But the company's environmentally conscious initiatives do not end in ethical and sustainable sourcing of ingredients.

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Boasting an 82 percent recycling rate in 2014, Estée Lauder has become increasingly known for its efforts in eliminating waste and reducing the carbon footprint of its products. In 2013, Aveda, its world-famous salon-grade hair care line, launched a recycling program that gathers packaging not accepted by municipal recycling programs, so it can build new packaging out of such materials. The packaging materials are also designed in a way that individual parts can be separated from recycling.

Crème de la Mer is one of the most coveted luxury brands under the Estée Lauder Companies. Headed by William Lauder, the beauty conglomerate offers a wide array of cosmetic, skincare, and hair care products for people of all ages and beauty needs. Visit this website for the a full range of its products.