Global Perspectives: Reimagining How Beauty Makers and Beauty Consumers Use Water

For this installment of my EuroCosmetics magazine column, I'm looking at how beauty makers, brands, and consumers are thinking about the value of water.

There is not enough water to go around. Today this is true for hundreds of thousands if not billions of people (depending on the data source you consult). The reality of water scarcity and the slightly less terrifying condition of water stress is changing the way industries like ours choose to use water. And just to be clear, water scarcity, according to the United Nations, means that given the available “supply or quality of water, … demand … cannot be satisfied fully.” (italics are mine).

The reality is that if we don’t choose to use water more carefully, most areas of the world will eventually face conditions of water scarcity – and these are conditions that don’t impact only people but also animals and the natural environment.

So here we are, reimagining how beauty makers and beauty consumers use water.

Water-Wise Ingredient Production and Product Manufacturing

Every beauty industry supplier and product manufacturer that I know of is actively taking steps toward more environmentally sustainable operations. And more often than not, limiting water use as well as eliminating water waste and contamination is among a company’s sustainability efforts.

For instance, Croda, an international specialty chemical company headquartered in England with annual revenue upward of $2bn, calls “water stewardship … one of the core sustainability fundamentals....