2 minutes with LUSH employee, Daisy Smith

How does it feel to be part of the ‘Lush’ community?

I think it’s great that they focus so much on being environmentally friendly and still produce such a great range of products, showing that making cosmetics in an ethical way doesn’t limit what can be made!

 

How does Lush ensure they produce their products in an environmentally friendly way?

In the Lush factories, we make all the bath bombs by hand. Lush use paper packaging for wrapping some products and all these are wrapped by hand too. If you go into a Lush shop to buy, for example a bar of soap, there’s no packaging for this. It just comes ‘naked.’

 

What other things does the store do to promote sustainability where possible?

They have a policy where if you take five empty Lush bottles in, then you can get a free face mask which encourages customers to recycle more rather than just throw the bottles away. Lush refuse to use Palm Oil, which is commonly found in cosmetic products, because the sourcing of it is associated with deforestation. They also run a competition called the Lush Spring Prize which gives prizes to projects that support and promote sustainability and regeneration. The winners will be announced this month and have the chance to win £25,000!

 

The Lush Spring Prize

 

Lush teamed up with Ethical Consumer in 2016 to initiate the ‘Lush Spring Prize.’ The cosmetics brand, who put great emphasis on sustainability in their products, offers prizes for organizations that promote a more regenerative society. The competition is international and offers a £25,000 prize to well established projects and £20,000 to new campaigns. There is also £25,000 up for grabs for ‘Influential’ projects which are those that are campaigning to change policy or influence large groups of people. Some of the previous winners from 2017 were:

 

• Indigenous Climate Action, Canada

Supporters and campaigners for climate change solutions.

 

• The Timbaktu Collective, India

Working for sustainable solutions in drought prone regions.

 

The prize money, donated by Lush, aims to help funding for small scale projects that are passionate about helping change the way humans impact on the environment, for the better.

 

Winners for 2018 will be judged this month and announced in May.