Better Together: B Corp Beauty Brands Collaborate for Improved Impact, Advocacy, and Accountability

B Corp beauty brands are demonstrating multi-stakeholder collaboration as required in the new Government Affairs and Collective Action Impact Topic. As members of the B Corp Beauty Coalition, these companies are working collaboratively to advance sustainable and ethical practices and call for higher standards in the beauty industry. 

The $650 billion beauty products industry is rife with competition for consumer dollars, ingredients that can harm the environment, marketing that makes people feel like they need products to hide themselves and feel beautiful, and secrecy-shrouded innovations. In contrast, the B Corp Beauty Coalition takes a radical and holistic approach with its collaborative knowledge-sharing and industry-reforming advocacy efforts. The coalition’s more than 90 Certified B Corporations, which range from small local businesses to large multinationals, are working together to drive change across the beauty value chain. They sign on with fellow beauty B Corps to share and develop best practices, develop innovative packaging and ingredients, and advocate for policy changes that create a positive impact. 

At Beauty Kitchen, this includes developing and publicizing its reusable packaging and microplastic-free formulas. For Arbonne, it includes launching a international recycling program and publicly sharing how it works. And at Evolve Organic Beauty, it includes publishing Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon emissions at the product level for transparency. They and other B Beauty members share their expertise in several of the coalition’s initiatives, including: 

• Working groups that foster knowledge exchange, best practices, and collective progress on sustainability.
• Events and meetups that create space for connection, dialogue, and shared knowledge.
• Monthly webinars on critical topics such as sustainability standards, packaging solutions, ingredient sourcing, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

B Corp Beauty Coalition members collaborate for panel presentations and other public events.

Through these and other efforts, B Beauty serves as an example of multi-stakeholder collaboration, one of five collective action options in the Government Affairs and Collective Action Impact Topic within the new standards for B Corp Certification. On a broader level, this Impact Topic requires companies to act beyond their own interests and have a broader systemic impact. 

“As a global coalition, we operate with a deep awareness of our interdependence — with one another and with future generations,” said Leticia Stables, Global Coordinator of the B Corp Beauty Coalition. “Together, the B Corp Beauty Coalition holds both the collective will and the resources to help shift our industry toward greater impact. We recognize that meaningful change is a shared journey, and we look forward to the work that lies ahead.”

B Beauty Working Groups Drive Collective Progress

With its six working groups, B Beauty demonstrates multi-stakeholder collaboration in action. Each working group focuses on an industry-relevant topic and related resources or tools, including best practices guides, a sustainable ingredients database, and the regulatory landscape for sustainable products. 

Laura Rudoe, Founder of B Corp Evolve Organic Beauty, is the project leader of a working group focused on improving transparency in ingredient sourcing so companies have better data on sustainability and ethics in their supply chains. She brings experience from her own company, which she founded to help people take steps toward being healthier and greener in their everyday lives. At Evolve, Rudoe researches ingredients to check that they meet the company’s guidelines and creates its essential oil blends by hand. 

She taps into that ingredient expertise while serving on the working group and partnering with another organization to provide guidance and information for other beauty B Corps. “We are working with a commercial partner, Covalo, and helping them develop ingredient recommendation tools for beauty formulators and innovators,” Rudoe said. “Our coalition partners are acting as an expert user group to help Covalo understand our needs so they can better design their service.”

Evolve Organic Beauty publishes Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon emissions at the product level for transparency.

The B Beauty working groups are part of the coalition’s framework for its three objectives over the next five years: 

• Innovation for better practices, with a focus on packaging, decarbonization, ingredients, and sourcing.
• Collaboration and shared learning, emphasizing a shared platform, tools, events, and networking. 
• Advocacy and education, which incorporates policy advocacy, external partnerships, consumer education, and beauty inclusivity. 

As part of the third objective, the coalition recently launched its first online advocacy campaign. The campaign’s message, Leading with Purpose, reinforces B Beauty’s collective call for principled practices and leadership in the beauty industry and throughout the economy. Individual B Corps in the coalition have publicly shared policies on advocacy, sustainability, human rights, and related impact issues. These include Natura &Co’s advocacy report, L’Occitane’s human rights policy, Prose’s social impact letter, and Apitiva’s environmental and social commitments.

The coalition is also preparing a global advocacy campaign on regenerative beauty ahead of COP30, the UN Climate Change Conference in November in Brazil, where Natura &Co and other B Corps will represent the coalition’s values and vision for regenerative business practices. Charmian Love of Natura said COP30 presents an opportunity to reinforce the interdependence of people, nature, and climate and the reasons why businesses need to respect those connections.

“As a Brazilian-based business with deep connections to communities in the Amazon, a factory near Belem, and an active community of beauty consultants in the region, at Natura we’re looking forward to working with businesses who wish to better understand what the socio-bioeconomy looks like in action and joining forces with others to develop the necessary partnerships to strengthen it.”

Creating Resources and Tools to Set New Beauty Industry Norms

Coalition members all contribute to its innovations and impact goals. Andrea Chase, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility & Social Impact for Arbonne, helps oversee the coalition’s impact initiatives as Co-Chair of the B Beauty Supervisor Advisory Board. “Beauty has so many opportunities to address impact, and conducting business-as-usual without conscious intentions can be a tremendous source of social and environmental harm,” Chase said. “Many of the key challenges our world and industry face — climate action, regeneration, equitable value chains, and product circularity — must be addressed together to create the impact we are seeking. We all believe that real change is bigger than any one brand.”

As a B Network leader with more than 10 years of experience in the B Corp community, Chase has seen the power of knowledge-sharing. “There is no better business community to find truly innovative approaches to sustainability that redefine success around people and planet,” she said. “Coming together as the B Corp Beauty Coalition allows us to align on values, share learnings openly, and create a pre-competitive space where we can accelerate our impact, not just for our own businesses or industry but for the world.”

Fellow Co-Chair Jo Chidley, Founder of Beauty Kitchen, said the coalition helps beauty B Corps compound their impact through shared learning and network connections. “Individually, we’re limited by time, budget, or influence. But together, we can set new industry norms,” Chidley said. “Through the coalition, we’ve co-created playbooks, shared best practices from experts, built tools to simplify standards, and engaged in policy conversations as one voice.”

Together, they and other B Beauty companies also learn why working with and for other stakeholders is a necessary component of a more inclusive and regenerative economy. “We understand that collective action turns intention into systems change,” Chidley said. “And perhaps most powerfully, we’ve created a sense of belonging for people working in beauty who believe business should be a force for good. That’s fuel for real change.”

Find opportunities to engage with fellow B Corps in the B Networks.