The Paris Agreement and the outcomes of COP have underlined the simple fact that tackling climate change is both an urgent crisis and a global concern. Leaders of every business are feeling the pressure to play their part in meeting the challenge and customers are demanding that the brands they love push themselves to reduce their environmental impact. 

Beiersdorf AG is one such company. The company has a long history of innovation: from inventing modern skin care 140 years ago, to revolutionizing sun protection, building dermatological skin care and building a global plaster business, Elastoplast, Nivea and Eucerin are just three of many brand names that fall under the Beiersdorf umbrella. 

Vincent Warnery, CEO at Beiersdorf AG says that the values of Beiersdorf and the company purpose gives them a responsibility towards society and the environment: 

“The purpose of Beiersdorf is to care beyond skin. Yes, we are a skincare company and everything we are doing is around skin, but we go beyond skin: We care for our employees, for our consumers, the world. And particularly, in the area of sustainability, we deliver to our care purpose.”

To transform the company towards sustainability requires an innovative mindset and a willingness to study the problem in-depth, both of which are at the core of what the company has always done. Dr Gitta Neufang, Vice President Global R&D at Beiersdorf AG says that the call to investigate beyond skin has broadened the remit of her department:

“In R&D we are constantly working on integrating sustainability in all our newly developed products, but it also applies when we are looking at transforming and evolving our existing products. Achieving our ambitious sustainability targets is a joint effort across the whole Beiersdorf organization. It’s not only R&D but also supply chain and marketing, which live and breathe sustainability every day. Without a doubt, it’s a challenge for us to transform our products without losing the high quality standards and skincare efficacy, which characterize our products all around the globe.” 

As the company is behind some of the biggest brands in the world, the impact of change can be massive. The moves towards sustainability are already being felt on the ground, as Tracy Feehan, Vice President Marketing at Nivea USA explains: 

“We have several innovations that I’m proud of. There’s a big team that has worked behind the entire reformulation of our shower category, making our formulas biodegradable, our packaging from post-consumer recycled material (PCR). We have moved from virgin plastic to recycled plastics in most of our packaging. And, our packaging is recyclable after use as well. These are things that make you feel good as a consumer and make the team feel good about the impact they have.”

Beiersdorf operates at a global scale, but also the company’s more niche products are removing packaging where possible. Wiebke Maerker-Sheel, Global Associate Sustainability Director at Eucerin, Beiersdorf’s dermatological skincare brand, cites a product packaging that designed out excessive plastic: 

“This product which was previously packed in a solid plastic container has now managed to re-pack into a cardboard tray, which still looks premium, but saves 24 tons of plastic on an annual basis.”

Jean-Francois Pascal, Vice President Corporate Sustainability at Beiersdorf AG says that the move to sustainability is an opportunity for a holistic transformation: 

“Sustainability is about how to transform the company for the future. We want to reduce our carbon footprint by transforming everything: our way of producing, our packaging, our formulations and the entire supply chain to have the minimum carbon footprint at the end of this process.” 

For Vincent Warnery, sustainability is part of the company’s long term strategy and he is committed to the end goal: 

“To deliver against sustainable leadership, you cannot just make a one-time effort and then move on to something else. We have to invest in this area for the next ten, twenty or fifty years – until the planet is saved. We also want to communicate and motivate others, including our competitors, to run the extra mile and all move in the same direction. The job of a company like ours is to invest in the future, to put the right ambition and the right commitment into making the planet a better place.”