Takeaways
- Packaging forms a significant part of LUMENE products’ carbon footprint. The company is motivated to find new technologies to lower their CO2 footprint and reduce the use of fossil-based plastics in their packaging.
- Circularity is inherent for LUMENE as 50% of the Nordic ingredients used in their cosmetic products are developed from side-streams. Extending circularity to packaging has been the next natural step.
- In LUMENE’s new bio-attributed* packaging both the jar and the label material are made with wood residue based UPM BioVerno™ naphtha. The labels are UPM Raflatac Forest Film™ label material, also utilising UPM BioVerno.
- By focusing on their most used packaging and using a drop-in solution LUMENE is making a big impact on their brand, CO2 footprint and use of fossil plastics while also delivering a sustainable option for consumers.
Sustainability is a top priority for consumers and businesses alike. This is especially true for Finnish beauty brand LUMENE, with their brand’s firm focus on all things natural. A pioneer in circular beauty, LUMENE products contain up to 99% naturally derived ingredients and 50% of the Nordic ingredients used are developed from side-streams of Nordic forest and food industries.
Packaging, however, still forms a large part of their products’ carbon footprint. Thus, the company is motivated to find and invest in new technologies to improve the sustainability of their packaging.
A joint effort of companies and consumers to reduce fossil-based plastic
As a result of a collaboration started in 2022, LUMENE now uses wood residue based UPM BioVerno™ naphtha in their 50 ml moisturizer jars and their labels in the core product ranges. The labels used are UPM Raflatac Forest Film™ label material.
The new 97% bio-attributed* jar, launched August 2023, is LUMENE’s most used packaging with 1.5 million moisturizer products sold annually. The new jar has an essential role in LUMENE’s sustainability roadmap. As the jar is made of wood residue-based material, no additional forest is logged to produce them. The jar is also fully recyclable.
“With the new jar LUMENE is able to reduce the use of fossil plastic by over 60 tons annually and lower its CO2 emissions. For consumers the change is not evident. The new jar and the label have the same visual appearance and properties as the previous, fossil-based versions. However, it is a more sustainable option for a conscious consumer and one possibility to make a better choice,” says Essi Arola, Head of R&D, Packaging and Sustainability at LUMENE.
Reducing the use of fossil materials is a worldwide challenge. One of the best ways of tackling it is collaboration in the value chain.
“Bio-attributed solutions are transforming the world of materials in everyday consumer products. We are committed to replacing fossil-based feedstocks with renewable ones and the collaboration with LUMENE, SABIC and UPM Raflatac is an excellent example of this,” says Juha Rainio, Sales and Marketing Director at UPM Biofuels.
The heavy lifting behind the results
How is the renewable, sustainable, residue- and wood-based raw material produced? The process begins when crude tall oil, a residue of the pulp industry, is used to produce UPM BioVerno naphtha. The naphtha is then processed to granulates by SABIC. By applying the mass balance approach, the jar producer creates recyclable jars from the certified renewable polypropylene with a reduced environmental impact.
The plastic granulates are also used by film manufacturer Taghleef Industries as it produces the label film for UPM Raflatac Forest Film label material made with a minimum of 85% wood-based material. LUMENE has also joined UPM Raflatac's RafCycle service and new paper products will be created out of LUMENE’s label liner waste.
“LUMENE took a holistic view of the whole package – using renewable fossil-free feedstocks in the primary plastic as well as the label and then making use of the RafCycle service. All are critical to the brand experience and integral to the circularity and climate performance of packaging,” adds Eliisa Laurikainen, Business Development Manager at UPM Raflatac.
And the work ambitious sustainability efforts at LUMENE continue.
“The new 97% bio-attributed LUMENE cosmetic jar and label is one way to reduce the use of fossil-based plastic. By 2025, our target is to have 80% of our plastic packaging made of recycled plastic or renewable raw materials. We continue to do research and to develop various new packaging material options,” says Essi Arola, Head of R&D, Packaging and Sustainability at LUMENE.
* Mass balance accounting is a well-known approach that has been designed to trace the flow of materials through a complex value chain. The mass balance approach provides a set of rules for how to allocate the bio-based and/or recycled content to different products to be able to claim and market the content as "bio-attributed" or "recycled-based". Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation