Accounting for carbon impact might be simpler than you think!

Thanks to today's technology, it is becoming easier to measure product life cycle (LCA) with task automation and open access to a global database. LCA is crucial to helping inform decision-making in product development that aligns with sustainability strategy. The better we can measure carbon impact, the better we can reduce it. And in a world with rampant greenwashing, it becomes paramount to communicate environmental efforts clearly. 

Beauty products are complex by nature. The multiplication of ingredients in formulas and the complexity of the material mix used in packaging can make assessing a product's life cycle challenging. Solutions already exist on the market, like SPICE from Quanis or even TREE by Citeo in France, but they only assess the packaging side for the first one or its recyclability for the second one. 

Two pure players, Kisaco and Fairglow, have developed technological solutions to help beauty brands measure their products' impact swiftly, giving product development teams key insights at increased speed and reduced costs.

Kisaco Maker

Launched on January 24, Kisaco Maker is a web platform that offers the cosmetics industry the opportunity to design their products and packaging more quickly and easily with knowledge of the environmental impact.

Kisaco Maker was developed by a team of experienced environmental engineers after 3 years of R&D, Kisaco Maker stands out for its rigorous compliance with ISO 14044 and Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) standards, guaranteeing the reliability, traceability and accuracy of the results.

The solution works in three steps: 

• Product Input. Which is the description of the product following a template on the platform
• Impact generated. A product's environmental impact at every stage of its life can even inform on controversial substances or suspected forced labour.
• Improvement areas identification. It helps readers identify the greatest impact components can have and discover operational solutions for improvement.

“ "Product Impact" becomes the fifth pillar of the marketing mix, joining Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion. Integrated into all phases of a product's life cycle, Product Impact offers objective measures to establish a coherent mix and track the product's evolution over time.” explains Matthieu Paillot, Director of Kisaco.

“Until now, eco-design and life cycle analysis efforts were often deemed too complex and costly for many companies in the sector. Drawing on its experience from different FMCG sectors, Kisaco overcomes these obstacles by providing an intuitive and affordable tool,” adds Paillot.

This solution enables companies, regardless of their size, to test, eco-design, adapt, and measure the impact of their products and packaging in complete confidentiality.

Within the platform, Kisaco LAB, is a tool that enables a real-time assessment of the impact of different product variants, facilitating before-and-after testing and more informed decision-making. Kisaco Maker also helps to identify the components with the most significant environmental impact and proposes operational improvement solutions, prioritised by level of impact and difficulty of implementation. Similar to e-commerce, a comparison product tool is available to offer a comparative view of the environmental performance of different products, enabling teams to visualise the potential gains instantly.

The innovation is supported by BPI France (French Public Investment Bank) and the Ile de France Region and offers a significant advancement towards the environmental transition. This innovative tool, independent of any manufacturer and the result of Kisaco's experience in the sector, gives brands autonomy, thereby promoting eco-design and impact measurement at all stages. Kisaco assesses packaging with details on materials and formula with details on ingredients.

Fairglow

Launched in 2023, Fairglow is an AI-powered carbon management platform tailored to cosmetic & self-care products. It assesses the full product life cycle, including packaging and ingredients, to provide a complete picture of its impact. 

The platform includes analysis functions and the ability to export reports (PDF & Excel) and extract data. This includes impact analysis by scope, ingredient, packaging, product category, geography, etc.

Fairglow leverages a comprehensive database of cosmetic products to estimate the product’s formulation algorithmically. Fairglow has enriched an ingredient's database, one of the most challenging elements in LCA for cosmetics is the lack of ingredient LCA information. Fairglow has the impact for 30,000 INCIs.

Thus, brands can get an accurate carbon footprint while keeping their formula secret. On the packaging, considering the hundreds of different types of packaging materials that can be combined in a nearly infinite number of permutations, Fairglow can calculate their precise impacts when the product description is supplied.

Product life cycle assessments are made from cradle-to-grave, meaning from sourcing to manufacturing and usage, with discarding and recycling, for instance.

Fairglow served only the beauty market to answer its unique and complex needs. Fairglow is a three steps process:

• Measure: evaluate the entire product portfolio's environmental impact in real-time, at an affordable rate, thanks to our advanced life cycle analysis algorithms.
• Report: give a Carbon Accounting right, including GHG Protocol Scopes 1-2-3, with unparalleled precision and granularity. Our automated and transparent methodology simplifies the measurement of your scope 3 emissions with utmost accuracy.
• Reduce: reduce product carbon footprint and drive sustainability goals using our cutting-edge eco-design software, and emission hotspot dashboard.

The pricing is based on an annual subscription based on a number of products.

We are able to give granular information on all the different phases of the product's lifetime, even to the ingredient level.” explains Jason Melbourne, Chief Data Officer of Faiglow

“Our goal is to empower companies to make decisions. It’s not just a report to understand and do better,” adds Melbourne.

These solutions demonstrate how technology can help improve the environmental impact of our industry by educating us at every decision-making stage. The platform is built to comply with CSRD and other regulations (SB 253 or ISSB).In this context, It was certified by KPMG in 2024 via the issuance of an ISAE 3000 insurance report based on the GHG Protocol.

Remember that LCA is only a part of the answer and that your brand must develop a clear strategy to ensure alignment with its ethos. Reducing carbon impact is not just about reducing carbon emissions but also about reducing waste, making technical improvements, reducing social impact, and improving overall societal impact.