Our Commitment to Sustainability

Our commitment to sustainability

As more and more consumers consider the environmental impact of their purchases, the idea of sustainable beauty is trending hard right now. In fact, it has been for many years, with a 2022 survey showing that only 13 percent of Australian consumers do not view the availability of sustainable beauty and personal care products as important. But one in four consumers report that they believe companies are not making it easy for them to act in a sustainable way.

This is particularly confronting for the beauty industry, which produces around 120 billion units of packaging a year, most of which can't be recycled (and the amount that is recycled, is estimated to be only around 9 percent).

While many brands are earnest about their intentions to create beauty products, packaging and business practices that are environmentally friendly, many are simply using the words 'sustainable beauty' to greenwash their brand or reposition it as eco-friendly in spite of their actual practices, which are anything but sustainable.

At MV, we proudly describe our range and our business as sustainable, and it's a label - and a promise - we take seriously.

Being environmentally ethical is natural to us (excuse the pun), there is simply no other way to be.

This doesn't mean every single aspect of our business passes the perfect 'zero impact' test, it means that we've considered the environmental implications of all aspects of our business, and chosen the best practices we're able to within our own particular circumstances.

And in the interest of radical transparency (after all, our founder Sharon is known as a 'truth speaker'), we want to share with you what being committed to sustainability means at MV, in practice.

Recycled and recyclable paper boxes

You may have noticed that we only box some of our products - and those are that are boxed, are 100% recyclable.

We only have boxed particular products where it is absolutely necessary. For example, some of our smaller products require a box to display necessary legal requirements (for EU approval) and our Native Power Serum is also boxed as it is breakable. But, in response to consumers demanding retailers and brands reduce plastic packaging, as well as our own commitment to the environment, we decided to skip boxing the entire range as this was unnecessary and wasteful.

Additionally, the boxes we use are made from recycled paper. Currently they are made from 76% recycled material, but we're constantly researching to find ones with an even higher percentage of recycled material whilst still maintaining the quality we need. Watch this space!

Lightweight bottling and freight

Opting for primarily aluminium bottles over glass was no accident, as another one of the areas where we consider our commitment to the environment is the weight of our freight shipments, as this contributes to CO2 emissions, as well as adding waste to landfill.

Glass bottled are lovely looking - but boy are they heavy! As we ship products to you, it's important to reduce the wastage from breakage, packing protection, and the weight of our freight shipments.

Aluminium is perfect for us because it protects the active plant-compounds from exposure to light degradation, and it's not only lightweight but it's also 100% recyclable and can be recycled again and again with no degradation of quality - in fact, it's estimated that around 75% of the aluminium ever produced is still in use today! It's also lightweight, requiring less fuel and fewer emissions to transport.

Crucially, our aluminium bottles are safe and food grade as they are coated with an inert resin lining, so there is absolutely no leeching of aluminium into our products.

We went to great lengths to ensure this, firstly by paying for a third-party laboratory to test for aluminium present within a four-year-old retention sample of one of our oil-based products (we chose oil based as this had a higher likelihood of absorbing any potential aluminium); the results came back negligible and safe. We also sent hair samples from Sharon (our founder) and our product manager (who has been making MV products for nearly 10 years), to a laboratory for testing, and both of these came back with normal/safe amounts of aluminium.

Concentrated formulas and multi-use products

When it comes to sustainability, our environmental ethos and practices extend beyond the usual suspects of recycled packaging and recyclable materials - we also consider the actual formulas and uses of our products as well.

This is rare within the beauty industry, as it's a space that has been built on the idea that constant newness drives sales, and so we consider opting against this, one of our key points of difference.

Since inception, MV formulations have been created using fewer ingredients - at higher concentrations - for maximum efficacy, and we don't use a multitude of organic ingredients to simply boost marketing claims.

"When you own a skincare company, everyone is telling you to keep launching new products year in, year out, partly to appease consumer demand... but also to provide continual marketing as it's rare to secure media exposure without a steady stream of new products. The beauty rebel in me knew that a succinct range - the opposite approach to the mainstream - was exactly what was needed." - Sharon, MV founder

We also promote sustainable (and honest) consumerism via the creation and promotion of multi-purpose products and a less is more approach. We firmly believe you don't need a 'special eye cream' and you definitely don't need to buy a 'lotion for oily skin' or a 'rich cream for dehydrated skin'. We've created functional formulas that are easily customisable and have the ability to be multi-functional, treating numerous skin types, conditions and purposes.

By honouring the power of multi-purpose and keeping things simple, you're only buying what you need and we ship less frequently - and everyone's environmental footprint is reduced.

Here at MV, we don't claim to be perfect when it comes to the 'zero impact' test of sustainability, but we are - and always will be - committed, considered and candid in our intentions and our practices. We continue to educate ourselves in this space, and when we know better, we do better. In this way, we keep taking small but important steps as a business and as people towards mitigating our impact on this extraordinary planet we call home.

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December 25, 2024