Sustainability of Embrace the Zest
Based on my research from each of all the ingredients in this recipe (which you can read about by clicking on each ingredient in the ingredient list, or by browsing the ingredients page), I have created the following summary table. (🟢= sustainable ingredient; 🟡= unsustainable, but has many positive factors; 🟠= unsustainable, concerning; ⚫= very unsustainable.)
Remember: these are my ratings, other, potentially less honest people may give more favourable ratings to certain ingredients.
|
Ingredient |
Rating |
The Good |
The Bad |
|
Organic Coconut Oil |
🟠 |
High yield per acre (better than other oil crops). Tree crop (carbon sequestration). |
Transport distance. Heavy product to ship globally. Farmers often face extreme poverty (requires Fair Trade). |
|
Organic Almond Oil |
⚫ |
Trees sequester carbon. |
Water Thirsty. Requires massive irrigation (mostly grown in drought-prone regions). Commercial pollination stresses bee populations. |
|
Organic Mango Butter |
🟠 |
Upcycled ingredient. It is produced from the kernel (stone), which is otherwise waste from the fruit industry. No extra land needed. |
Processing the hard stone requires energy/machinery. Refining the mango butter requires a lot of energy. Mostly imported (carbon miles). |
|
Organic Jojoba Oil |
🟠 |
Great for soil stability; native plant (Peru); pesticide-free. |
Water stress. Grown in desert regions where aquifer depletion is a major crisis. |
|
Organic Local Beeswax |
🟢 |
Lowest Carbon Footprint. Transport emissions are near zero. Supports local pollination ecosystems. |
None. |
|
Organic Lemon essential oil |
🟡 |
Major Upcycling. Derived from the peel, a byproduct of the juice industry. Extracted by cold-pressing (very low energy). |
High carbon miles (shipped globally). Fruit is grown in large monoculture plantations. |
It is important to note that this is a simplification of the many complex and often interrelated issues 🤯 when it comes to assessing the sustainability of a product, and that for most ingredients I can only make generalisations as, despite my best efforts, 🔎 I don’t know much about the exact provenance of my ingredients. Nonetheless, based on my research, the almond oil is clearly the most problematic ingredient in this recipe.
What about the jar?
Embrace the Zest comes in a glass jar with a Bakelite (type of plastic) lid. The sustainability of this jar depends entirely on our actions ♻️when the jar is empty: the glass, which can be recycled infinitely, is fantastic; the Bakelite lid is problematic, as it can’t be recycled, and should be reused until it falls apart before being discarded.🗑️
What can I do to make it less unsustainable?
As noted above, the almond oil is the most unsustainable ingredient in this recipe. I therefore plan to remove this ingredient or replace it with another vegetable oil.
I also plan to switch to unrefined organic mango butter (instead of refined). 💡This will significantly reduce the environmental impact of this ingredient as much of the energy costs associated with its production come from the refinement process. These changes will affect the texture and smell of the lotion so several tests will need to be run.🔬
Watch this space, or subscribe to my mailing list to be the first to hear how it all goes! 💌
What can you do to make it less unsustainable?
As with everything, sustainability starts with using only what you need and not wasting. Therefore, please use your lotion fully before buying a new one. 🙏When it is finished, return the jar to me (here’s how) and to thank you for helping to reduce waste I will give you a 5CHF voucher to use on any Kayan Naturkosmetik products.🎁
Want to do more?
Together we have done a lot to reduce our environmental impact when it comes to this body butter! 🥳 But if you really want to do more, you could offset the impact of your body butter by donating a few francs to one of these NGOs:
- Waterkeeper Alliance: 🌊 targeting water scarcity and pollution (problematic for almond oil production).
- Rainforest Alliance: 🐸targeting tropical deforestation (problematic for cinnamon essential oil and vanilla essential oil productions)
- WWF: 🐼 targeting nature conservation worldwide.
