Beiersdorf achieves 17% absolute CO2 reduction by end of 2022, credits strong product-level efforts as key to success; NIVEA Sun, Lip Care products now available with more environmentally friendly formulas and packaging, and Eucerin introduces refill jar

Hamburg, June 5, 2023 – Right on time for this year’s World Environment Day on June 5th, Beiersdorf shares further progress on the implementation of its ‘Climate Care’ mission on product level. Following last year’s sustainability innovations around NIVEA Shower lightweight bottle and NIVEA Soft more climate-friendly formula – both achieving significant CO₂ emission reductions, Beiersdorf now brings NIVEA Sun and NIVEA Lip Care to market with relevant improvements and a reduced CO₂ footprint. Also, Eucerin progresses well with its product transformation, recently launching a refill jar for its Hyaluron-Filler range.

Beiersdorf started its transformation across the business and its value chain to reduce CO₂ emissions wherever possible already in 2020. With its CARE BEYOND SKIN Sustainability Agenda, the company aims to achieve a 30% absolute reduction of CO₂ emissions across the entire value chain (scope 1, 2 and 3) by 2025 (vs. base year 2018). To achieve this, Beiersdorf is collaborating intensively with its suppliers and reworking products and assortments of its global brands – both on formula and packaging level. “Based on our strong expertise and innovation power, we are working intensively to transform all our existing products towards sustainability. Passionately, we strive to combine our excellent skin care benefits and superior product performance for our consumers with adding sustainability aspects,” explains Dr. Gitta Neufang, Corporate Senior Vice President Global R&D at Beiersdorf. “We have set one of the most ambitious climate targets of our industry and I am very proud that we are progressing so well. At the end of 2022, we achieved a 17% absolute CO₂ reduction and our strong efforts on product-level are a key contributor to this great success,” adds Jean-François Pascal, Vice President Corporate Sustainability.

The popular NIVEA Sun assortment has been optimized intensively – both in terms of packaging and formula – and is available on the market this season with a reworked portfolio. For the NIVEA Sun Protect & Moisture range the bottles, blue caps and yellow trigger pumps now include 50% recycled material. Hence, they are contributing to Beiersdorf’s plastic pledge that aims to halve the use of fossil-based virgin plastic by 2025 and foster the circular use of materials. Furthermore, the formulas of the whole NIVEA Sun range have been improved in terms of eco-consciousness, as the UV filters Octinoxate and Oxybenzone have been eliminated. By implementing these measures in the NIVEA Sun assortment, its impact on the environment can be significantly reduced while retaining the established quality of the product assortment.

The NIVEA Lip Care assortment has also been reworked intensively in the past year, leading to a reduction of 250t of CO₂ emissions per year. Changes have been made to nearly the entire product range: from the replacement of plastic through paper cardboard, to the optimization of its production lines, a reduced energy consumption in the production process and lower CO₂ emissions in transport. On product level, the reworked NIVEA Lip Care products are no longer packed in a plastic blister and will be available in a plastic-free folding box, which is made from recycled and FSC paper. Furthermore, NIVEA Lip Care introduces a new stick that is made of mono material, polypropylene (PP), which is now a fully recyclable solution. Last, but not least, almost all product formulas have been reworked and entail 99% ingredients of natural origin (except SPF). The new range coming to the German market in September 2023 uses ethically sourced shea butter and implements with this another step towards the use of ecologically and socially sourced ingredients. All Labello products have been free of mineral oils since 2018.

With an innovative new refill jar, Beiersdorf’s second largest global brand Eucerin recently launched a new, sustainable packaging alternative for its Hyaluron Filler Day and Night Cream. The refill concept for this anti-age bestseller only needs 8g instead of 89g of plastic, which corresponds to saving ~90% of plastic when consumers keep the outer jar & lid and purchase just the inner jar as a refill. Potentially, this can deliver an annual saving of ~24t of plastic. Also, the folding box of the product is made of ~92% recycled paper. Wiebke Maerker-Scheel, Global Associate Director Sustainability Derma, states: “At Eucerin we work continuously to combine the highest level of product efficacy with a minimum impact on the environment. Due to the enormous plastic savings, our Eucerin refill jar represents a milestone in our ambitious sustainability journey. It significantly contributes to our targets to reduce plastic consumption and CO₂ emissions.”

On June 14-16, Beiersdorf will participate in this year’s GREENTECH FESTIVAL (GTF) in Berlin to share its progress on sustainability. The exhibition space will display the latest product reworks of NIVEA, Eucerin and Hansaplast that already implemented more climate-friendly formulas and packaging. Also, Dr. Gitta Neufang, Corporate Senior Vice President Global R&D, will speak at the Solutions Stage on Friday, June 16th at 11 a.m. about the challenges and opportunities of transforming global iconic products.

Find out more about the GREENTECH FESTIVAL at www.greentechfestival.com.