Bulldog Skincare: Carbon neutrality ‘the beginning of a journey’

The British men’s grooming brand achieved CarbonNeutral certification on its Original Moisturiser in October, last year, by completely offsetting carbon emissions produced during the production, packaging and distribution of the product sold in the UK.

Addressing attendees at ADF&PCD Paris last week, Bulldog Skincare’s head of new product development and technical Antonia Cadbury said the move was “just the beginning”​ for the brand.

Bulldog Skincare greenhouse gas emission goals​

Speaking to CosmeticsDesign-Europe at the show, Cadbury said: “At the moment, with carbon neutral there’s a lot of scrutiny. We could offset everything but, from my mind, that’s just paying for the carbon credit. The main hard work is understanding where the greenhouse gas emissions are coming from so we can really improve and reduce.”​

Bulldog’s CarbonNeutral certification on its moisturiser remained one of few examples in the cosmetics industry, she said, and a case study it hoped to replicate across other SKUs despite being a highly complex undertaking involving analysis across all parts of the value chain.

“At the moment, it’s the beginning of a journey,”​ she said.

“…This time next year we want to be able to reduce so we’re not just doing the same over and over again and offsetting, but actually reducing the greenhouse gas emissions.”​

Sugarcane-derived plastics switch​

Bulldog said the full carbon assessment conducted on its moisturiser product – by an independent third-party – had enabled a better understanding on its environmental impact and provided an opportunity to evaluate key areas within its supply chain. In 2017, for example, the brand switched to sugarcane derived plastic for its tubes – a move that reduced carbon emissions on every Original Moisturiser sold in the UK by 19%. 

Simon Duffy, founder of Bulldog Skincare, said: “With the reality of global climate change becoming ever clearer, it’s vital that brands like Bulldog step up and reduce their environmental impact wherever possible.”​

Carbon neutral concept – education needed?​

Asked whether consumers understood the concept of carbon neutrality and offsetting, Cadbury said: “I think there’s quite a bit of education needed but it’s a really good way to start a journey. There’s a lot of complexity around how [carbon footprint] is calculated and also how to reduce it, so that’s really the hardest part.”​

Fashion was a good example of bringing carbon neutrality to the fore, she said, with carbon neutral catwalks and runways – a concept that had been well accepted by consumers – and beauty now had to work on educating its consumers accordingly.

Carbon footprint business assessment​

Beyond product and supply chain analysis, Cadbury said Bulldog was looking into conducting a company assessment on its offices and employee commutes to identify total carbon footprint and ways this could be reduced.