e.l.f. Beauty and Fair Trade USA™ Case Study

e.l.f. and Sustainability

e.l.f. was founded with a mission to bring the best of beauty to every eye, lip, and face. e.l.f. uniquely brings premium quality products at an extraordinary value, that are clean, vegan, and cruelty free. e.l.f. is also committed to its purpose of standing with every eye, lip, face, paw, and fin – creating a culture internally—and in the world—where all individuals are encouraged to express their truest selves and are empowered to succeed. e.l.f. never tests on animals and is proudly 100% cruelty free worldwide, achieving double-certified “cruelty-free” status from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Leaping Bunny across all of its brands.

In fiscal year 2022, e.l.f. advanced its packaging sustainability strategies—eliminating to date more than one million pounds of excess packaging since the inception of “Project Unicorn,” and setting a new goal for 100% of its paper cartons to be Forest-Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified by FY 2025. The company also completed its first measurement of greenhouse gas emissions to establish a baseline toward future environmental strategy development.

The Fair Trade Journey

e.l.f.’s priority of doing the right thing, for the people, the planet and its furry and finned friends, includes many of the commitments mentioned above. It also extends to doing the right thing for its third-party manufacturers and their teams.

The journey to fair trade began long before Chairman and CEO Tarang Amin took the helm of e.l.f. Beauty when he was introduced to Fair Trade USA Founder and CEO, Paul Rice, by a mutual friend. They became trusted advisors to one another, sharing their goals and vision for their work. When Tarang joined e.l.f., becoming Fair Trade Certified continued to be on Tarang’s mind. The obvious conversation began: could Fair Trade USA’s factory program, which had been historically focused on apparel and home goods, work in beauty?

After visiting several Fair Trade Certified factories together, the answer Tarang and Paul came to was “yes.” Both came away impressed by the positive impact on the workers’ morale, the state of the factories, and their productivity. Fair Trade USA’s ability to marry a rigorous, impactful standard with established consumer recognition and preference for the Fair Trade Certified label in the market also signaled to e.l.f that certification was well worth the investment.

Tarang shared:

It is important to e.l.f. to understand the impact of each step of its product development and supply chain, and the company utilizes a number of initiatives to increase its positive impact from a sustainability and environmental perspective. Fair Trade Certified allows e.l.f. to reach deeper into the supply chain to benefit the people behind the products that they bring to market.

“It’s been very meaningful to partner with Fair Trade USA to establish the first fair trade certification in the beauty industry for our third-party manufacturers,” Tarang furthers. “We look forward to growing consumer awareness and education around fair trade practices to make a difference in communities around the world.”

Once the intent to work with Fair Trade USA was solidified, the next steps involved mapping out implementation, which required collaboration and collective problem-solving.

Neha Gohil, Vice President of Global Sourcing and Strategic Extensions explained, “We were excited to partner with Fair Trade USA to establish the framework for the first cosmetics-production in their factory program. We knew it would not only set a new standard at e.l.f. but for the entire beauty industry in hopes that it will become widely adopted across the sector. We started the certification process before the pandemic, yet when COVID hit, there were many obstacles that hadn’t existed in the past – for instance getting auditors onsite to learn more about makeup and cosmetics manufacturing. Our team was able to quickly pivot and focus on sharing insights and industry standards virtually. Once we got the first factory certified we got into a rhythm. Everyone started to understand what kinds of questions needed to be asked and how to best coach and partner with workers and management to make sure everyone was aligned on what the priorities were and what the standard needed to cover. From then on, we have been able to move with efficiency – and now we hope for other beauty companies to follow our lead.”

The results have been affirming. Tarang shared that the company has been working with their factories for years to make sure that there are good working conditions, protections, and oversight; however, now e.l.f.’s customers know that there is a third party confirming and strengthening those efforts. He added that, “We wanted to show that we can do this, we can do it right, we can do it fairly, and in a way that uplifts and supports the workers at these factories.”

Neha added:

Fair Trade USA’s Approach to Innovation

Fair Trade USA is building an innovative model of responsible business, conscious consumerism, and shared value to eliminate poverty and enable sustainable development for farmers, workers, their families, and communities around the world. Innovation is driven by market actors who are committed to sourcing Fair Trade Certified products if they are, or can be, available. This approach ensures that there are buyers for the products coming from farms, fisheries, or factories should they choose to make the investment in achieving fair trade certification.

The organization is committed to continuously improving this model and identifying opportunities to expand reach and impact through business partnerships and through the expertise, technologies, and resources provided by philanthropic partners.

Fair Trade USA’s standards are rigorous and sometimes require significant changes in the way that producer groups are organized, resourced, and where they are focused on making improvements. Without a demand from the market, those investments of time, staff, and funds would not deliver on the promise that fair trade offers.

With a motivated, collaborative partner like e.l.f. Beauty providing that market partnership, there was excitement to explore how the model could deliver on its promise to workers in cosmetics factories. With over a decade of experience in the factory sector, Fair Trade USA’s program has both grown and evolved since 2012. The inclusion of factories producing home goods in addition to apparel gave the organization an important understanding of how to make sure that processes, standards, and implementation could be agile enough to maintain rigor while also accommodating different types of factory production.

The FPS 2.0 benefitted from extensive stakeholder input gathered through:​

1. Pre-consultation interviews to reflect on program successes, challenges, and opportunities.
2. A series of factory and brand webinars that provided a forum for initial reaction and feedback to the draft FPS 2.0.
3. A Worker Engagement Survey, which garnered input from over 3,400 workers from 13 Fair Trade Certified factories.
4. On- and offline comment forms made available to the public for 3 months; and,
5. Individual consultations with auditing bodies, research institutions, and peer certification schemes.

Sending Signals to the Sector

Both e.l.f. and Fair Trade USA have great enthusiasm and high hopes for the life-changing impact that sourcing from Fair Trade Certified beauty factories promises for the workers in those factories. By launching with such a leading brand in the sector, the two organizations hope to send a message to companies across both the beauty industry and the larger factory-sourcing sector that doing good is good business.

Building a truly sustainable product array is only possible when including social, economic, and environmental sustainability along with other areas of focus like packaging and animal welfare. e.l.f. is proof that major brands and companies can quickly make and deliver on significant volume commitments to jump start their sustainability performance and benefit from consumer recognition and preference for the Fair Trade Certified label.

This is possible and achievable in the beauty sector. It is also possible and achievable for all products manufactured in factories.