At Chanel's initiative, Albéa, Chanel, Clarins, Cosfibel powered by GPA Global, Dior, The Estée Lauder Companies, Groupe Pochet, L'Occitane en Provence, L'Oréal Groupe, Merck, Neyret, Nuxe, Sensient, Shiseido and Sisley have announced the creation of TRaceability Alliance for Sustainable CosmEtics (Trasce) to improve the traceability of supply chains for key components in the cosmetics industry's formulas and packaging.
"The essential and demanding work of mapping certain supply chains over the past few years has enabled us to understand the main limitations of this exercise. It's sometimes quite difficult for a single principal to convince distant suppliers to commit to this approach, when we don't deal with them directly or when they don't meet the same regulatory requirements. With this in mind, we proposed to the players in the sector that we join forces to trace our supply chains as far and as quickly as possible".explains Julien Garry, International Director of Purchasing and Packaging Development Innovation at Chanel Parfums Beauté.
The unprecedented health, climatic and geopolitical events of recent years, which have led to disruptions in supply chains, have been revealing. In addition, the tangible reinforcement of public, local and international regulations, such as the European directive on duty of care or the European regulation against deforestation and forest degradation, have highlighted the responsibility of the prime contractor.
Supported by the Fédération des entreprises de la beauté (FEBEA), as official sponsor, the members of this consortium aim to accelerate the sustainable transformation of the sector. In their view, it has become essential to gain a deeper understanding of the sector's supply chains in order to better manage the associated risks and support their transition towards a sustainable, resilient model.
Unprecedented pooling
A number of individual traceability initiatives have already been launched in recent years. The Trasce consortium, on the other hand, is aiming for a change of scale. The founding members have pledged to work collectively to map their supply chains across the entire value chain via a common digital platform: Transparency-One.
The platform has already proved its worth in other sectors, such as the food and automotive industries, with the deployment of large-scale traceability initiatives.
Ingredients or components used, origins, supplier activities and processing locations, supplier names: Transparency-One guarantees each supplier the ownership, security and confidentiality of the data they share.
According to Meghan Ryan, Executive Director of Responsible Sourcing at The Estée Lauder Companies: "Thanks to shared digital tools and close collaboration, we've been able to increase the level of transparency and improve the way we source responsibly, while paying attention to potential impacts on people and the environment."
In the longer term, the consortium aims to consolidate a collective approach to the analysis of CSR-related risks, in order to interpret the data collected and define joint progress plans.
"As a major supplier of cosmetic ingredients, we are convinced of the need to align the industry on a single traceability tool and implement a common methodology. In doing so, Trasce could even serve as a model for other industries facing similar supply chain transparency challenges. Harmonization and multi-stakeholder dialogue are essential to promote the objectives of the Trasce consortium and contribute to Merck's global sustainability strategy".says Karl Hensen, Merck's Quality Manager for Surface Solutions.
