Good Housekeeping magazine launches green seal for beauty products
A banned list of substances is published on the Good Housekeeping website that must not appear in a product if it is to be considered for the seal.
In addition, the Good Housekeeping Green Seal compares current energy and water use, and waste levels, to that of 2006, as well as looking at the product’s carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions and packaging.
Director of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute (GHRI) Miriam Arond told CosmeticsDesign how she hopes the seal will push companies to push forward their sustainability efforts.
“The company has to reapply on a yearly basis and if there has been a change to the formulation we will re-evaluate it. In addition we will re-evaluate our criteria on a regular basis, raising the bar and hopefully pushing people forward.”
Much like the Good Housekeeping’s regular Seal, the Good Housekeeping Green Seal also provides a two year warranty on a product. If the product does not conform to promises made, it will be replaced or refunded by Good Housekeeping.
Advertising for a product has to be submitted to the Good Housekeeping magazine in order for it to qualify for the seal. The research institute will then investigate the product in more detail in order to decide whether it deserves the seal.
Recognisable icon
According to Arond, with the proliferation of ‘green’ seals in the marketplace makes the presence of a recognisable icon is ever more important.
“No other seal has the broad recognition and the trust that the Good Housekeeping has. It is a recognized consumer icon, that can be used to help sift through the clutter on store shelves,” she said.
Beauty and household care products are the first categories to be open to the seal, but new products will be added over time covering more product categories such as home appliances, building products and children’s products.
The two beauty products to have been awarded the seal are Johnson & Johnson-owned Aveeno’s Soothing Bath Treatment and Physicians Formula’s Organic Wear 100 percent Natural Origin Tinted Moisturizer.
Aveeno’s bath treatment is based on colloidal oatmeal and has been designed to cleanse itchy irritated skin. According to the GHRI, Aveeno and parent company Johnson & Johnson were awarded the seal as they have made ‘great strides’ in improving carbon footprint, as well as the low levels of greenhouse gases produced when making the product.
For Physician’s Formula it was the use of energy efficient manufacturing processes, the low levels of greenhouse gases and the sourcing of certified ingredients, that most impressed the GHRI.
