Lush

‘Leaving the world lusher than we found it’ 

Lush was founded in 1995 and produces handmade cosmetics using vegetarian and vegan recipes. It has manufacturing hubs in seven global locations, and operations in 48 countries.

Lush has had the right mindset from the start, becoming more sustainable the more they grow. Since 2020 they have had a net zero to 2030 strategy. Their action plan is publicly available and they report to SECR for scope 1 and 2 emissions. 

In 2000, the Poole, Dorset-based company invested in 6,000 hectares of degraded forest in Peru, kicked out illegal loggers and maintained a team of people employed to protect the forest, which is likely to have made their main UK business carbon positive in the last ten years. 

They estimate that Greenhouse Gas emissions from their supply chain are six times that of their operations. To combat this, they focus on using their buying power to drive positive change in their supply chain. Committed to becoming a fully circular business, Lush have a zero-waste culture tackling primary sources of waste: recovering, refusing, reducing, repairing, repurposing and recycling materials. 

Improving buildings while waiting for the right technology 

Their decarbonisation strategy to become net zero by 2030 is fully transparent and public, and based on three pillars: efficiency, electrification (or non-fossil fuels), self-generation. 

Although there is no viable low-carbon technology (hydrogen) for their main (steam, gas heating) process, they have kept pushing forward, purchasing 100% green electricity and carbon-neutral gas, using electrified hot water heating, heat pumps for warehouse heating/cooling, thermal destratification technology, solar PV and individual sensors on LED lights. They use EPC improvement targets to encourage landlords to improve their leased buildings’ fabric.  

The outcome of this has been clear: