Sustainability

Reduced Carbon Footprint

We utilize sugarcane-based polyethylene (green PE) tubes for our cream/gel products, and we use 50% PCR PET bottles for our liquid products. We ensure that all paper-based packaging (leaflets, cartons, corrugate) is either PEFC or FSC certified for sustainable forestly. We will implement recycling programs to minimize ocean plastic in 2023.

Green Polyethyelene (PE) is chemically identical to fossil-fuel-based PE but is made from sugar-cane, a renewable resource, that locks carbon dioxide from air as the plant grows. Our tubes have a negative carbon footprint based on a lifecycle analysis (LCA) done by the Carbon Footprint Society. Land utilization is also very efficient:3 tons of Green PE can be produced from 1 hectare (2 US football fields) of sugarcane farmland and be converted into 200,000 x 50 mL tubes or 600,000 x 15mL tubes. So our complete 2022 production needs are met by an area comparable to 4 US football fields.

Using post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics has a number of environmental benefits. Recycling reduces the amount of plastic sent to landfills, and using PCR helps support the recycling infrastructure. Using recycled PET plastic for bottles means that less petroleum is needed to make new, virgin resin. Recycled PET also requires less energy to produce and has a lower carbon footprint than virgin PET. Note that using PCR may introduce subtle challenges and process considerations, so that bottles may have slight variations in color, for example.

Our carton is made from renewable fresh fiber that originates from sustainably managed forests. Our lightweight and recyclable paperboard are a good example of products that are sustainable throughout their life cycle. Our products are either PEFC (Program for the Endorsement of Forrest Certification) or FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified. These programs work throughout the entire forest supply chain to promote good practice in the forest and to ensure that forest-based products are produced with respect for the highest ecological, social, and ethical standards.

We have carefully engineered packaging designs that
maximize the packing density of our products to be shipped while minimizing pallet weight Our shippers are sized to minimize filling materials and cardboard. We always try to use the most efficient transportation means and routes and leverage high-quality local suppliers. These types of careful considerations support our current and future efforts to maintain a very low carbon footprint.

Why Biotech for Sustainability?

We source as ingredients that are biotech-manufactured as possible, as these reduce carbon footprint. Biotechnology can delivery more potent, concentrated actives with specific functionality that optimize skincare performance while minimizing the energy and water needed to manufacture them.

Fair Trade Sourcing

We support fair trade when we work with local growers and indigenous harvesters. We pay fair market prices to local communities. We are fully support the Nagoya protocol and invest in building infrastructure for better working conditions, access to healthcare, and education. As Aesop (620-560 B.C.) stated long ago, “United we stand, divided we fall. “

Respect for human rights and ethical decision-making are important in our business and Codex Beauty operates in an environment of honesty, trust, and transparency. We follow the labor laws in each country and we are proud of our diversity. We see our team at Codex as a tapestry, woven together from threads of all sizes and colors: beautiful in its complexity; strong in its multiplicity.

The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing is a 2010 supplementary agreement to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Nagoya Protocol establishes a framework that helps researchers access genetic resources for biotechnology research, development and other activities, in return for a fair share of any benefits from their use. Its aim is the implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

When we source plant-based materials that cannot be
manufactured yet with biotechnology from indigenous communities, we not only apply Fair Trade principles and work to ensure harvesting does not disturb the local biodiversity, but we also always apply the Nagoya Protocol, even if it is not ratified in the local country or by the USA. We believe that indigenous knowledge, while shared generously and with complete openness, must never be taken for granted, so we pay an Indigenous Royalty (IR) on all products sold. This IR can be applied by the local communities to support healthcare, education, or any other community needs.

Why Biotech for Sustainability?

Biotech actives are made in a bioreactor by isolating specific functional plant cells from a natural plant and either just amplifying them (e.g., plant stem cells) or fermenting them with genetically engineered microbes such as bacteria, enzymes, and yeast, a process known as bio-fermentation, to create active ingredients that are biologically/naturally equivalent to those found in nature. Biotech actives are made under precise, highly controlled process conditions that yield consistently potent, pure/clean ingredients in large quantities that are safe and highly efficacious.

Biotech combines science and nature, within a lab environment, to create ingredients that are not only nature-equivalent, but that are consistently cleaner and more potent than their natural plant extract equivalents. By leveraging fermentation microbes as miniature chemical factories, or selecting plant cells based on their benefits as expressed in skin cells models, new and unique plant-based active ingredients can be created with specific functional properties meant to address the needs of an individual’s skin more safely and efficaciously.

Biotech actives can be made in a way that avoids negatively impacting nature and the environment. Lab-manufactured active ingredients do not require food-producing farmland, utilize much less water and energy than growing and harvesting plants, and don’t require extensive extraction or concentration processes, thereby reducing the ingredient’s carbon footprint and waste production. These biotech-derived ingredients are also free of undesirable pesticides and irritants associated with conventionally grown and extracted plant-based ingredients.

Biodiversity is all the different kinds of life you'll find
in one area — the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms like bacteria or fungi that make up our natural world. Each of these species and organisms work together in ecosystems, like an intricate tapestry, to maintain balance and support life. Examples of species include blue whales, tigers, white pines, sunflowers, and yeast.

Biodiversity matters because it is our Planet’s ecological life support system: it enables functioning ecosystems that supply oxygen, clean air, and water, pollination of plants, pest control, wastewater treatment, and many other services that maintain ecological well-being. For humans, biodiversity provides for many of our basic needs such as food, fuel, shelter, and medicine.

Human activities and population growth are directly tied to the loss of biodiversity. Key factors include pollution, habitat loss (typically from the conversion of forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other natural areas to urban and agricultural uses), hunting, the introduction of invasive species, overexploitation of preferred species, climate change, and natural disasters.

Buying fewer products, recycling as much as you can, turning lights off, and taking shorter showers will have the biggest impact on biodiversity: less energy consumed and fewer products (clothes, electrical appliances, skincare, etc) means less raw materials used and less consumer waste. Focusing on local resources is also key: supporting local farms, planting local fruits and vegetables, respecting habitats when traveling, buying products with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or Rainforest Alliance Certified packaging, and saving the bees!

Codex Labs Corp

Codex Labs Corp

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Why Biotech for Sustainability?

Why Biotech for Sustainability?

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