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Earth Month: Partnering For a More Beautiful Future

Company Feature

At The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC), we believe the benefits of a healthy climate and beautiful world should be shared by everyone. But this future is not guaranteed. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate report highlights that climate change doesn’t just affect our environment, but also local ecosystems and communities— their health, their safety, and their livelihoods— further revealing that the social and environmental sustainability agendas are inextricably linked.

At ELC, while the work and investment in reducing our emissions, developing more responsible packaging solutions, tackling virgin plastic use, and minimizing waste across our business is underway, we recognize the urgent need for action to preserve our environment must also go hand-in-hand with strengthening our communities. As a Beauty Inspired, Values Driven company, ELC is deepening its commitment through The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation’s (ELCCF) support of new non-profit partners that are leading critical, on-the-ground work in communities around the world. These partners are helping to advance restorative conservation solutions, tackle plastic waste, support responsible sourcing practices and enhance local livelihoods, particularly of women, all of which play vital roles in addressing climate change and uplifting communities.

Making meaningful progress towards a more just, inclusive, equitable and sustainable future— one that serves the many, not the few— requires holistic, collaborative, and scalable solutions that address these global challenges simultaneously. This Earth Month, ELC is proud to highlight three of ELCCF’s partner organizations that are leading the essential work to help advance equitable climate solutions for both people and planet.

Woman cutting leaf off of plant

Conservation International, © CI Peru/ Marlon del Águila

Conservation International

Nature-based solutions, such as forest conservation, are critical to limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Through ELCCF’s partnership with Conservation International (CI), we’re helping to conserve irrecoverable carbon and mitigate global climate change by supporting Indigenous women and their communities to conserve forests and biodiversity in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. In these areas, ancient forests that store and absorb high amounts of carbon from our atmosphere are being cut down, while women and their communities are often left without environmental and economic opportunity. That’s why we’re proud to expand CI’s Amazon Indigenous Women’s Fellowship Program in these key ecosystems. 

Through the support of this grant, six Indigenous women fellows will be supported in year one of the program which aims to foster leadership and gender equality in areas that are essential for forest conservation, climate security, biodiversity and Indigenous culture. The fellows are helping to conserve more than 550,000 hectares of irreplaceable high-carbon forests and biodiversity in the Amazon, sequestering 20 million tons of irrecoverable carbon. That’s the equivalent of the greenhouse gas emissions avoided by taking about 740,000 drivers off the road annually.

Group of women smiling for photo

Plastics for Change

Plastics For Change

As plastic waste exacerbates the climate crisis, resolving issues related to the material’s end of life through recycling can be one of the most effective solutions to the global plastics challenge. In India, waste that would otherwise flow into the oceans is predominantly collected by marginalized waste-pickers in poverty who lack basic human rights like social security and access to nutritious foods, education, or healthcare. To help address these challenges, ELCCF is supporting the work of Plastics for Change, an organization that helps improve the livelihoods of waste collectors in Hubli, South India and reduce the amount of plastic waste in our oceans. 

Through this grant, Plastics for Change will be able to set up an independent plastic collection site to further fair-trade principles and enable greater transparency, accountability, and social change for women and marginalized communities involved in plastic collection. In addition to the 200 individuals this grant has helped to support so far, ELCCF’s partnership will help support the collection of 1.3 million pounds of plastic annually and increase the social and economic opportunity for 1,000 people, strengthening local recycling infrastructure while also supporting the livelihoods of the workers involved.

Woman holding a plant outside

Inobu Mosaik Initiative

Inobu Mosaik Initiative

In Indonesia, rural households rely heavily on farming for their livelihoods, but often lack the land rights, resources and funding to farm responsibly. Through our company’s participation in Action for Sustainable Derivatives (ASD), a collaborative initiative that brings together companies in the cosmetics, home, health and personal care, and oleochemicals industries to collectively tackle supply chain issues around palm derivatives, ELCCF has helped to fund the expansion of the Inobu Mosaik Initiative. 

This initiative is a sustainable landscapes project focused on community-based restoration, fire-free agricultural livelihood development, and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification of smallholder farmers in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The project has helped to progress the development of ASD’s approach to collectively supporting impact on the ground. In addition to helping to protect nature, the program fosters practices that recognize the economic challenges Indigenous smallholder farmers and their communities face and creates practical solutions that protect their rights while also creating opportunities to thrive. Thus far, the initiative has helped support 589 individuals through farmer trainings on no burning, organic farming, natural pesticides, RSPO certifications and the planting of seedlings of various species fulfilling ecological, economic and socio-cultural functions.

ELC and its Charitable Foundation have long understood the importance of supporting local solutions to help address the intersecting challenges affecting global communities, but there’s more work ahead of us. And it won’t be easy. Through a continued investment and collaboration with partners around the world, we are furthering our efforts to take decisive action toward a low-carbon future and further a more just, equitable transition, not only within our walls but outside them too. By working together, we can unite our strengths and advance long-lasting solutions, bringing us one step closer to a sustainable, beautiful future.

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