Snowberry: The Environmentally Minded Beauty Brand You Need to Know

Snowberry: The Environmentally Minded Beauty Brand You Need to Know
Snowberry is doing its bit to protect the planet for generations to come.

Not all beauty brands take a conscientious, environmentally minded approach to business. But homegrown skincare brand, Snowberry has recently been applauded for its commitment to the environment. The local natural skincare label was recently awarded the Excellence in Climate Action award in the Product Carbon Footprinting category at the Enviro-Mark Solutions Awards in Auckland. 

Remarkably, Snowberry has reduced the carbon footprint of its products by 79 per cent from its base year 2012/13. To achieve this feat, Snowberry reduced the number of ingredients in its products and reduced the number of imported ingredients and instead focused on growing and processing more ingredients on its own bio-discovery planation. The brand has also worked effortlessly to ensure every one of its products achieves carboNZero CertTM certification through Enviro-Mark Solutions.

A commitment to the environment has always been central to Snowberry’s philosophy and it’s an ethos that has only grown stronger as consumers have become increasingly aware of the impact that their buying power has on the planet. “It is incredibly important to us that the social and pragmatic values we hold as individuals are communicated through the business,” explains Snowberry operating manager Mark Henderson. “We strive to produce highly functional skincare that is as natural as possible, supported by statistically relevant and peer-reviewed science, with carbon neutrality and sustainability held in equal regard to the products we sell.”

Through refining the brand’s core ingredients and consolidating them into an essentials-only list, Henderson says that Snowberry was able to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint. Prior to the initiative, Snowberry was using around 188 ingredients; today, these have been whittled down to less than half this number. Because the ingredient list was refined with the brand’s carbon footprint in the mind, the remaining ingredients have all be chosen because of their low-emission properties.  Snowberry’s scientists also reduced production times by making products easier to create. They employ techniques – such as the reduction of temperatures during the skincare-making process – to reduce emissions overall.

Sourcing as many local ingredients as possible is also key to the brand’s sustainable ethos. Snowberry harvests some of its skincare ingredients from a 9,000 plant Wellsford-based bio-discovery garden, dubbed the “Snowberry Garden”. Snowberry aims to be able to further offset its carbon emissions in the future through their plantings, which is already contributing to regenerating the land.

“The commitment we made as a team to be environmentally sustainable simply reflected our personal values,” explains Snowberry’s founder Soraya Hendesi. “We all have children and as far as we’re concerned, Snowberry had to be environmentally sustainable for their sakes. Ensuring our product is carbon neutral to any point of sale in the world is a huge part of that, as it is our small but significant action in an effort to combat the climate emergency. There is no bigger issue in the world today. If we don’t get that right, nothing else will matter.”

Snowberry’s environmentally minded beauty products are available online here. 

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