The world’s first 100 percent circular-designed, climate-positive beauty brand has achieved the highest B Corp score of any luxury skincare company — and it’s setting the pace for the industry.

On World Sustainability Day 2025, New Zealand-founded luxury skincare brand Emma Lewisham raised the bar yet again — earning a record-breaking B Corp score of 121, the highest of any luxury skincare business worldwide in the Personal Care Products – Wholesale/Retail category.

It’s a major milestone that cements the brand’s leadership in sustainable innovation and underscores the growing demand for transparency and accountability in beauty.

For founder and creative director Emma Lewisham, it’s not about accolades — it’s about action.

“Sustainability is a way of being, not a destination,” Emma says. “We’ll keep innovating through both skin science and sustainability — always without asking customers to compromise on luxury or efficacy.”

The Emma Lewisham journey began in 2016 when Emma, then working in global technology, uncovered a confronting truth: the beauty industry produces around 100 billion units of waste each year, with packaging alone accounting for around 70 percent of the sector’s carbon footprint.

Determined to challenge that wasteful model, she launched her namesake brand built entirely on circular design principles: refillable packaging, closed-loop systems, and total environmental accountability.

The result is Emma Lewisham’s now globally recognised Beauty Circle program, a model that has reimagined what luxury beauty can look like. Since launch, the brand has sold over 200,000 refills, prevented 176,000 new jars and bottles from being produced, and saved 120 tonnes of carbon emissions.

It has also recovered 34,000 packaging units through its return program — 55 percent sterilised and re-used, and 45 percent recycled via TerraCycle.

Refills now make up the majority of Emma Lewisham’s global sales, stocked by top retailers including MECCA across Australia, Harrods and Liberty London in the UK, and SpaceNK in the US — proving sustainability and profitability can go hand-in-hand.

The brand’s new B Corp score marks significant progress across every assessed area since first achieving certification in 2022:

• +154 % Governance
• +30 % Environment
• +25 % Workers
• +22 % Customers

Emma Lewisham also retained its Toitū Envirocare Climate Positive certification — confirming it offsets 125 percent of emissions while continuing to reduce them year on year. Between 2021 and 2024, the brand cut its total emissions by 25 percent, thanks to major logistics reforms — including a 29 percent reduction in airfreight and the rollout of solar-powered warehouses across New Zealand, Australia, and the US.

In 2021, Emma Lewisham’s work drew the personal endorsement of the late Dr Jane Goodall, who described the brand as “demonstrating what it means to be a truly sustainable business” and “paving the way for the future.”

That legacy continues with the company’s 2025–2027 Sustainability Strategy, which aims to double refill uptake to 500,000 units by 2027, reintroduce 30,000 Second Life pods into circulation, and save a further 300 tonnes of carbon emissions.

Where many brands protect their sustainability IP, Emma Lewisham has gone the opposite route — open-sourcing the intellectual property behind its circular packaging and climate-positive business model to accelerate change across the beauty industry.

For Emma, collaboration — not competition — is the only way to drive genuine progress.

“When someone reaches out with a helping hand, I always hope it can be taken,” said Dr Goodall in her endorsement. “This is when true change begins — when we work together.”

It’s a radical transparency that’s redefining what “sustainable luxury” looks like — and one that continues to inspire both brands and businesses across Australia and New Zealand.

Images: Supplied

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