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Mary Kay: Beauty counts with sustainability efforts
MARY Kay China has recently been shortlisted as one of the role models in implementing environmentally friendly supply chain management.
It is reported that Mary Kay China has been working with its suppliers to minimize the environmental impact by developing and adopting renewable packing and filling material since as early as 2010.
“We pay more attention toward sustainable development and create more value for stakeholders. It’s not just about making more profits,” said Paul Mak, president of Mary Kay China.
Mary Kay China always recognizes the important role that companies can and should play in protecting environment and the earth for future generations.
Reducing carbon footprint has been one of the key targets as Mary Kay China continuously seeks opportunities to improve the environment.
After half a year of research Mary Kay China finally chose to work with a domestic supplier which provides plastarch material.
The foam buffer particles made with plastarch material was originally sold in overseas markets. Mary Kay China worked over a year to design and produce the suitable filling material that are tailor-made for cosmetics and beauty products.
The plastarch material, which is fully biodegradable, significantly reduces the usage of petroleum as a raw material and produces zero waste during its processing.
Mary Kay China’s sourcing and logistics departments worked closely with the supplier to design a foaming machine to produce the right kind of material that fits well with Mary Kay China’s packages for shipping orders.
The cost of the new material is also consistent with that of the previously used plastic foams. Since 2010, more than 47,000 cubic meters have been used at Mary Kay China.
This marks the first time for foam buffer made with plastarch material to be used in the beauty industry.
Compared with polystyrene foam material or other filling material such as shredded paper, biodegradable filling material not only reduces environmental impact, but also cuts the average product damage rate during transportation by more than 50 percent.
Mary Kay China’s distribution center dispatches as many as 20,000 orders nationwide, and over the past five years a total of 2,200 tons of carbon emission have been reduced at Mary Kay China.
Customer satisfaction rate also climbed to 99.3 percent in 2015 from 97 percent in 2011 as the adoption of the new filling material has brought down the number of complaints and requests to return or change the damaged goods.
Integrating an environmentally friendly idea with its business operation has always been a priority for Mary Kay China, and the “4RPrinciple” (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recovery) has also been implemented in all of its operation procedures including sourcing, product design, manufacturing, logistics and office administration.
Mary Kay China was also awarded the most charitable company by the China Charity Awards in 2013.
Mary Kay has poured a total of 120 million yuan into charitable causes and a combined 280,000 hours of voluntary work in China. It will continue to implement its “Pink Doing Green” environmental protection strategy in 2017 to target employees as well as consumers.
Specific initiatives include turning its administration headquarter office building in downtown Jing’an District in Shanghai to a green office building by carrying out waste classification under the guidance of government authorities.
Mary Kay China also takes into account the environmental footprint during the research & development process while fully assessing the positive and negative environmental impact for each product.
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