The zero-waste beauty brand showing businesses they can still make a profit without harming the planet

In 1970, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said that the only social responsibility of business “is to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits”.

Although this view has remained largely unchallenged in the succeeding five decades, there are a growing number of entrepreneurs setting out on their business careers with more than just profit in mind. One such individual is Brianne West, founder and CEO of Ethique, a zero-waste beauty brand determined to change the way beauty products are manufactured and eliminate the use of plastic packaging in the process. Ethique emerged in 2012 from a competition for young entrepreneurs at the University of Canterbury where West was studying marine biology. She credits this experience with giving her the grounding necessary to turn her idea into a reality.

“We were given a business mentor and they coached us through writing a business plan (which was a new experience for me) and helping prepare a pitch for the judging panel. We didn’t win the competition, but we are the only ones still standing,” she says. That early mentor is now West’s business partner and together they are on a mission to not just make a dent in the 80 million plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles thrown away every year, they want to show the world that financial success is not incompatible with ethical integrity.

The concept is relatively straightforward – create shampoos and conditioners in bar form, eliminating the plastic and the water that traditional products use, which is innovative in itself but the commitment to ethics goes much deeper in this business. “The original idea was to rid the world of plastic bottles, but now the focus is on becoming the world’s most sustainable cosmetics company,” explains West.

Ethique uses only biodegradable ingredients and compostable packaging, as well as plant-based and vegan ingredients in its products. The company rejects any form of animal testing and ensures everyone involved in the process is paid a living wage. And in a direct challenge to Friedman’s belief that business is purely about generating profit, Ethique donates 20 per cent of its profits every year to environmental projects and charities. “All of these things have been in place from the very beginning,” West explains.

“People have tried to talk me out of the profit donation, but well-run businesses make a lot of money and shareholders don’t need hundreds of millions of dollars. It is a little unfair and it is our way of making it a little fairer.”

“I’m very idealistic,” she admits, and points out that she has surrounded herself with “very astute people and experienced advisers” to ensure that what she describes as a certain naivety doesn’t compromise the business’s potential.

open image in gallery

With dreams of creating a billion-dollar turnover business (current revenues are in the tens of millions on the back of 300 per cent annual growth), surely at some point, to reach that goal, West and Ethique will have to make some concessions to cold, hard business reality at the expense of ethics? “We have never had to compromise any of our sustainability principles,” she insists. “People are waking up to the fact that consumers want this kind of product. Before we launched, I just hoped that people wanted it. I’m not an unusual person, so I thought if I wanted it, others would too.”

One example of this commitment to the ethics that underpin the organisation is the fact that West has refused to pursue the opportunity to trade in China, a potentially huge market, on the basis that regulations in the country insist upon testing beauty products on animals.

This isn’t West’s first foray into the business world. She has had two previous businesses – the first was what she describes as “an ordinary cosmetics company” set up when she was 18 and starting out at university. This “hobby business” was followed by a rather more successful confectionary business selling spoonable fudge. “It was a cross between fudge and mousse but I couldn’t keep up with demand,” she says.

It is clear that at her core is an entrepreneurial spirit that thrives on building businesses. Even at the tender age of eight, she set up a pet detective business and managed to succeed in reuniting at least one owner with their lost cat: “They didn’t pay me though...”

But her business nous is sharper, and her ambitions much higher, today. In the coming year, Ethique plans to launch 38 new products, expand its geographic footprint (the first tie-up in the UK is with high street health retailer Holland and Barrett), launch a household cleaning product range, a baby care product line and even a new line of cosmetics. She insists that all will be based on the same ethical principles that have been in place since the start. And it’s clear that while growth is being secured on the back of marketing these ethics, she is having a genuine impact. “The proudest moments are whenever we calculate how many bottles we have saved. Last week we calculated it was 4.5 million bottles saved, and by the end of this year it will be 6 million. We have a goal of 50 million by 2025,” she says.

And what is most remarkable about Ethique is that with every bottle saved, every product launched, and every new market exploited, they are showing that shareholders can secure the profits they crave without stripping the planet’s resources in the process. “Environmental ethics are good for shareholder value as I am not the only person that thinks like this,” she says. “We are living proof that this is the way you can run a business.”