Guest column: A closer look at Rituals' journey toward wellbeing
This is a guest column from Global Travel Retail Magazine's 2022 TFWA WE October issue on page 78.
Niki Schilling, Director Innovation & Sustainability at Rituals
When it comes to Rituals' vision on sustainable wellbeing, the company focuses on three key pillars: Clean, Conscious & Caring
The need for improved wellbeing of both people and planet is universal and more relevant than ever before. We all want to leave the world a better and happier place, compared to how we found it. To accomplish this mission, we all need to take personal responsibility. And more than anything, we all need to make conscious choices that will have a positive societal and environmental impact for years to come. At Rituals, we like to provoke others to think differently and to encourage the travel industry as a whole to become more sustainable.
Rituals has been on a mission to support the wellbeing of our customers since our founding 22 years ago. Our passion is to turn everyday routines into more meaningful moments; to help people slow down and rediscover happiness in the smallest of things. Our philosophy extends to both personal and sustainable wellbeing as we believe that our emotional wellbeing and sense of harmony comes from taking care of ourselves as well as the planet.
When it comes to our vision on sustainable wellbeing, we focus on three key pillars: Clean, Conscious & Caring.
“Clean” is about trusted quality products that are carefully formulated with ingredients of natural origin. Seventy percent of all Rituals products contain more than 90% natural-origin ingredients for instance. One of our goals is that all personal care products formulated over 90% natural origin by 2023.
“Conscious” focuses on making sustainable choices for our packaging and our business. We offer refill options for a broad selection of our products and using our body cream refill for example, saves up to 70% carbon emissions, 65% energy and 45% water versus traditional formats. One of our goals in the Conscious category is achieving Zero Waste by 2025 by making every product either refillable, recyclable or made from recycled material.
A February m1nd-set study emphasised once again how sustainability is increasingly important to traveling customers. More than 80% are more concerned about sustainability than before, while 71% of shoppers globally prefer purchasing brands that proactively demonstrate social, ethical, and environmental values and practices. Nine out of ten shoppers believe that sustainable values are important for the brand’s image. With this type of demand, Rituals’ refills will increasingly become a fundamental part of its assortment across duty free locations.
“Caring” is about supporting and developing programs that contribute to soulful societies. Since 2011, Rituals has supported Tiny Miracles, a pioneering foundation and for-purpose company that has found a way to enable people who are excluded from society to seize a life full of new opportunities. In addition, we co-founded SuperChill, an organization that focuses on the mental wellbeing of children. It is our goal to inspire our customers to help navigate their journey of wellbeing, but also develop and support wellbeing programs in society and the younger generation.
As we recently announced, we are further accelerating our sustainability efforts and joining the race to net zero by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% per product by 2030, reaching net zero by 2050. In doing so, the company sets concrete goals in line with the Science Based Targets initiative and the Paris Agreement. After becoming a Certified B Corporation earlier this year, this commitment marks another important step in our continuous journey to sustainable wellbeing.
Next to reduction, Rituals also wants to support decarbonization outside its business. For instance, we support initiatives that preserve and restore natural ecosystems while aiming to improve people’s livelihoods. By doing so, we have committed to grow a tree for every refill sold, aiming for five million trees by the end of this year. Together with trusted environmental partners it supports planting, protecting and restoring mangroves in India and Kenya.
Achieving B Corp status marked an important milestone on our path to sustainable wellbeing, but we realize that this is just the beginning. We are committed to taking the next steps needed to move closer toward the goals we have set ourselves. Our journey to sustainable wellbeing is a journey in collaboration with our employees, our consumers, and our partners.
Our ongoing efforts have cemented our position as a sustainability leader in the industry, maintaining continuous conversations with partners to remain or become part of their Clean Beauty areas. Recognizing the value of these actions, our Founder and CEO, Raymond Cloosterman, has been invited to speak at the TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes this year, further underlining the relevancy of our commitment in the industry. We are extremely proud that we can claim to be a true leader when it comes to sustainability, and we hope that our journey can be an inspiration to the Travel Retail Trinity.
We understand that the path toward a more sustainable future is not one that we should or can travel alone. We look forward to working together with our partners, airports and other brands within the travel industry toexchange ideas and join forces to build a brighter future.
