Developing Chemical Management Approach for Holt Renfrew

Situation

Anthesis worked with Holt Renfrew to gather information to develop a chemicals management approach for beauty and personal care products sold in their stores. The work led to the development of a set of criteria for their H Project Approved Clean Beauty and Clean Beauty+ responsible buy icon.

Solution

Anthesis benchmarked chemicals commonly found in beauty and personal care products that could possibly be found in its assortment (function, hazard, regulatory status in USA, Canada, and EU) and drafted chemical policy roadmap.

A recommended a list of sensitive chemicals to avoid in products was created and included in the H Project Approved Clean Beauty and Clean Beauty + responsible buy icon criteria.

Impact

The chemical benchmarking work helped to identify a set of commonly used chemicals of concern in beauty and personal care products. Once the list was established, further research was conducted into hazard profiles and regulatory standards of each chemical. The chemicals identified were used as a starting point to further drill down to seven chemicals of concern which were included in their H Project Approved Clean Beauty and Clean Beauty + responsible buy icon criteria.

Based on research and expertise gained from working with other key clients, we narrowed the list of chemicals of concern and provided our recommendations and reasoning on which chemicals to include in the icon criteria. We reviewed the list with Holt Renfrew, incorporating the comments, and finally reviewed the material Holt Renfrew created for its Beauty Advisors to reference when discussing the H Project Approved Clean Beauty and Clean Beauty+ responsible buy icon with customers. We also summarised the regulatory authority and reach of chemical and animal testing regulations in the USA and Canada.