Our thinking

It just makes scents

4 March, 2021

While many beauty products have gathered dust on our shelves for almost a year, the fragrance industry has been an unexpected winner from the pandemic. And soon enough, you’ll be able to enjoy your favourite spritz with an extra aroma of sustainability.  

We’re excited to see that Coty, who own the largest portfolio of fragrances globally, including Gucci, Dolce & Gabana, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs, has announced a new partnership this week with circular economy experts, LanzaTech. The partnership means that the majority of Coty’s fragrance products will include sustainable ethanol made from captured carbon emissions by 2023. 

Ethanol is a biofuel often derived from sugarcane or sugar beets, which can cause soil degradation, deforestation and water scarcity when produced on a mass scale. LanzaTech has long produced sustainable ethanol derived from carbon emissions captured from heavily polluting industries.  

Carbon emissions are captured into a bioreactor filled with bacteria, who ‘feed’ on the pollution and produce an ethanol by-product. To date, LanzaTech has supplied carbon-captured ethanol for use as jet fuel and bioplastics, and involves almost no water consumption or agricultural land use, thus dramatically reducing associated carbon emissions. In partnership with Coty, LanzaTech has now developed a high-purity ethanol form suitable for use in fragrances.  

Innovative, circular solutions that can be implemented at scale are essential in driving progress towards a green economy for the future. The fact that carbon emissions themselves can be used as a source of material for circular production is a double-win in our eyes. 

By Jennie Mitchell