Boma Brown-West is becoming a member of Estée Lauder Firms as director of accountable sourcing. She brings twenty years of expertise in remodeling provide chains from each an advocacy and a enterprise angle, most lately at “clear magnificence” retailer Credo Magnificence.
Her observe document of tackling poisonous substances in client merchandise consists of main the nonprofit EDF’s safer chemistry partnerships with Walmart and Sephora.
Brown-West will report back to Vice President of Accountable Sourcing Mindi DeLeary. “We’re excited to welcome Boma and are assured that her deep management expertise throughout sectors will additional strengthen the influence of our accountable sourcing packages and partnerships,” DeLeary mentioned.
“I’m excited to hitch such an important group dedicated to #socialimpact, #sustainability, and driving optimistic influence throughout international provide chains,” Brown-West posted on LinkedIn on August 14.
“Boma is understood for her capability to create an efficient bridge between enterprise and sustainability by leveraging market forces to drive environmental change,” mentioned Stacy Glass, co-founder and government director of ChemForward, a safer chemistry nonprofit for which Brown-West has consulted.
Becoming a member of Credo two years in the past as vice chairman of sustainability and influence, Brown-West led the Credo Clear Normal, which restricts greater than 2,700 chemical compounds from merchandise by greater than 100 manufacturers the retailer sells. She additionally engaged within the Pact Collective, which Credo co-founded to scale back packaging waste in cosmetics.
After one yr at Credo Brown-West was laid off, a primary for her. “And after the preliminary shock I made some lemonade,” she wrote two months in the past on LinkedIn. “Reasonably than diving straight again into high-performance mode, I gave myself permission to find new locations and issues, have enjoyable and relaxation (actual, deep relaxation).” She additionally consulted.
Her profession arc
The Yale-trained engineer holds a grasp’s in know-how and coverage from MIT. She spent a decade at Whirpool Company in Benton Harbor, Michigan, working her manner as much as lead sustainability engineer.
From there, she transitioned to EDF in Washington, D.C., first participating in client well being efforts and ultimately directing EDF+Enterprise, a division that collaborates with companies on sustainability. In 2021, Trellis (then GreenBiz) named Brown-West one in every of 25 “badass girls shaping local weather motion.”
As a part of her work with Walmart, Brown-West was concerned in its Challenge Gigaton, recycling playbook and sustainable textiles efforts.
As she steered from sustainable merchandise into sustainable techniques and environmental coverage, she “realized through the years that not lots of people have been actually speaking about one thing that’s such a giant a part of sustainability and can also be very private to everybody — our publicity to poisonous chemical air pollution and its unfavorable impacts on our well being,” Brown-West mentioned on the Magnificence + Justice podcast in 2022.
The place emissions and sourcing meet at Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder employs 62,000 folks throughout its namesake model and greater than 20 others, together with Clinique, Aveda, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Bumble and Bumble and numerous perfume traces. It counted $15.6 billion in revenues within the fiscal yr that led to June 2024.
A clear provide chain serves the company’s goal to slash emissions, 47 p.c of which originate from bought items and companies, in keeping with the corporate’s 2024 Local weather Transition Plan. The Estée Lauder Firms’ emissions discount targets for 2030, validated by the Science-based Targets Initiative, embody halving Scopes 1 and a pair of emissions, and chopping Scope 3 by 60 p.c per unit of income. The corporate offers sources, though not direct monetary assist, to assist suppliers scale back their footprints.
One yr in the past, the corporate joined 15 different magnificence manufacturers as a co-founder of the Traceability Alliance for Sustainable Cosmetics. The Estée Lauder Firms lately achieved the best mark on a scorecard by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
“Boma has performed a crucial position in driving poisonous chemical compounds out of the wonder sector,” mentioned Mike Schade, senior director of packages and technique on the nonprofit Poisonous-Free Future. “Estée Lauder will profit enormously from her expertise and expertise as it really works to strengthen the sustainability of its provide chain.”
Final yr, Estée Lauder created a glossary for customers of greater than 100 substances throughout 14 manufacturers. Its inexperienced chemistry group is refining knowledge assortment to spotlight the local weather and environmental impacts of substances. The corporate makes use of a Inexperienced Rating instrument to grasp how chemical parts in its substances have an effect on the surroundings and the well being of individuals and ecosystems. Its sourcing considers materials kind, geographic origin and sustainability certifications. Suppliers additionally present knowledge associated to the emissions throughout Scopes 1 and a pair of of substances.
Lauder has additionally lately expanded its understanding of the local weather impacts of its packaging, introducing a perfume in a refillable bottle and slashing 35 p.c of the plastic packaging in its Origins model.
