‘A stage for storytelling’: Travel retail is ‘amazing’ platform to showcase sustainability journey – Rituals

Melvin Broekaart, director of global travel retail, Rituals Cosmetics underlined the importance of travel retail as a global platform for brands to communicate their sustainability stories.

Speaking at the recent Tax Free World Association (TFWA) Asia Pacific Live event in Singapore, Broekaart said: “If there’s one amazing – and maybe the world’s best platform or stage for storytelling – that’s travel retail.​

“People spend their time being captive, behind customs and waiting for their flights. They have that one magical hour that they have to really soak up sustainability messages and discover products.”​

Broekaart elaborated that the travel retail channel has a great opportunity to be a port of call where travellers can “find sustainability first”.​

In recent years, and especially in a post-pandemic world, sustainability has become a prerequisite for every company and brand.

When asked later about the dangers of overselling sustainability to consumers, Broekaart told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ that it “doesn’t exist”.​

“I think the topic of sustainability and sustainability is so large and we’re just scratching the surface at the moment when it comes to discovering what sustainability will look like for every brand owner, retailers and the travel channel in general. Overselling? No, not in the upcoming decade I dare to say.”​

Instead, he said that brands have to help consumers resonate with their sustainability efforts by “breaking it down”.​

“There’s a need for closer definitions of sustainability, which is quite broad already for us as a brand owner. There’s so much in that one term that I think it’s difficult for a lot of people to wrap their minds around completely.”​

He elaborated that Rituals has broken this down into three pillars: clean, caring, and conscious.

Each pillar has a goal the brand hopes to attain, for instance, under the clean pillar, Rituals has pledged to have all its personal care products formulated with more 90% natural origins ingredients by 2023.

In January, the Dutch beauty and wellbeing outfit became a Certified B Corporation after three years of transformation.

Rituals is among only a small handful of beauty companies that have achieved B Corp status, which helps the brand stand against greenwashing.

“[Greenwashing] underlines one of our core drivers to become B Corp certified. I think the best way to convince, or at least share with consumers, is to ask an independent party to say it on behalf of you.​

“If you choose a very tough, independent party like B Corp, for example, I think the message becomes even more straightforward, more honest, more open, and very transparent.”​