Paula's Choice

Paula's Choice has committed to avoid certain ingredients to lower its environmental impact, including phthalates, other petrochemical-based ingredients, uncertified palm oil or palm oil-derived ingredients. Its parent company makes a few commitments across all owned brands, specifically on eliminating microplastics and using more bio-based ingredients. While it has these ingredient commitments, it still uses some ingredients that pose a significant threat to the climate, including microplastics, harmful suncare ingredients, and other petrochemical-based ingredients. It carries products that have certifications from Leaping Bunny.

Paula's Choice has made efforts to reduce virgin plastic in its product containers, cut down on its shipping emissions and use eco-friendly materials for shipping. However, it appears to still rely on virgin petro-based plastics. Its parent company, Unilever, has some initiatives to increase recycled plastic, but it's unclear what applies to this brand. Packaging is a large portion of the industry's emissions and waste footprint.

Its parent company, Unilever, shares information on its overall energy strategy. It uses some renewable energy to power its production sites and corporate offices. Unilever has targets for expanding its use of renewable energy. It implements energy efficiency and water conservation measures in its production sites and corporate offices. Paula's Choice has a global production span, which is standard for the indust

Paula's Choice doesn't offer any refills for its products. Its takeback partnership with TerraCycle allows customers to send in their empty packaging to TerraCycle for recycling. It offers bulk sizes for some products, which may help reduce packaging waste. It provides recycling and/or disposal guidance for some of its products.

It's unclear if this brand releases new items seasonally or otherwise frequently, which can create excess waste.

Commons is still evaluating this brand's marketing emails.

Paula's Choice doesn't appear to have a sustainability page or centralized source of relevant information. It previously published a detailed annual report with a clear, impact-driven strategy and progress reporting, but its last annual report was published in 2022 around the time it was acquired by Unilever. Unilever publishes annual reports. Paula's Choice shares a complete list of ingredients used in its products on a per product basis.

Paula's Choice previously internally measured and publicly reported its company-level emissions. It included a breakdown by scope and identified its top driver of emissions. The last reporting period was 2022, before it was acquired by Unilever. In its 2022 report, its estimated emissions footprint was 38,372 tons CO2e. Its parent company, Unilever, provided an estimated total footprint of 110,153,969 tons CO2e in its 2023 reporting.

Paula's Choice's parent company, Unilever, has SBTi-approved emissions reduction targets for the medium-term (5-10 years) and long-term (10+ years). It has reported on its progress within the past year, and is on track for some of its targets. Its overall net-zero commitment was removed by SBTi due to failure to meet deadlines. Paula's Choice previously offset its shipping emissions in partnership with Cloverly, but it's unclear if this has continued post-acquisition.

Paula's Choice's parent company, Unilever, publishes information about its supply chain partners, disclosing their geographic locations. It publicly shares a supplier code of conduct, which ensures the right to collective bargaining, prohibits forced labor, establishes grievance mechanisms, prohibits child labor, and includes environmental clauses. Its code of conduct doesn't disallow unauthorized subcontracting or ensures a living wage. Unilever doesn't have a stated policy of regularly auditing its supply chain partners. This may increase human and environmental risks.

Paula's Choice's parent company, Unilever, discloses all of its trade association memberships, including those that are climate-obstructive. It's a member of 1 large climate-obstructive trade associations: Personal Care Products Council. It isn't a member of advocacy organizations advancing climate policy. It doesn't employ any state lobbyists. Unilever didn't donate more than $100k to climate-obstructive candidates or PACs from 2018-2024.