Drunk Elephant

Drunk Elephant has made ingredient commitments to lower its environmental impact, including by avoiding some petrochemical-based ingredients and harmful suncare ingredients. Its parent company, Shiseido Company, makes overall commitments to avoid phthalates, microplastics, and other petrochemical-based ingredients. It's also working on achieving 100% RSPO palm oil ingredients by 2026. However, while Shiseido Company is working on reducing its use of parabens, it doesn't make a commitment to eliminate them. Drunk Elephant still uses some ingredients that pose a significant threat to the climate, including microplastics and PVA (polyvinyl alcohol), a petro-based film with limited scientific evidence of its biodegradability. Drunk Elephant doesn't report having any product or company-level certifications.

Drunk Elephant doesn't report on its packaging materials and hasn't made any efforts to concentrate its products or minimize its containers, which increases shipping emissions and packaging volumes. Its parent company, Shiseido Company, has made efforts to minimize the volume of material used in its secondary or tertiary shipping packaging across all owned brands. Shiseido Company reports using eco-friendly materials in its product containers, including ones that are bioplastics and/or recyclable, but it's unclear what applies to Drunk Elephant.

Drunk Elephant's parent company, Shiseido Company, shares information on its overall energy strategy. It uses 100% renewable energy to power its production sites, and is working to increase its use of renewables in its offices. Shiseido Company has targets for expanding its use of renewable energy. It implements energy efficiency measures in its production and offices, and shares water conservation measures, including reducing water consumption and establishing water stewardship initiatives. Shiseido Company doesn't share information on its energy strategy for its storefronts. Drunk Elephant has a global production span, which is standard for the industry.

Drunk Elephant utilizes alternative models for some products to avert waste, including promoting refills and offering reusable containers. Its parent company has offered refills for various brands for almost 100 years, though Drunk Elephant is a newer brand. It doesn't offer any take back programs for its product containers. Its parent company may offer in-store takeback programs for other brands, but there's no mention of such a program on Drunk Elephant's site. It offers bulk sizes for some products, which may help reduce packaging waste.

Drunk Elephant doesn't frequently release seasonal or new products, which helps prevent production of excess inventory.

Commons is still evaluating this brand's marketing emails.

Drunk Elephant doesn't appear to have a sustainability page or centralized source of relevant information, and it doesn't link customers to its parent company's comprehensive site. We expect more transparency from large brands. Shiseido Company, its parent company, publishes a detailed annual report with a clear, impact-driven strategy and progress reporting. Its last annual report was published in 2023. Drunk Elephant shares a complete list of ingredients used in its products, on a per product basis.

Drunk Elephant's parent company, Shiseido Company, internally measures and publicly reports its company-level emissions in partnership with, or with auditing from, a third party. It includes a breakdown by scope and identifies its top driver of emissions. The last reporting period was 2023. In its most recent update, its estimated emissions footprint was 1,008,126 tons CO2e.

Shiseido Company, Drunk Elephant's parent company, has SBTi-approved emissions reduction targets for the medium-term (5-10 years), long-term (10+ years). It has reported on its progress within the past year, and is on track for some of its targets. However, it's missing progress reporting for its scope 3 targets, the most substantial part of its reduction efforts. It offsets emissions from an undisclosed portion of its operations.

Drunk Elephant's parent company, Shiseido Company, publishes limited information about its supply chain partners, disclosing a few geographic locations. It publicly shares a supplier code of conduct, which prohibits forced labor, prohibits child labor, ensures the right to collective bargaining, and includes general environmental clauses. Its code of conduct doesn't disallow unauthorized subcontracting, ensure a living wage, or establish grievance mechanisms. Shiseido Company has a stated policy of regularly auditing its supply chain partners, which can mitigate human and environmental risks.

Shiseido Company, the parent company of Drunk Elephant, doesn't appear to openly disclose its climate-obstructive trade association memberships. 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 and didn't donate more than $100k to climate-obstructive candidates or PACs from 2018-2024.