Within the beauty space, biotechnology unlocks new ingredients, such as metabolites produced by extremophiles, and scales the production of useful molecules like hyaluronic acid (HA) and xanthan gum. While many of these biotech ingredients have emerged from pure capitalism to sell more products, they do have their time and place. However, the new generation of biotech startups is driven by a true responsible and practical ethos, recognizing the urgent need for sustainability.
Biotechnology can help alleviate pressure in key areas of the industry, particularly in the domains of packaging and palm oil production. The rise in biotech companies reflects a growing consumer sentiment: people want to make a difference but often don't know how.
Two examples of pressing sustainability issues in beauty can be seen in tertiary packaging (at both raw material and consumer levels) and incommodity ingredients, such as palm oil.
Sustainable Packaging: The Mushroom Material Revolution
Packaging, especially tertiary packaging, is a significant sustainability issue in the beauty industry. Mushroom Material, a startup based in New Zealand and Singapore, is addressing this challenge by creating packaging materials from mushroom mycelium. You may have heard of mushroom packaging over the past few years, but you might also have noticed that it hasn’t really taken off. Shaun, from Mushroom Material explains that ‘traditional’ mushroom packaging is grown in plastic moulds, a process that can take weeks and is difficult to scale.
Mushroom Material is approaching this differently. They use mycelium to create small building blocks that are then compressed into moulds. This method significantly reduces the time required to produce a piece of packaging componentry. If successful, Mushroom Material aims to expand its sustainable packaging solutions to various industries, including appliances, alcoholic beverages, and, of course, cosmetics.
Mushroom Material isn't the only company innovating in sustainable packaging. Other materials, such as bioplastics and recycled plastics, are also making strides. However, the key advantage of mushroom packaging lies in its biodegradability and the use of upcycled substrates, which contribute to a circular economy. Mushroom Material will also be significantly cheaper than other common sustainable materials such as cardboard.
Synthetic Palm Oil: A Sustainable Alternative
Palm oil production is another major sustainability concern in the beauty industry, as it is used in the vast majority of ingredients used to make skincare. The cultivation of natural palm oil often leads to polluting deforestation and habitat destruction, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Biotechnology offers a potential solution through the development of synthetic palm oil, which can reduce environmental impact while meeting the growing demand for palm oil. In the last few years, there has been a few biotechnology labs that have been trying to commercialize synthetic palm.
One such company is Levur. They are a Sydney based startup with specific strains of yeast to manufacture synthetic palm oil which can be used not only in the cosmetic industry but also pharmaceuticals or food. Tom and the Levur team are working on bringing affordable bioengineered palm oil to the World, which could mean a lower reliance on palm crop and thus clearing precious rainforest areas.
It's not easy at all.
Improving the sustainability of any product is complex and influenced by political, personal, and business interests, not to mention massive scalability challenges. Within modern sustainabilty companies, product life cycles should be circular, and/or connected to other lifecycles. For example, waste from the fruit industry could be used as a starter material for Levur’s synthetic palm oil process. However, in an ironic turn of events, Tom says that such food waste now has a higher monetary value (due to sustainability trends), and this has affected the initial costs. Currently, the biggest hurdle synthetic palm needs to cross is the price (even in best case scenarios, synthetic palm is thought to be around 4 times higher than regular palm oil) and thus Tom needs to cut down costs where he can.
This also opens up a can of worms, because fruit farmers also deserve to sell their waste if its someone else’s treasure. Who gets to benefit from all this sustainable biotech?
Moreover, if synthetic palm pushes out the agricultural palm industry, wouldn’t that be quite socially irresponsible? Tom clarifies that this is not the goal of synthetic palm. Synthetic palm would be there to support the rapidly increasing palm oil industry that the currently system cannot keep up with. This is also relevant amongst the synthetic palm oil space itself - there are multiple biotech companies trying to reach the same goal, but it's not really a competition because of the vastness of the palm oil industry.
Levur is also exploring licensing the process to existing palm crop owners. This approach could support the existing palm oil industry while reducing its environmental footprint. Forest waste and leaf litter could potentially be used as a feed stock, enabling a more circular pathway.
Biotech startups also face a continuous cycle of fundraising and development. Shaun’s work at Mushroom Material require research to scale and build necessary facilities. All of which require significant investment, and need investor support to succeed. The act of fund raising can be very time consuming which eats into actual research and production time.
Despite the challenges, biotech heroes like Tom and Shaun are dedicated to making a lasting impact. Their work, while not exclusively for the cosmetic industry, has the potential to greatly benefit it. As consumers become increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their purchases, the demand for sustainable beauty products is likely to grow. Biotech startups are needed to meet this demand by developing innovative solutions that reduce the industry's reliance on natural resources and minimize its ecological footprint.
