In surveys, many people say they’re willing to spend more money for products that are good for the earth.

Palt: “Wherever you ask them – in Europe, in the U.S., in Brazil, all around the world – citizens say yes we want more sustainable companies. We are ready to make sustainable consumption choices.”

But Alexandra Palt of the cosmetics company L’Oréal says that when they’re shopping, people often do not follow through.

Palt: “When you go to a department store to buy a lipstick, beauty product, you kind of do that with another part of your brain, which is a pleasure part.”

She says that part of the reason is that making smart environmental decisions is sometimes viewed as a sacrifice, rather than a pleasure.

She hopes that companies in the beauty industry can help shift that perception – both by improving their environmental practices, and by marketing their sustainable products as luxurious and indulgent.

Palt: “Sustainable products are at least as desirable, as beautiful, as glamorous as are non-sustainable products – they have to be even more. And so the narrative has to be positive. The world we are heading to – if it is a sustainable world – it’s going to be beautiful.”

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media.