WRITTEN BY KATHRYN ABBOT
When most people think about the word “sustainability” when linked to a business, they often associate it with a lot of the usual “reuse, reduce, recycle” policies and practices many companies implement. These include reducing excess use of paper in the office via using scratch paper or double-sided printing, putting out an extra waste bin or two to separate recyclables from the rest, and more.
But for Amway, one of the top direct-selling companies in the world, sustainability goes beyond just that. We saw this as an opportunity to not only develop, innovate, and grow while doing all we can to help our planet, but also to help and empower people to live better, more sustainable lives. And one of the many things that reflect this the most is our products.
From across all our brands, our items are made with our own organically grown botanicals and carefully manufactured and packaged with reusable materials and little to no waste. However, they would not have reached this point and be as clean, safe, traceable, and effective as they are today, if not for the way Amway viewed and implemented sustainability, both in its standards and practices.
Sustainability: From the Root to The Top
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As mentioned before, Amway saw sustainability as an opportunity, not merely an obligation. This is, in part, due to our mission to help and empower people, like yourself, to live better lives with the quality products we provide and by giving them the chance needed to create their own thriving businesses from sharing what they love. And sustainability not only helps us achieve that goal, but also creates a concrete path for us to make and do things that are better for both the people and the planet, especially in the long run.
Of course, this means that we apply it, along with what we’ve learned from current global environmental research and data, in everything that we do, from the root to the top of our whole process. This is especially true in the creation/formulation, manufacturing, and the packaging of our products. Starting from carefully choosing and growing our own ingredients in our organic-certified NUTRILITE™ farms to reusing scrap materials for containers, we make sure that, in every step, we can reduce our environmental footprint as much as possible. By doing so, we can greatly help the environment and guide and help people to lead better, healthier, and more responsible lives.
Now that it is clear how deeply ingrained sustainability is in the way we make our products, let’s take a closer look at those said practices and the guiding principles behind them.
Better Practices, Better Products, and Better for Everyone Else
All these sustainable efforts when making our products can be condensed into and reflected by three core principles that we consistently follow:
- Consciously creating products
We make sure to be more careful and thoughtful about the ingredients we put into our products and to source them from environmentally and socially responsible suppliers. This means ensuring that no harmful chemicals or materials are included in any of our products’ formulations (many of which are also biodegradable themselves), and that the ones we do include have proven benefits, are plant-based, and can be traced back to their sources. This way, our products are not just good for you and the planet from the very start but are also traceable and sustainably made. For example, our g&h™ products contain NO parabens, surface surfactants, animal-derived ingredients, and more than 1,300 banned chemicals. Instead, they have only vegan ingredients with confirmed skin advantages and high quality from our clean “Yes” list.
Speaking of which, many, if not most, of those ingredients are the NUTRILITE™-grown and NutriCert™-sourced botanicals that we use in our various nutrition, beauty, and personal care products. Because we had to keep the effectiveness, quality, and safety of our raw ingredients, we made sure to record and monitor when, where, and how the plants are grown, as well as how they are processed into our products. Doing so not only guarantees solid traceability of our items but also gives us more than enough visibility in our supply chain to uphold our sustainability, quality, and safety standards consistently.
- Reducing packaging waste
We aim and have developed ways to lessen as much waste as we possibly can in packaging our products without compromising their quantities. These methods include using materials that are easier to recycle and even reusing any excess stuff in the process or from old packaging into making new ones. And our efforts in working towards this goal have gained substantial results.
One of our biggest proofs of that is how our Artistry™ Skin Nutrition™ line managed to eliminate 21% of plastic globally and cut down its annual plastic use by 288,047 lbs., all while still delivering the same number of products. Aside from this, Artistry™ Skin Nutrition™ also uses recyclable cartons, and its paper content is sourced from sustainable forests that are managed responsibly. But to take things further, the brand’s products made in Ada, Michigan have their usual packaging insert contents printed on the inside of the cartons themselves, helping to save more paper and eliminating any potential extra waste.
- Increasing recycled content
Lastly, we at Amway aim to and are working on methods to increase our use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials, i.e., materials made from discarded containers of old and used products, in our designs as much as and whenever we can. One of the ways we are practicing this is from reusing any extra scraps found in our packaging processes into making newer containers, as mentioned before. However, we are also including the old packaging of used products from any of our brands to be recycled and reused as well.
In fact, this is what we have done with the bottles of g&h™’s body wash, lotions, and liquid soaps in our manufacturing facilities in Ada, Michigan, where the plastics of any manufacturing scraps, imperfect bottles, and recently, used/discarded plastic containers are regrinded into reusable materials to be used in making new bottles. This practice is even further supported by our Plastics Plant in the same place, where it makes several bottles and canisters with 30% PCR material for g&h™ and SATINIQUE™ products.
These three core principles enable and guide us in how we would apply sustainable practices while staying firm in performing them consistently and to the best of our ability. However, that doesn’t mean we will just stop there.
Our Continued Sustainability Journey (And Your Part in It)
Amway is still working towards making a better impact on the environment through improving on and increasing the effect and capacity of our sustainable practices, especially on our products. With the current state of our environment nowadays and the large amount of work still left to be done, we will make sure that our actions and commitments will reflect the planet’s urgent needs and be guided by updated knowledge from global research. After all, sustainability is still a journey and one that we aren’t straying from any time soon.
And now, whether you are a customer enjoying our brands’ various products and collections and/or an entrepreneur seeking great opportunities for your business with the items you love, you can also be part of our efforts and journey as well.
So, if you ever need to discard those empty bottles and packaging of items from NUTRILITE™, ARTISTRY™, Artistry™ Skin Nutrition™, g&h™, SATINIQUE™, and more, you can return them to any My Amway Place near you instead, such as:
2/F Kentek Building, 828 A. Arnaiz Ave., San Lorenzo Village, 1223 Metro Manila, Philippines
G/F LUYM Bldg 2, Mango Avenue Square, Mango Avenue, 6000 Cebu, Philippines
Ground Floor, 5AL Building, Tulip Drive, corner Quimpo Blvd, Ecoland, 8000 Davao Del Sur, Philippines
My Amway Place Cagayan de Oro
G/F CAP Building, Gaerlan corner Tiano Bros. Street, 9000 Misamis Oriental, Philippines
Every little action count, including yours, in helping both our planet and each other.
