Estée Lauder joins sustainability challenge as exclusive partner

Estée Lauder has joined the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory Sustainability Challenge: Beyond Plastics, as an exclusive partner.

Estée Lauder will provide funding for awarded proposals, as a part of its commitment to support research that will promote innovation in sustainable packaging. The ISS National Lab Sustainability Challenge aims to bring together innovators to research and address plastic waste, in order to improve environmental impact.

The brand has also committed to reducing its use of virgin and non-recyclable plastics, pledging that by 2025, 75 to 100 percent of its packaging will be recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled or recoverable.

The ISS National Lab Sustainability Challenge is an opportunity for innovators to pitch an idea that addresses “a whole-of-life design approach to the production of virgin polymers through sustainable feedstocks or the biodegrading or upcycling of end-of-life polymers.”

The applicants with the most promising proposals will then be invited to submit a more in depth video describing their idea.

The objective of the Sustainability Challenge is to use the ISS environment to develop or test products or processes which address the various plastic reduction goals. The research aims to create new avenues for more cost-effective and environmentally friendly plastic or biopolymer alternatives.

“We are proud to be the exclusive partner of the ISS National Lab Sustainability Challenge, funding research for future-thinking plastics alternatives,” said global brand president at Estée Lauder and Aerin, group president, the Estée Lauder Companies, Stéphane de La Faverie. “We are excited to be part of an initiative that could be truly transformative for our brand.”

The submitted proposals will be judged by a panel of experts, and the finalists’ recorded presentations will be shown on March 19 2022 during the Sustainability Challenge event at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The event will be streamed live to global audiences.