This post was written by Alissa sasso, supply chain project manager at EDF.

Last week, Sephora released a report [PDF] it shows how the company brings products to market with fewer harmful ingredients. Sephora set the industry standard for advancing safe products by becoming the first major specialty beauty retailer to issue a chemicals policy last summer. The new report details how Sephora, in partnership with Environmental Defense Fund, has made progress so far against the commitments set out in the historic policy.

Consumers are increasingly concerned about harmful chemicals in products and their effects on their health. This awareness is partly responsible for the “clean” dynamic that we see taking hold of the beauty industry. A “clean” label presents a selection of safer products and inspires leadership. But a “clean” program needs a supplement to increase the safety requirements for all products – this is where a chemicals policy comes in.

Sephora’s report shares progress in three main areas: improving access to information on ingredients, reducing the number of products containing harmful chemicals, and accelerating adoption of safer alternatives .

The scale of the impact extends far beyond the Sephora brand. Developing a chemicals policy and publicly sharing progress on it can stimulate industry-wide action. Ulta, following in Sephora’s footsteps, announced their “Conscious Beauty at Ulta ™», Which will highlight products without certain ingredients of concern.

Here’s how Sephora performs against the commitments set out in its policy, and what that means for the industry as a whole.

Increase transparency around ingredient information.

Transparency of ingredients is the basis of a successful chemical policy. Sephora got shared ingredient information for 95% of its products, a 13% increase in one year. It is on track to meet its goal of disclosing information on intentionally added ingredients for 100% of its formulated beauty and personal care products by the end of 2020 on Sephora.com (excluding components of perfumery ingredients).

Collecting ingredient information allows companies to identify products containing high priority chemicals – chemicals of concern that Sephora has identified for immediate action – and track progress in reducing them. While Sephora was able to rate 95% of its products for high priority chemicals, expanding these efforts to include fragrance ingredient transparency would show real leadership, an initiative we hope to see adopted across the industry.

The progress report also shows that 87 brands have now achieved the Clean at Sephora label, an increase of 22% since 2019, making it easier for shoppers to identify the safest products.

Reduce the number of products containing priority chemicals.

Supporting and involving suppliers, for example by increasing access to information about safer alternatives, is essential to achieve the goals. Sephora has set a goal of reducing the number of products from all brands containing specified high priority chemicals by 50% within three years. Today, 94% of the products sold on Sephora.com do not contain any priority chemicals, which is a reduction of 14%.

Sephora has its work cut out for it now as it focuses on the remaining 6% of products with priority chemicals. Sephora has also committed to review its targets and priority chemicals list every three years and, given its current success, we encourage Sephora to set even more ambitious targets.

We would also like to see Sephora expand its recent racial equity commitments to include helping black-owned brands create safer products and achieve the Clean at Sephora label – a particularly critical step as women of color are disproportionately exposed toxic chemicals in beauty and personal care products.

Replace priority chemicals with safer alternatives.

Removing harmful chemicals can have a huge impact, but not if the replacement is just as toxic as the original ingredient. Companies must work with industry partners and suppliers to avoid unfortunate substitutes – a critical but often overlooked step.

Over the past year, Sephora has partnered with ChemForward, a non-profit collaboration aimed at accelerating the time-to-market of safer chemicals. Together, Sephora, EDF and ChemForward developed safer alternative portfolios for four major groups of cosmetic ingredients on Sephora’s priority chemicals list: preservatives benzophenones, ethanolamines and cyclic silicones. To date, safer alternatives have been evaluated for 73% of Sephora’s priority chemicals.

In addition, Sephora has collaborated with Novi Connect provide suppliers with tools that help them identify safer alternatives for their product ingredients. Fifty brands have adopted these tools to date.

The combination of ambitious goals, public accountability and genuine action enables Sephora to become a leader in promoting safer product innovation. Now it is time for the others to follow.