Interview with Jean-Baptiste Massignon, Managing Director, EcoBeautyScore Association and Laurent Gilbert, Scientific Director, EcoBeautyScore Association
Jean-Baptiste Massignon, Managing Director and Laurent Gilbert, Scientific Director,
EcoBeautyScore Association
The EcoBeautyScore is based on the EU’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology and assesses 16 environmental impacts. Could you explain which specific impact categories are included and how they contribute to the final rating (A to E)?
Laurent Gilbert: As you mention, EcoBeautyScore uses life cycle assessment to evaluate environmental impact for each product scored, meaning it reviews the impacts on the 16 planetary impact categories across the full lifetime of the product, including the consumer use phase.
It calculates the impact of the 16 categories as defined by the European Commission’s product environmental footprint methodology:
1. Climate change
2. Ozone depletion
3. Human toxicity, cancer effects
4. Human toxicity, non-cancer effects
5. Particulate matter
6. Ionising radiation
7. Photochemical ozone formation
8. Acidification
9. Eutrophication, terrestrial
10. Eutrophication, freshwater
11. Eutrophication, marine
12. Exotoxicity, freshwater
13. Land use
14. Water use
15. Resource use, fossils
16. Resource use, minerals and metals
These 16 values are then normalized and weighted, resulting in a single aggregated footprint value. This footprint value is placed on a scale for a given product segment that includes 5 performance classes (A to E), running from the lowest impacts for that category of products to the highest.
Which independent institutions review the data and calculations behind the EcoBeautyScore, and how is scientific integrity ensured throughout the process?
Laurent Gilbert: The EcoBeautyScore methodology has been co-designed by scientists and reviewed externally by a panel of independent LCA experts, as well as undergoing two rounds of external stakeholder review.
In addition, the Association has worked with E&H, the consulting branch of the Ecocert group, who reviewed and verified the EcoBeautyScore methodology and platform on 26th May 2025 to ensure compliance with the principles of the European Commission’s PEF methodology and ISO norms 14020/14025.
Brands who choose to use EcoBeautyScore to score their products are regularly audited by a third party control and certification system (according to a list of 5 approved certifiers, including EcoCert), further reinforcing the tool’s credibility and scientific integrity.
Many consumers remain skeptical of sustainability claims. How does the EcoBeautyScore create transparency and help prevent greenwashing in the beauty industry?
Jean-Baptiste Massignon: The EcoBeautyScore was created in response to a growing demand from both consumers and regulators for more transparency and trust in sustainability claims within the beauty and personal care industry. For years, consumers have faced confusion when trying to understand the environmental impact of the products they buy. With so many competing claims and lack of consistent standards, it became evident that the industry was missing a unified way to measure and communicate sustainability to customers of personal care items such as body wash and shampoo. Our inspiration came from the desire to simplify this complex issue and provide consumers with an easy-to-understand, scientifically backed system to make more informed purchasing choices.
Through our science-based, independently verified methodology, consumers have access to clear, consistent scores to be able to compare like-for-like products, no longer having to rely on vague terms like "eco-friendly" or "green" that are often unsubstantiated. Instead, they will have access to easy-to-understand scores that demystify the true level of sustainability of the products they are considering purchasing.
How significant is the difference in score between similar products – for example, a liquid shampoo in plastic packaging versus a solid shampoo bar – and how understandable are these differences for consumers?
Laurent Gilbert: The purpose of EcoBeautyScore is to distill the complexity of lifecycle assessment science into a simple, easy to understand A to E scale for consumers. The idea being that this scale clearly signposts which products have a higher or lower comparative environmental impact compared to other products delivering the same benefit. Each product segment (category) has its own A to E scale, based on the highest and lowest footprints of that type of product. For this reason, the difference between an A/B score in one category may be smaller or larger than the difference between an A/B score in another category. What’s important is that each category’s scale is able to differentiate product impact through a variety of scores (i.e. consumers can see A scores as well as D/E scores on products), thus enabling consumers to make a purchase decision with this knowledge of comparative impact in mind.
Anyone interested in learning more about the EcoBeautyScore methodology can find out more here or on our website ecobeautyscore.com.
How are factors such as consumer usage and disposal – like water consumption during showering or recycling behavior – accounted for in the lifecycle assessment?
Laurent Gilbert: Each factor across the full lifecycle of the product is taken into consideration, including consumer usage and disposal.
Consumer Use Phase
This includes everything that happens when a consumer uses a cosmetics and personal care product, this typically means:
• Water consumption (e.g., during showering with shampoo or body wash)
• Energy use (e.g., hot water use, blow-drying hair)
• Product dosage (how much is used per application)
This is accounted for in our methodology through harmonized data on average shower times, water temperatures, and product quantities per use to model these impacts.
End-of-Life / Disposal Phase
This covers what happens after the product is finished:
• Packaging disposal (e.g., plastic bottle recycling, landfill, incineration)
• Recyclability of materials
• End of life of formula (e.g. connection rate to the waste water treatment plant, removal rate, as well as the environmental profile of the ingredients)
It’s accounted for in the EcoBeautyScore methodology through regional waste management averages (e.g., EU recycling rates for plastic) and standardized end-of-life scenarios for packaging to ensure fair comparisons, as well as the removal rate of ingredients at end of life.
Including use and disposal phases is critical in beauty products because consumer habits often drive a large portion of the environmental impact—especially when hot water is involved. In some cases (like shampoos), the use phase can account for 70% of a product’s total impact.
To what extent does the EcoBeautyScore help brands internally to improve the ecological performance of their products? Are there any examples where the score has led to concrete design changes?
Jean-Baptiste Massignon: The EcoBeautyScore scoring system helps brands gain insights into the key lifecycle stages that contribute to their product’s environmental impact. Through the EcoBeautyScore platform, brands receive a detailed breakdown of the 16 PEF impact categories, across all lifecycle stages of the product. This analysis helps companies identify environmental hotspots across their whole portfolio and guide them in developing or refining their eco-design strategies.
Most importantly, brands will be able to not only understand how their products score but also compare their performance against similar products on the market.
The EcoBeautyScore has only just launched so it’s too early for brands to have made any product formulation or packaging changes as a result. However, one of the key aims of the initiative is to democratize access to LCA product insights for all brands, thus enabling a culture of eco-design that will help to shift the industry towards reducing its footprint.
Currently, the system covers only four product categories. What are the main challenges in expanding it to more complex products like decorative cosmetics or perfumes?
Laurent Gilbert: The main work involved in opening up new product segments is building the database to underpin the footprint calculations and establishing the scales (A to E) per segment.
Database development
This PEF methodology provides a great framework for the method of calculating environmental impact, however it only covered approx 30% of the ingredients used in the cosmetics industry.
For each new product segment, we therefore have to complement the existing EF 3.1 PEF database with two types of data:
1. Characterisation / emission factors (to be able to measure the impact of an ingredient across the 16 impact categories for the full product lifecycle)
2. Activity data (such as use dose, amount of water used, product leftover rate, etc.)
These two types of data need to be developed for the most impacting ingredients found in products in the new segments - whether due to high concentrations in the formulations or because the production of those ingredients can have a high impact.
Scales calibration
In addition, for each new segment the A to E scales need to be built. Each scale is calibrated by setting the extremes, i.e. determining the highest and lowest impacts of products in that segment. This is done through a process of representative sampling, whereby a sample-set of products that are representative of that segment are measured and their impacts used to set the scale thresholds.
How does the system account for regional differences – for instance, in energy sources, water management, or waste infrastructure – when products are sold internationally?
Laurent Gilbert: The EcoBeautyScore methodology has been developed and tested using regional averages for the upstream data wherever possible (such as transportation, ingredient & packaging production, etc. ) and global averages for downstream data (such as waste water connectivity rates and energy mixes). We conducted several rounds of testing calculating product footprints & scores using both regional and global averages. Given there can be as much difference even within a region (e.g. the energy mix in France is not the same as Greece) as outside, it made most sense to adopt global parameters, which we found has a minimal impact on overall scores of products.
More information can be found in our methodology here.
You’ve mentioned that the platform is free to access for companies of all sizes. How accessible is it really for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and what do they need to get started?
Jean-Baptiste Massignon: We strongly believe that access to sustainability insights should not only be available to the large brands who have in-house specialists - through our scoring platform we democratize access to product impact data and insights for all. We therefore offer an affordable pricing model based on company size, to make EcoBeautyScore accessible and inclusive to small, medium and large enterprises.
Smaller or independent brands who choose to use EcoBeautyScore benefit from the data, expertise and insights of the larger brands, which have been leveraged by the initiative to be available to all as part of the standardised measurement and scoring framework.
Brands don’t need to be experts in sustainability to use the platform; it’s designed to be usable by companies of all sizes. For smaller brands, we provide onboarding tools and dedicated support to guide them through the process as needed. Our goal is to make sustainability accessible to everyone in the industry, whether you’re a global player or a smaller emerging brand.
Beauty brands can trial the platform for free to score up to three products here.
Brands interested in joining the movement can learn more at www.ecobeautyscore.com or contact us: contact@ecobeautyscore.org.
Finally, what is the EcoBeautyScore Association’s vision for the next five years? Could the score serve as a blueprint for sustainability communication beyond the cosmetics sector?
Jean-Baptiste Massignon: Over the next five years, our vision is to help reshape the way environmental information is communicated in the beauty and personal care industry. We want to empower consumers to make more informed choices by giving them a clear, consistent way to understand and compare the environmental impact of the products they use—no matter the brand or category.
In a market saturated with vague or inconsistent “green” claims, EcoBeautyScore offers a science-based, third-party-reviewed methodology that brings much-needed clarity. Our goal is to drive transparency across the industry—equipping brands with a common framework to measure, reduce, and communicate product impact, and helping consumers cut through the noise.
From late 2025, EcoBeautyScores will begin appearing on packaging in European markets. New categories are already in development—including face cleansers, toners, micellar waters, body moisturisers and after-sun products—set to launch in early 2026. We aim to expand to cover the full spectrum of cosmetics and personal care, from decorative makeup to oral care, fragrance, and grooming.
EcoBeautyScore is a global initiative, and we plan to expand beyond Europe in the coming years. Whether it becomes a blueprint for sustainability communication in other sectors remains to be seen—but for now, our focus is on building a practical, credible, and accessible system for beauty and personal care. If it proves valuable elsewhere, we’ll be ready to explore that next step.
Jean-Baptiste Massignon, Managing Director, EcoBeautyScore Association
Jean-Baptiste Massignon has been involved with the EcoBeautyScore since 2021 and is now Managing Director of the Association. Having started his career as a civil servant, he brings to the initiative extensive governance experience of large and multi-stakeholder organisations of different types and sizes, complemented by a background in finance and technology. Besides his commitment to sustainability, Jean-Baptiste Massignon is involved in diverse projects.
Laurent Gilbert, Scientific Director, EcoBeautyScore Association
Laurent Gilbert, a PhD in Organic Chemistry and former Director at L’Oréal, has over 20 years of experience driving innovation in sustainable development. At L’Oréal, he led the Sustainable Development and Environmental Research team, overseeing the implementation of global sustainability programs such as Sharing Beauty with All and L’Oréal for the Future. In 2022, he founded PBSI-Conseil to help industries transition toward sustainable practices within planetary boundaries. He has since contributed to the EcoBeautyScore methodology and continues to support the development of sustainability-focused tools and strategies.
