Sustainability Shouldn’t Be a Marketing Tool

Paul Teasdale
May 6
3 min read

By Paul Teasdale — The Unfiltered Formulator

Conceptual image contrasting nature-inspired beauty packaging with scientific skincare formulation. — The future of sustainability isn’t rustic. It’s rigorous.

Let’s stop pretending.

Sustainability isn’t the virtue it used to be. It’s been hijacked.What started as a necessary shift in industry thinking has been reduced to a hollow aesthetic.......brown labels, leaf graphics, vague promises, and meaningless claims.

We’ve let the word “sustainable” become background noise.It’s been repeated so many times without substance that it’s lost all impact.

The truth? Most sustainability messaging in beauty isn’t about saving the planet. It’s about selling more product.

🌱 Nature Isn’t Always Greener

Let’s kill a sacred cow while we’re at it.

Natural doesn’t mean sustainable.In fact, some of the most resource-intensive ingredients in skincare come from the natural world.

Sourcing something from the earth doesn’t automatically make it better for the earth. And yet, we’ve allowed “natural” to pass for “ethical” in marketing.

Plant-based ingredients often require:

Intensive land and water use
Energy-heavy extraction methods
Large-scale farming with low yield and high waste
Vulnerability to climate shifts, pests, and poor labor practices

Synthetics, on the other hand, are often created with:

Lower water and land requirements
Greater purity and batch-to-batch consistency
Less waste, tighter controls, and cleaner production

We’re not saying synthetic is always better. We’re saying natural isn’t always the hero.

Overhead image of agricultural fields beside lab-grown skincare ingredients, symbolizing sustainability trade-offs. — Natural doesn’t always mean sustainable. Some of nature’s gifts come with a heavy cost.

🧨 Green Became a Sales Tactic — Not a Standard

The rise of “green beauty” wasn’t built on environmental science.It was built on a marketing opportunity.

Consumers started asking hard questions. Brands saw a trend.And soon, “green” became something you looked like, not something you built for.

Enter a decade of:

Earth-toned packaging that’s not actually recyclable
Labels like “eco,” “planet-friendly,” or “biodegradable” with no definition
Brands shouting “sustainability” without changing a single thing upstream

“Hell hath no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral principle.”

Exactly.The loudest voices in the green movement often have the most to gain. And the least to show.

Sustainable-looking skincare packaging on a backdrop of beauty industry waste, symbolizing superficial eco-claims. — Looks can be deceiving. Not all green packaging is as clean as it claims.

🧠 Let’s Stop Making Green the Goal

The problem isn’t that we need more rules.It’s that we need less noise.

“Green” has become a default claim — a security blanket for brands who want credit without change.

Let’s stop using sustainability as a style choice.Let’s stop using nature as an excuse.And let’s stop pretending consumers need everything to be green — when what they really need is skincare that works, doesn’t cause harm, and doesn’t lie to them.

The future isn’t greenwashed. It’s smart, safe, and quietly sustainable — not because it says so on the label, but because it was built that way from the ground up.

Modern skincare lab with subtle nature elements behind glass, representing invisible sustainability in product design. — Sustainability should be built in, not bragged about.

🧴 Final Word

We’re not here to slap more eco seals on cardboard boxes.We’re here to make products that work — without marketing smoke and mirrors.

Let’s move past green.Let’s make sustainability normal, not a novelty.Let’s build a future where skincare is judged by its performance, its safety, and its real impact — not by how earthy the packaging looks.

Because if “green” has to be shouted, it’s probably not that clean.