Estée Lauder smashes 2025 water goal

Achievement is a bright spot as US beauty firm makes less headway on packaging and emissions targets

Estée Lauder has surpassed its 2025 water-reduction goal by more than 100%. 

The US cosmetics specialist said in 2022 it would reduce water withdrawals from its manufacturing sites by 20% by the end of this year.   

Its latest sustainability report revealed this week that it had achieved a 41% reduction, which it attributed primarily to the recent decommissioning of a “water-intensive system” at its manufacturing facility in New York State.  

That two-year project was described by the firm as playing a “key role in supporting our 2025 water withdrawal reduction target with approximately 180,000 cubic meters in water savings, representing a 34% reduction from fiscal 2024”. 

But Estée Lauder fared less well on its other sustainability goals. 

It is set to miss all its 2025 targets on packaging, including an ambition for 75-100% to be recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled or recoverable. 

At 72%, the company said it had made “meaningful progress” given the “challenging recycling infrastructure and evolving regulatory requirements across markets”. 

On climate, Estée Laude wants to halve its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030. 

It has made a “small net reduction” so far, with a 37.6% drop compared to its 2018 baseline. 

On its Scope 3 emissions, it described its year-on-year progress as “flat”. 

Its stated goal is to reduce Scope 3 emissions by “60% per unit revenue by 2030”, but it had achieved reductions of just 14.2% so far.