Beauty boss Brianne West is named a global thinker
Friday, 16 December 2016
A young beauty company entrepreneur from Christchurch has been named in a list of the US Foreign Policy magazine's 100 leading 'Global Thinkers' of 2016.
Brianne West, 29, is the founder and chief executive of beauty bar firm Ethique, which specialises in cruelty-free, climate-friendly products.
She was stunned to appear in the list alongside billionaire philanthropists Melinda Gates, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan as well as global leaders such as the President of Taiwamn, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
Foreign Policy current affairs magazine recognises a hundred people each year, whose ideas have changed or shaped the world through business, politics, the arts, diplomacy or science.
Ethique was the only New Zealand business to feature on the prestigious list.
'I'm so incredibly humbled to receive this sort of global recognition for our achievements to date,' said West, who attended the annual Global Thinkers presentation ceremony in Washington D.C.
'A huge part of what we do at Ethique is about eliminating plastic bottles and wasted water caused by personal care products. But it's so much more than that too. We have to stop transferring responsibility for saving our environment onto consumers. Businesses need to lead the way and become responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products.'
West, who is a qualified biologist, founded Ethique in 2012 while completing her second year of a science degree at the University of Canterbury.
The product range includes solid shampoos, conditioners, body washes and face creams, as well as household cleaning products and pet wash - all sold in biodegradable and compostable packaging.
West said more than eight million plastic, personal care product bottles and packets were disposed of each day in the United States alone.
West operates Ethique along a sustainable business model. Ingredients for the products are naturally derived and come from ethical sustainable sources.
'I'm passionate about social enterprise and the changes it can bring about,' she said.
'So far, we've prevented the manufacture and disposal of more than 130,000 plastic bottles. Our next goal is one million and our overall vision is to have a bar in every shower - that is how we will save the environment.
'I don't necessarily mean an Ethique bat, although that would be good. I want to create change on an industry level, where people move away from the idea of liquid products which require plastic packaging and use lots of water.'
Earlier this year, US actor Ashton Kutcher's video endorsement of the brand caused a 235 per cent spike in sales.