Sephora's Got A Brand New Badge

Planet Aware: proactive strategy or masterful marketing move?

A week after the class action lawsuit against them was thrown out, Sephora announced an evolution of their sustainability seal under a new name: Planet Aware. 

Their GTM strategy for the announcement was a smart one. To kick off earth month, Deborah Yeh, Sephora’s global chief marketing officer revealed the Planet Aware initiative at the ChangeNow2024 conference in Paris.  She was joined on stage by Christine Chang and Sarah Lee, co-CEOs and co-founders of Glow Recipe, and Mathilde Thomas, the co-founder of Caudalie, two gangbuster brands that have sustainability at the center of their brand narrative. 

On the surface, the optics on this are great. It’s a proactive move to improve transparency in the aftermath of a (bogus) lawsuit that put Sephora in the spotlight for greenwashing. 

But end-to-end sustainability and transparency are complex issues, even for a single brand. Sephora is a global multi-brand retailer representing over 500 brands, so the notion that they could prioritize sust…