Sustainability

OPENING STATEMENT

At Triumph and Disaster we have always been passionate about producing products that are derived from nature and engineered with science - this has been our mantra for over a decade. It might be defined as 'clean skincare' or 'sustainable skincare', we just believe it's the only way to be.

The reality is however, today human endeavour has placed the natural world under greater strain than ever before, we believe now is the time for responsible companies to introduce real change across their business to help mitigate that strain.

Business should be operated in a way that enhances communities and the environment to ensure a sustainable future for all. We are by no means perfect and recognise we have an obligation to seek continuous improvement in order to play our part.

In an effort to put our money where our mouth is, we have created a sustainability strategy, our roadmap to keep ourselves on task. It is designed to challenge us with ambitious goals, help us communicate our vision and keep us accountable to you — our valued stakeholders. We invite you to read this and provide us with your valuable feedback, ideas and questions.

Many thanks,
 

ANIMAL TESTING

“It's ok to eat fish because they don't have any feelings”.
Kurt Cobain

Imagine the world without pets.
Can't do it, we love our animals too much.
But as the statement above reveals in a way that only Kurt could, we are all hypocrites, well most of us anyway. We go fishing, eat meat, have cheese on our crackers, and pull on our woollen socks. Yep, when required we can close our eyes with the best of them.

But there is a line, a line we can draw and remain on the right side of and that is the animal testing line. You know the one with the rabbits in cages and the mice in the maze, white strobe lights flickering while Pavlov's dog salivates.

Ok, we are being a little provocative but in truth this is a real line and one that from day one T&D vowed never to cross.

Today, over ten years after selling our first face cream we are proud to say we still do not test on animals (other than ourselves).

SAFE INGREDIENTS

Your trust is paramount to us, it is important to us that we give you all the information and explain our thinking and rationale and then live up to that in our behaviours and performance. Never is this more important than when it comes to the ingredients we use. So in full transparency a list of our ingredients and their definitions can be found here.

Equally, we want to tell you about the ingredients you will never find in a T&D product, 'the banned list' if you will.

If you are a skincare junky of even the most passing habit, then you will now be well aware of the plethora of claims being made both for and against many 'wonder ingredients' used in the making of skincare and grooming products.

Even for our team who live and breath these products on a daily basis it can be confusing, one paper says one thing that contradicts what is said on some  website, that both fly in the face of claims made by a leading brand.

This is a weekly if not daily occurrence for our team. And if we are honest at times it can become a little demoralising. It would be much simpler to live in a black and white world, but we don't.

So to try and make things easier for you our valued customers but also for us and our own internal health we've put together a list of 'banned' products that T&D will not use, along with our rationale as to why.

We have compiled this list based upon the best science we have available, we lean heavily but not exclusively on the 'Skindeep Database', an independent body that rates ingredients from safe to hazardous based on the most up to date science and information in the industry.

It is important to note there will be ingredients that some might think should be on this list, there are bound to be some we simply have not considered because we would never use them in our formulations and there might be some that we actually do use but we believe there is no evidence to support claims against them.

Finally, it's also important to note that there are ingredients we have not banned like Palm oil. Although we try to use as little as possible, to not use palm would mean replacing it with coconut or rape seed or some other natural oil, these can use up to ten times the land that the same plantation of palm would use. You can more on our palm stance here.

So, like we said, it's not a black and white world there is grey, but where we can be black and white we have so here is our banned list and the rational why they are banned. Enjoy

SUGARCANE

We certainly don’t have all the answers, but one little solution we have come across in the great packaging debacle is an easy to grow crop and just as easy to dispose of; sugarcane, which we have taken advantage of turning into our plastic tubes. (At present our new beard range and Ritual Cleanser).
 
Sugarcane is a renewable source meaning the whole process from seed to the finished sustainable plastic is better for you, our business and Earth. Every day whether wittingly or not, all aspects of our shopping habits add to the carbon build up we are reminded of on every screen and billboard. It’s about sourcing out the readily available solutions we have at our disposal without compromising on the quality T&D stands for. 

REVISITING OUR SUSTAINABILITY ROADMAP

Our longest standing love is our commitment to the Earth as we revisit our sustainability strategy and reflect upon the continuous journey, marking where we are and how that aligns with where we are heading.

We’re going to be honest, it’s easy to sideline and forget our commitments laid out in 2021 amongst the day-to-day running of the business. Working with the Circularity team based here in New Zealand has become pivotal, as we endorse their practice bringing circular by design thinking into all areas of our business; a root to the decision process. It provides us with a foundation to measure ourselves up against, and ensure the longevity of T&D.

We have outlined the goals in our Roadmap across three checkmarks

1. Goals met
2. Continued goals for the year
3. Updated five year roadmap goals