If there was ever any doubt about how heated the competition has become to develop new preservatives to cater to consumer demand for alternatives to formaldehyde, triclosan and other chemicals, it should be evaporated by this story about an actual prize competition to find those new ingredients.
A competition has been launched to search for alternatives to conventional preservatives, with big industry sponsorship stumping up $175,000 in prize money.
The Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (GC3) and InnoCentive are behind the competition, the GC3 Challenge, meant to find innovators developing preservatives with improved safety profiles for use in cosmetics, personal care and household products. To date, it’s already attracted 70 entrants.
Among the company sponsors? Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and Reckitt Benckiser. All of whom have a lot at stake in this race, as consumers vote with their pocketbooks for products that can claim they’re avoiding traditional preservatives. Johnson & Johnson, for instance, took pains to trumpet the fact it was reformulating products like Johnson’s Baby Shampoo to eliminate formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane.
A P.R. tactic stemming from a real need…
The competition obviously has a major P.R. angle to it, which may be why it has a long string of other sponsors attached: Babyganics, Beautycounter, Beiersdorf, Colgate-Palmolive, Kao USA, Method – People Against Dirty, SC Johnson, Unilever, Target, and Walmart.
The need to show a focus on safety is crucial, though, because brands and manufacturers are in a tough spot. Consumers are often less interested in science than they are in alarmism: As The New York Times article pointed out, Johnson & Johnson execs pointed out that formaldehyde occurs naturally in a lot of products: “a person’s exposure to formaldehyde in an apple, they claim, is greater than it is in 15 bottles of baby shampoo.”
That won’t cut it with cosmetics consumers, though. So the impetus to find new ingredients – and make sure consumers are aware of the effort – will drive more campaigns and media plays like the GC3 Challenge, in addition to the work that’s already being done in laboratories by dedicated formulators and scientists.
