Importing cosmetic products in a sustainable manner
Heikkilä, Heidi (2024)
2024
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024122338098
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024122338098
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis was to study how cosmetic products can be imported to the Finnish market in a sustainable manner. The author saw this thesis as an important opportunity to promote the sustainable approaches in the cosmetic industry and strive her personal career towards cosmetics and sustainability matters, taking an advantage of her previous studies in cosmetology and international business.
The objective of this thesis was to create a brief guide for an importer, explaining how sustainability aspects can be addressed in the process of importing cosmetic products. The study was divided into five distinct categories addressing the aspects of suppliers, packaging, transportation, cosmetic product, and regulations and compliance.
Sustainability was approached with the help of triple bottom line theory. The theory suggests that companies should measure their profits nots only by the bottom line, but also by their broader impact on the economy and environment where they operate. Besides triple bottom line, sustainable development, environmental, social and governance (ESG), corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate responsibility (CR) and sustainability approaches in the cos-metic industry were discussed along with the fundamentals of importing cosmetic products in the theory part of this thesis.
This thesis was a case study where document analysis and thematic interviews were the main data collection methods. The objective of creating the importing guide influenced the research methods as the aim was to collect suitable data for the guide. The document analysis was conducted for the web sites of Finnish customs, TUKES and European Commission. Also importing guides of Valkoinen Risti and European Commission were analysed. Thematic interviews were conducted for three different cosmetic importers.
This study helped to realize the need for this kind of guide in the cosmetic industry. Even though all the interviewed importers were saying sustainability is in the core of their values, common guidelines and suggestions for the industry are missing.
The objective of this thesis was to create a brief guide for an importer, explaining how sustainability aspects can be addressed in the process of importing cosmetic products. The study was divided into five distinct categories addressing the aspects of suppliers, packaging, transportation, cosmetic product, and regulations and compliance.
Sustainability was approached with the help of triple bottom line theory. The theory suggests that companies should measure their profits nots only by the bottom line, but also by their broader impact on the economy and environment where they operate. Besides triple bottom line, sustainable development, environmental, social and governance (ESG), corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate responsibility (CR) and sustainability approaches in the cos-metic industry were discussed along with the fundamentals of importing cosmetic products in the theory part of this thesis.
This thesis was a case study where document analysis and thematic interviews were the main data collection methods. The objective of creating the importing guide influenced the research methods as the aim was to collect suitable data for the guide. The document analysis was conducted for the web sites of Finnish customs, TUKES and European Commission. Also importing guides of Valkoinen Risti and European Commission were analysed. Thematic interviews were conducted for three different cosmetic importers.
This study helped to realize the need for this kind of guide in the cosmetic industry. Even though all the interviewed importers were saying sustainability is in the core of their values, common guidelines and suggestions for the industry are missing.