Measuring the Daily Stone's Carbon & Waste Footprint
3 Kate McLeod Starter Kit & Refill analysis
4 Comparing Body Stone vs. a typical body lotion
3 Kate McLeod Starter Kit & Refill analysis
4 Comparing Body Stone vs. a typical body lotion
Kate McLeod is a personal care brand that has leveraged Bluebird’s platform to understand the carbon and waste impact of their Daily Stone, a waterless body moisturizer designed with limited packaging.
Kate McLeod is a brand that created a waterless body moisturizer called Daily Stone. The product was designed to replace traditional body lotion, since body lotion is often packaged in plastic packaging and contains a large proportion of water in its formula.
The Daily Stone is thoughtfully designed in a concentrated, solid format to provide maximum hydration while completely eliminating the need for water-tight plastic packaging. And, because the Daily Stone is a concentrated solid format, approximately 62% less water is shipped during product transportation vs. shipping a typical bottle of body lotion.
Kate McLeod sells in an initial Starter Kit that includes one Daily Stone and a reusable bamboo canister, which is designed to store the Daily Stone between uses. After the first use, consumers purchase Daily Stone Refill, which contains a single Daily Stone that can be used and stored in the initial canister.
Kate McLeod used our platform to discover ways to make the product more sustainable. Below you can learn more about what we measured to find out the carbon and waste footprint of the product, what the results were, and how Daily Stone stacks up against a typical body lotion.
How a product can change any or all of these factors depends quite a bit on what the product is, especially in terms of the infrastructure currently available for its development. We discovered that there were five major areas of potential for Kate McLeod:
Materials and product design
Component manufacturing
Transportation of materials
Recyclability
Degradability
While the above five areas were the most impactful, Kate McLeod considered all potential areas of impact when assessing the footprint of both the Starter Kit and Refill.
Materials and product design
The Daily Stone Starter Kit contains one reusable bamboo jar and cap (173g) packaged in an FSC certified paper sleeve (6g), with a reusable cotton gauze wrapper (8.5g) to store and protect the Daily Stone between uses.
Although the emissions generated by the reusable Bamboo jar and cap are somewhat intensive (note: the carbon emissions stored by the bamboo plant as it grows are not factored into CO2e impact), when amortized over at least 10 refills, the total per-use impact from materials is significantly lower than an average bottle of body lotion.
The materials and product design for the Daily Stone Starter Kit has a carbon footprint of 165 gCO2e, accounting for 24 percent of the product’s carbon footprint.
Component manufacturing
When comparing to the materials used in the production of the packaging, the manufacturing of the packaging is actually much more intensive. This is because of the energy required to process the bamboo plant, once harvested, into a form that can be used for a reusable storage container. In addition, the energy required to process cotton into the gauze wrapper also contributes to the high proportion of emissions coming from component manufacturing.
Component manufacturing for the Daily Stone Starter Kit has a carbon footprint of 390 gCO2e, accounting for 56 percent of the product’s carbon footprint.
Transportation of materials
As important as materials are, the distances materials travel along the supply chain can be a significant contributor to a product’s carbon footprint. In the case of the Daily Stone Starter Kit, the bamboo jar and cap are produced in China, the FSC certified paper sleeve is produced in California, and the cotton gauze wrapper is produced in Maryland. All packaging materials are shipped by sea and/or truck to Red Hook, New York for co-manufacturing.
The transportation of packaging and materials for the Daily Stone Starter Kit has a carbon footprint of 105 gCO2e, accounting for 15 percent of the product’s carbon footprint.
Degradability and Recyclability
The Daily Stone Starter Kit is thoughtfully designed for reusability, with the bamboo jar and cap designed for continued reuse. The FSC certified paper sleeve is 100% curbside recyclable in the US, and the lightweight, undyed cotton gauze wrap is home compostable.
In order to fairly calculate waste for recyclable components, we apply the US EPA’s average recycling rate for each material class to the total weight of the component. This gives us a better idea of what portion of packaging materials will actually be recycled, and what portion is likely to be sent to landfill. We take a similar approach for compostability by applying GreenBlue's guidance on US resident access to composting facilities.
Overall, the carbon footprint for the Daily Stone Starter Kit is 698 gCO2e and the waste footprint is 182 grams of waste per unit. Below, you can see the breakdown of the product’s carbon footprint.
Daily Stone Starter Kit
% of the Total Carbon Impact
Materials and Packaging Design
165 gCO2e
24%
Component Manufacturing
390 gCO2e
56%
Transportation of Materials
105 gCO2e
15%
Transportation of the Product
38 gCO2e
5%
Materials and product design
Daily Stone Refills are shipped in low-waste, plastic-free packaging, wrapped in the same cotton gauze and shipped in an FSC certified paperboard carton (9g).
The materials and packaging design for the Daily Stone Refill has a carbon footprint of 46 gCO2e, accounting for 27 percent of the product’s carbon footprint.
Component manufacturing
As in the Starter Pack, component manufacturing is a large portion of impact for the Daily Stone Refill. This is largely due to the energy required to process cotton into the gauze wrapper.
Component manufacturing has a carbon footprint of 99 gCO2e, accounting for 60 percent of the product’s carbon footprint.
Transportation of materials
While transportation of materials is a still a contributor to the Daily Stone Refill's carbon footprint, the overall contribution is lower due to local sourcing of its packaging components within the US. The FSC certified paperboard folding carton for additional Daily Stone Refills is produced in California. All packaging materials are shipped by truck to Red Hook, New York where the Daily Stone is manufactured and packaged.
The transportation of packaging and materials for the Daily Stone Refill has a carbon footprint of 6 gCO2e, accounting for 4 percent of the product’s carbon footprint.
Degradability and Recyclability
The Daily Stone Refill is designed for recyclability, similar to the Daily Stone Starter Kit.
The Daily Stone Starter Kit produces 182g of waste by the product’s end of life, with each Daily Stone Refill producing an additional 10g of waste. After a minimum lifespan of 10 uses, the waste produced by the Daily Stone Starter Kit + subsequent Refills results in 27.5g of waste per refill, a 50% lower waste output than typical bottle of body lotion.
Overall, the carbon footprint for the Daily Stone Refill is 166 gCO2e and the waste footprint is 10 grams of waste per unit. Below, you can see the breakdown of the product’s carbon footprint.
Daily Stone Refill
% of the Total Carbon Impact
Materials and Packaging Design
46 gCO2e
27%
Component Manufacturing
99 gCO2e
60%
Transportation of Packaging and Materials
6 gCO2e
4%
Transportation of the Product
15 gCO2e
9%
Because The Daily Stone Starter Kit is designed for reuse, things get pretty interesting when comparing The Daily Stone Starter Kit + Daily Stone Refills to typical bottles of body lotion. Below, you can see the carbon, waste, and plastic impact of the Starter Pack + Refill compared to a bottle of body lotion. The impact is measured on a per use basis.
After 1 use of the Daily Stone Starter Kit (1 included Daily Stone)
Carbon impact
Waste impact
Plastic waste
Daily Stone Starter Kit (1 use)
656 gCO2e
182 g
0 g
Typical Bottle of Body Lotion (1 use)
552 gCO2e
56 g
40 g
Sustainability Impact
↑ 15% more carbon
↑ 69% more waste
↓ 100% less plastic waste
After 5 reuses of the Daily Stone Starter Kit (1 included Daily Stone + 4 Refills)
Carbon impact
Waste impact
Plastic waste
Daily Stone Starter Kit + Refills (5 reuses)
1,321 gCO2e
223 g
0 g
Typical Bottle of Body Lotion (5 purchases)
2,761 gCO2e
278 g
195 g
Sustainability Impact
↓ 52% less carbon
↓ 20% less waste
↓ 100% less plastic waste
After 10 reuses of the Daily Stone Starter Kit (1 included Daily Stone + 9 Refills)
Carbon impact
Waste impact
Plastic waste
Daily Stone Starter Kit + Refills (10 reuses)
2,152 gCO2e
275 g
0 g
Typical Bottle of Body Lotion (10 purchases)
5,523 gCO2e
556 g
390 g
Sustainability Impact
↓ 61% less carbon
↓ 50% less waste
↓ 100% less plastic waste
After 20 reuses of the Daily Stone Starter Kit (1 included Daily Stone + 19 Refills)
Carbon impact
Waste impact
Plastic waste
Daily Stone Starter Kit + Refills (5 reuses)
3,816 gCO2e
378 g
0 g
Typical Bottle of Body Lotion (5 purchases)
11,047 gCO2e
1,113 g
780 g
Sustainability Impact
↓ 65% less carbon
↓ 66% less waste
↓ 100% less plastic waste
In short, after 1 purchase of the Daily Stone Starter Kit and 3 purchases of the Refill, Kate McLeod's products produce fewer carbon and waste emissions than typical bottled body lotion for the same number of uses. And the longer someone uses Kate McLeod's Refills instead of a traditional body lotion, the greater the reduction of the product’s carbon and waste footprint.
* Benchmarking Data for Typical Body Lotion
Bluebird’s benchmark database of industry averages was used to calculate the footprint of a typical bottle of body lotion. Typically, body wash is packaged in an HDPE bottle with a mixed-polymer Pump, a Polypropylene overcap, and label. Our database also defined the manufacturing processes, transportation methods, and other supply chain details based on industry averages for this product type.
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