A few weeks ago, I had breakfast with Emma [Lewisham] whilst she was in Sydney shooting a campaign for her eponymous skincare brand. I’ve been a fan of her personally and professionally since our first meeting (coffee at Bills, I think it was early 2020). She’s gracious, warm, present and interested. For someone who wears a lot of responsibility and probably gets a lot of emails, she’s also an incredible listener.

As we ate, she casually mentioned that Emma Lewisham had just received a B Corp score of 120.9 (from its previous score of 90), positioning her as the highest-rated luxury skincare company globally in the ‘Personal Care Products’ category. In just six years, the New Zealand-founded brand has gone from relatively unheard-of to an industry leader. The brand’s efforts have also been reaffirmed by Toitū Envirocare – its Climate Positive Certification is the highest level offered by New Zealand’s leading environmental certification provider. They are 100% circular, independently certified as carbon-positive (yes, positive) and were personally endorsed by the late, great Jane Goodall. This B Corp recognition, in light of World Sustainability Day, is another well-deserved accolade for Lewisham and her team.

To build and scale a brand while maintaining this sense of integrity isn’t easy, and it isn’t cheap (two big reasons as to why it is so rare). And because Lewisham doesn’t believe in compromise, the formulas are also very efficacious, whilst being a joy to use.

Right now feels like an inflection point for the brand, and a perfect time to sit down with Lewisham to talk about the brand’s continued global expansion, a growing product suite and even greater goals to scale Emma Lewisham into a heritage luxury beauty house with zero environmental impact.

Congratulations on the B Corp announcement. What has it taken to get to this point?

Thank you. From the beginning, Emma Lewisham has been built with sustainability woven into its DNA. It’s not something we’ve added on or retrofitted – it’s part of our value system and deeply innate to who we are. It means doing the right thing when no one is looking. It’s the natural outcome of leading with integrity, care, and a commitment to genuine excellence.

I feel our B Corp score reflects that we’re doing the work with genuine intention. Achieving a world-leading score wasn’t about chasing certification; it was about building a business so aligned with our values that, when measured against a rigorous framework, reflected who we’ve always been. As a founder, there’s deep satisfaction in that alignment. Emma Lewisham is a deeply personal mission, and its success isn’t just about growth, but how we’ve gone about it. I want to look back and feel proud of what I’ve created.

You should definitely be proud. Have you been able to stop and soak this moment in? I know self-acknowledgment is usually easier said than done…

Professionally, I really try to acknowledge the team. Achieving a B Corp score at this level takes a group of people, not just one individual. It requires a collective belief in doing really genuine work, and that the daily extra effort is what makes us better. There’s so much behind the scenes that no one would even know we do when it comes to operations.

And yourself?

I do allow myself to feel a sense of pride.

Why is third-party validation important to you as a founder?

It’s really hard to know what’s legitimate in this space. There are so many claims, so much greenwashing. Third-party validation such as B Corp and our Climate Positive certification provides independent verification that what we’re saying we do, we actually do. It holds us accountable and gives our customers confidence that our commitments are genuine.

What are some of the challenges you’ve taken on that have gotten you to this point?

The way we operate our business is a much harder path to walk. You have to be gritty, resilient, and determined to navigate some of the complex, often nebulous decisions in sustainability. It’s time-consuming and often requires greater investment. Building and running a truly circular model is certainly intensive – from creating refillable packaging, to taking back materials, to rigorously reducing our carbon emissions as much as possible and offsetting whatever remains. But I take the view that we’re responsible for what we bring into the world. And we act accordingly.

What has been the single biggest challenge you’ve faced in the context of sustainability to date?

It’s actually all the small challenges that come up every single day. There’s usually no blueprint for solving them, either. The particularly hard thing is when you’ve found what seems like a great solution – especially when you’re aiming to be a luxury brand with elevated execution – only to discover it doesn’t meet our sustainability standards. From a packaging perspective for instance, we look at every single minute detail: the material itself, how it’s made, what happens after it’s finished and the carbon emissions across its entire lifecycle. Getting functional packaging that looks and feels beautiful, while ticking every single box, is exacting.

Since the 2019 launch, you’ve been committed to your sustainability principles. Where does this conviction come from?

I think it comes from growing up in New Zealand. I was surrounded by nature – beaches and farms on my doorstep. At the same time, my Grandfather and Father were involved in farming and had this innate sense of responsibility to give more than they took from the land. The belief was to treat it with respect. New Zealand is such a pioneer in sustainability and problem-solving, and I think that’s because nature is woven into the fabric of who we are as a country.

What about consumer values? What importance do they place on sustainability?

I think all consumers value sustainability. But at the same time, they’re first and foremost wanting good products. That’s what this brand has been about from the start: not asking people to compromise on luxury and product quality for sustainability.

Have you noticed a difference in different markets? Do consumer values differ in the US or UK?

I feel like what transcends everything is that our customers are really intelligent, educated, thoughtful people, and they exist all over the world.

As a brand, you’ve had some incredible affirming moments, like working with the late Jane Goodall. How did that collaboration come about?

Jane Goodall had been a theme throughout my life. I made a speech about her at school and loved her books. Looking back, it was such a full-circle moment to actually meet her and work with her.

The brand had achieved a few big milestones, and I thought to myself: who better to test this out and see if we’re genuine than Dr Jane Goodall? I wrote to her and she wrote back. It was a special partnership, and I was so privileged to spend time with Jane, learn from her, and speak alongside her in her final years. She is someone I deeply respect and admire. She has left an indelible mark on me, and with her recent passing, that recognition feels even more poignant. It’s something I’ll carry with me always.

What was it like to get to know her?

Last year, Jane came to New Zealand for her Reasons for Hope tour. I was invited to have a fireside chat with her. Before we went on stage, we spent about an hour together in a small room, just talking. What struck me most wasn’t just her incredible legacy but how grounded, kind, and generous she was. She was driven by the most profound things in life and understood what was truly important.

Any especially poignant lessons or realisations?

She taught me about the power of absolute clarity – in purpose, integrity, and self. And if you set your mind to something, you can achieve anything. Perhaps more importantly, she’s shown me what it means to be unchangeably yourself. Jane didn’t shift her personality for anyone. She was direct and upfront, and to her, that meant kindness.

You also made your circular packaging design blueprint available to other brands. Why was it so important for you to share this intellectual property rather than keep it as a competitive advantage?

The industry needs change at scale and pace, and one brand can’t achieve that alone. If we’re genuine about wanting to bring real change to the beauty industry, we need to share widely how to create a circular model.

What we shared was product-level insight, not just business-level processes. We discovered that packaging is the largest carbon contributor in producing skincare and beauty products. These were insights that hadn’t been widely understood because no one had done product-level climate-positive certification or built a truly circular model before.

Beyond products themselves, how do you see Emma Lewisham’s role as an educator and advocate for change?

We see it as our responsibility to be transparent about both our successes and our challenges. The beauty industry has operated in a certain way for so long, and if we want to shift that, we need to show that there’s another way. That means sharing data, sharing insights, sharing our methodology. We want to make it easier for other brands to follow, because ultimately, the planet doesn’t care who solves these problems – it just needs them solved.

It seems a little superfluous to ask, but how do you measure your brand’s success?

Success for me personally has changed so much over time. Now that I’ve turned 40, I have a much more mature definition of what it means to me. I grew up in a family where success was being able to be present and enjoy the simple things in life – spending time with family and friends, the experiences you had – versus the material assets you’re acquiring. This is also my view.

When I think about the business, yes, I absolutely want to grow Emma Lewisham into a heritage, global luxury skincare brand, and I believe we will. But I love that I can look in the mirror and know that we’ve done so with real care.

Some critics will argue that sustainability and scale are at odds. How do you reconcile that?

The reality is that any way of producing things has an environmental impact, and the world needs products. But there is absolutely a way to scale without having any impact. It comes down to being intentional with every single decision. It means taking responsibility for your entire value chain and being willing to invest in solutions that might cost more upfront but create less impact long term.

What advice would you give to emerging beauty founders who want to embed sustainability from day one?

Genuinely care about it. Don’t do it as a marketing line. You have to be truly passionate about it because it’s harder, more expensive, and you’ll face constant challenges. If it’s not authentic to who you are, you won’t have the resilience to keep going when it gets difficult.

Similarly, what’s the single most important action other beauty brands could take right now to create a more sustainable industry

Fundamentally, beauty’s waste and carbon issues are linked to packaging. We should all be creating refillable products, but they have to be formulations so good that customers actually want to refill them.

From there, making refills accessible can reduce carbon emissions by up to 74 per cent – this is data specific to our business – and dramatically reduce waste.

Do you have your own mentor, or someone you turn to when you need a sounding board?

Yes, I have a few people in my life who mentor me. I’ve worked with one particular mentor for 10 years who has been absolutely incredible for me – someone I can turn to for honest advice and perspective.

What was the last great book you read?

I love dipping in and out of Mary Oliver’s poetry. They bring me out of the day-to-day stress and anchor me back into what’s really important. There’s something about the way she observes the natural world that feels profound and simple at the same time.

You’re also a mother and a wife, and your husband works alongside you in the business. What’s your approach to balancing it all or knowing what to prioritise?

I don’t think I’ve mastered this. What I’ve realised is that it’s not about perfect balance, it’s about being present wherever you are. When I’m with my family, I try to be fully there. When I’m working, I give it my full focus. Having my husband in the business actually helps in many ways because we understand the demands on each other. But we’re also very intentional about protecting family time and making sure work doesn’t consume everything. Some days work needs more of me, some days my family does. It’s about being flexible and giving myself grace when things don’t go to plan.

Finally, what does time off look like for you?

Honestly, it’s the simple things. Time with my family, time in nature, cooking, and reading.