In March 2020, Ethical Consumer viewed the Lavera website for the company's environmental policy or report. No such information could be found. An environmental policy was deemed necessary to report on a company's environmental performance and set targets for reducing its impacts in the future. A strong policy would include two future, quantified environmental targets, demonstration by the company that it had a reasonable understanding of its main environmental impacts, be dated within two years and have its environmental data independently verified.

Although the company website contained some discussion on actions the company had taken in relation to sustainable packaging and general statements on sustainable business practices, it had not published an environmental report expanding on this and going into further detail about its practices.

Lavera did not meet any of these criteria therefore it received Ethical Consumer's worst rating for Environmental Reporting and lost a whole mark in this category.

In March 2020, Ethical Consumer searched the Lavera website for the company's policy on the use of the hazardous chemicals parabens, triclosan and phthalates.

Some forms or uses of these chemicals were banned or restricted in the EU or the USA.
Triclosan is an antibacterial and a suspected endocrine disruptor. Parabens are also endocrine disruptors and have been linked to breast cancer. They are used as preservatives. Phthalates, usually DEP or DBP, are used in fragrances and are endocrine disruptors.
A strong policy on toxics would be no use of these chemicals or clear, dated targets for ending their use.

The following statement was found on the website of Lavera's UK distributor, Pravera:

Lavera natural skincare contains 100% natural and organic ingredients. None of the products are tested on animals and do not contain parabens, SLS, phthalates, parraffinium, or petrochemicals.

In addition, Lavera stated that 100% of its products were certified by Natrue (The international Natural and Organic Cosmetics Association). The following statements were found on Natrue's website about the certification criteria:

"NATRUE permits a selected number of preservatives of natural, derived natural and nature-identical origin in the formulation of cosmetic products, and prohibits the use of preservatives such as Triclosan, Phenoxyethanol and parabens".

"NATRUE does not allow anysynthetic chemicals that can exhibit EDC activity: no preservatives like parabens, no synthetic UV-filters and no phthalates in fragrances."

On the basis of these statements, Ethical Consumer was satisfied that Lavera did not use any of the three chemicals in question. It therefore received Ethical Consumer's best rating for its toxic chemicals policy.

In March 2020 Ethical Consumer viewed the Lavera website. This showed that Lavera was certified by Natrue. Ethical Consumer viewed the Natrue website. A fact sheet on microplastics which explicitly stated that “all microplastics are prohibited” by Natrue. However the company did not mention the use of non-biodegradable liquid polymers. Ethical Consumer conducted a search of the company’s consumer website for the most common polymers of this type, none were found to in the company’s products. As such the company was deemed to have a positive policy and this story was marked as information only.

According to Beat the Microbead, there are more than 500 known microplastics ingredients that can be found in our personal care products such as toothpastes, face washes, scrubs and shower gels. They are tiny plastic particles that are added for their exfoliating properties, but sometimes purely for aesthetic purposes only.

ACcording to a recent report by Code Check, non-biodegradable liquid polymers were also prevalent across a wide range of cosmetic products. Like microplastics, these materials degrade with a similar difficulty in the environment and may cause similar harm.

In 2018, the UK government banned the use of microbeads in toothpastes, shower gels and facial scrubs. However, some products classified as “leave on” were not subject to the ban, this would include lotions, sun cream and makeup, as well as abrasive cleaning products. This ban did not extend to non-biodegradable liquid polymers.

In March 2020, Ethical Consumer viewed the Lavera website for a policy on palm oil. No information could be found.

The RSPO website did not list Lavera as a member, which meant that the company had not submitted an ACOP form to the RSPO containing data about its palm oil sourcing.

Due to the fact that Lavera sold personal care products it was considered likely that the company was using products containing palm oil or derivatives thereof.

In addition, Lavera's ingredients lists included substances likely to be palm oil derivatives, such as Hydrogenated Palm Glycerides.

As a result the company lost a whole mark under the Palm Oil category.