Mary Kay Champions Global Water Stewardship and Ocean Conservation

Originally published in Mary Kay's 2024 Sustainability Report

As a global sustainability advocate, Mary Kay continues to make strides in corporate water stewardship at its manufacturing sites around the world and to engage for healthy oceans through work in partnership and advocacy for women leaders in conservation.

WATER AT MARY KAY

Water, a fundamental and precious resource, is at the center of sustainability and crucial to Mary Kay’s manufacturing process. As a global sustainability advocate, the company is committed to reducing water utilization at its global manufacturing facilities in Lewisville, Texas and Hangzhou, China.

Mary Kay has a commitment to monitor our water usage as we work cross-functionally to continually improve on our comprehensive water dashboard to automate the collection of water usage data at our manufacturing site. Our goal is to improve accuracy and identify other advancements while being a responsible water steward in our local community.

100,000 GALLONS SAVED MONTHLY¹
In August 2023, Mary Kay implemented an improvement (shutting off sample ports) that is projected to save approximately 100,000 gallons per month in our R3 site. 

572,000 GALLONS SAVED ANNUALLY
Between 2021 and 2023, Mary Kay optimized several manufacturing cleaning processes which resulted in saving a projected 572,000 gallons of water each year based on production forecast in our R3 site. 

Global Alignment: Mary Kay is a signatory to two crucial causes addressing global water challenges through corporate water stewardship: the CEO Water Mandate and the United Nations Global Compact’s Sustainable Ocean Principles.

OCEAN CONSERVATION: “SUPER REEFS”

For 36 years, Mary Kay has partnered with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to tackle ocean health and coral reef awareness the world over. Through this long-standing partnership, Mary Kay supports the “Super Reefs” initiative which identifies, protects, and grows a global network of highly resilient coral reefs that can survive in a warming ocean.

The Super Reefs team brings together reef governments and communities with experts in ocean science, conservation, and management from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Stanford University, and The Nature Conservancy, along with private sector support from Mary Kay. Several areas of interest have been identified including Hawaii, Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Belize.

• 37 YEARS OF PARTNERSHIP 
• 100 CONSERVATION PROJECTS SUPPORTED WORLDWIDE
• NEARLY 50% OF THE EARTH’S CORAL REEFS HAVE BEEN LOST TO DATE.

ADVOCACY FOR WOMEN LEADERS IN CONSERVATION

The panel “Putting Coral Reef Restoration at the Heart of Ocean Conservation Action” held during the Economist Impact’s 10th World Ocean Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, allowed Mary Kay to highlight women’s crucial role in ocean conservation and to showcase our partnership with The Nature Conservancy as a best practice of private sector engagement.

WATCH THE PANEL HERE

_{¹ Methodology: These projected water savings are calculated by monitoring the data pulled from our flow meters installed and brought online in 2023 and forecasting the annual projections based on daily and weekly averages. We will continue to monitor water usage and forecast savings as projections are subject to change based on external factors such as demand.}