Revolutionizing sustainable packaging in beauty and wellness
Ace of Air saw the urgent need to tackle beauty packaging waste and partnered with Lumenalta to create an award-winning circular and zero-waste brand.
About
Ace of Air, a trailblazing company in the beauty and wellness sector, recognized the urgent need to tackle packaging waste, a pervasive environmental issue plaguing the beauty industry.
Driven by a commitment to revolutionize consumer experiences while championing sustainability, Ace of Air sought a partner capable of bringing their vision to life.
By partnering with Lumenalta, they revolutionized every aspect of the fulfillment lifecycle to minimize environmental impact when it paired its sustainable packaging with its new circular inventory system.
#1
First place for Packaging Design (ADC 100th annual awards)
100x
Reusable packaging
70%
Reduced environmental impact from sustainable packaging
Challenge
Every year, the personal care and beauty industry produces more than 120 billion units of packaging globally — most of which are not truly recyclable. In a lifecycle analysis on various DTC beauty products, Ace of Air found that the product accounts for 25% of the environmental impact, shipping is 5%, and packaging is the remaining 70%.
Ace of Air’s beauty products come in reusable packages made from stainless steel and coated with food-grade ceramic. Instead of plastic, their airtight closures use natural rubber.
But its commitment to sustainability doesn’t stop there — it needed an easy way for consumers to receive products and return empty packaging to be cleaned and reused. They sought a tech partner to develop an entire ecosystem to track, sanitize, test, refill, store, and re-distribute its circular products.
Solution
Enter Lumenalta.
“At early stages of the journey and beyond, the team showed a genuine curiosity in building a barrier-breaking solution and were not discouraged by the many challenges and constraints inherent with being a first-of-its kind business model,” says Stephanie Stahl, CEO and co-founder of Ace of Air.
At the heart of their partnership lay the ambition to develop a circular economy solution, a concept long debated but not yet realized in the beauty industry. Together, the teams crafted a revolutionary suite of applications that set their products apart from competitors.
Leveraging Lumenalta’s expertise in technology and custom software development, the platform seamlessly integrated circular packaging solutions into Ace of Air’s product offerings. The solution spanned every facet of the fulfillment lifecycle, incorporating advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to optimize resources, minimize emissions, and ensure alignment with sustainability goals throughout the supply chain.
Lumenalta developed a flexible and scalable warehouse management system, featuring a custom app capable of scanning and tracking unique product and bulk QR codes while ensuring compliance in an emerging regulatory environment. This app monitored the product and its packaging throughout its lifecycle, from customer return to sanitization, testing, refilling, storage, packaging, and onward distribution.
Complementing this, a custom CRM managed customer orders, preferences, and analytics, enhancing the overall customer experience.
The finishing touch — an elegant consumer experience across web and mobile facilitating e-commerce, subscriptions, novel rewards and active consumer engagement of their part in the circular economy.
Results
The Ace of Air team won the “Packaging Design” award from the ADC 100th annual awards for being the “First Fully Circular Beauty & Wellness Brand,” as well as the Pentawards for Packaging Excellence for Sustainable Design.
The circular packaging-as-a-service application heralds a paradigm shift in how businesses approach sustainability. By embracing a circular economy framework centered on reuse, recycling, and resource efficiency, Ace of Air has redefined industry norms.
“Our partnership with Lumenalta was marked by mutual curiosity, innovation, and a shared commitment to driving positive change.”
Stephanie Stahl, CEO and co-founder of Ace of Air
A remote-first approach facilitated seamless collaboration across geographies, enabling rapid iteration and continuous improvement. Lumenalta’s contribution extended beyond technological expertise, offering invaluable insights, ideas, and unwavering support at every project stage.
The collaboration between Lumenalta and Ace of Air establishes a new benchmark for environmental stewardship in the beauty and wellness sector. By prioritizing innovation, partnership, and sustainability, they have showcased the transformative potential of technology in advancing sustainability goals.
