Look on the bright — or even hot pink — side. Eva NYC will have a new, colorful, and sustainable look for the new year come 2025. The Brooklyn-based hair care brand’s packaging will transition from up to 25% recycled aluminum to a minimum of 50% post-consumer recycled plastic, which the brand boasts will reduce “total greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 30%” and make the packaging entirely “curbside recyclable.”

The Climate Neutral brand is no stranger to an eco-conscious relaunch. In 2021, they shifted to aluminum packaging, sourcing some material from recycled cans in Spain. Super-recycling-friendly packaging was one of the innovations that earned them Ulta’s Conscious Beauty Brand of the Year 2023. Still, the brand soon found they’d hit a bit of a wall on their path to use more recycled aluminum, something they wanted to do because creating virgin aluminum is more carbon-intensive than creating plastic.

“One of the commitments that we made when we went into aluminum was to continue to improve upon our sustainability,” said brand President Annie Kolemainen. “And I’ll be transparent, finding a roadmap to how we’re going to get to more recycled aluminum proved to be nearly impossible. We really thought we would be able to improve as we scaled the amount of recyclability—we’re using about 25% recycled, and we just can’t get it higher. And so that was something we had to think about: What’s the future of the pack? Sustainability is a journey, and you keep learning and changing.”

The brand’s new recycled plastic containers will also improve functionality, Kolemanien said, something consumer feedback indicated was a must. (“The aluminum slips out of my hands” was heard more than once from their communities on social, where engagement is high. Eva NYC has partnered with 1,600+ creators in 2024, delivering 105M+ impressions and 12M engagements, according to the brand.)

This trial and error brought other welcome insights, including that Eva NYC wasn’t truly “getting credit” for their sustainability efforts, something they want to be Brooklyn-level loud about from now on, shouting their slogan “Better Haircare, Mindfully Made.”

“You’ve got to take leaps and risks — sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t,” said Kolemanien. “We are pioneers in the space, and at the end of the day, it didn’t make sense to continue [using aluminum]. Continuing to reduce our emissions is paramount for the brand.” This mission comes in part from being B-Corp certified, a point of pride that comes with specific parameters. “Being B-Corp certified, we’re math people,” said Kolemanien. “[Our B-Corp certification score] is 106.2 (the average score is 50.9). Eva NYC is actually now branded climate-positive, certified cruelty-free, and vegan, and we have a 2035 Net Zero target.”

Supply chain efficiencies made this year will help them along toward that goal. Eva NYC is produced domestically, and their warehouse was recently relocated to Dallas “to find efficiencies in terms of freight and shipping,” Kolemanien said.

Sustainably sourcing ingredients will also play a role in the brand’s future. Eva NYC’s new Repair Ritual Strength line resources its red algae responsibly from Japan. Clean ingredients abide; the brand has banned 1,300 ingredients and meets EU regulations.

“We’re Eva-clean,” said Kolemanien. “That what this renovation is all about; keeping our Brooklyn identity, I’m going to tell it to you like it is.”