Our Eco policies

Company Eco Policy

Himaya strives to be a company that takes responsibility for its impact on the environment and society. However, this can be challenging without compromising your protection. When it has not been possible to eliminate an environmental or social impact, we have offset this impact with innovative solutions. Himaya continues to learn, change, and adapt to all of these issues as they develop. Himaya aims to provide the best UV protection to outdoor sports whilst having no impact on the environment and society.

Co2 neutral

Himaya is CO2 Neutral; we do not want to add to the CO2 issue in our environment. The ocean absorbs most of the CO2 that we produce. As the world increases its CO2 production the oceans are unable to absorb it all, without it having some kind of effect. Due to the amount of CO2 it has to absorb it causes the ph balance to change in the ocean, making it more acidic. This has caused the coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef and also northwest America. As the reef becomes more brittle from the higher acid waters.

Also the CO2s are generally increasing the temperature of the planet and creates temperature fluctuations. A temperature difference in the water can lead to coral bleaching and the killing of the reefs.

In today's world we produce a massive amount of CO2 from social media and this is also taking into account in our calculations to offset our Social media impact.

These are just some of the reasons we offset our CO2 production.

Himaya offsets  CO2 by planting Mangrove trees in Kenya. This produces multi-benefits. Mangrove trees absorb four times more CO2 than a tropical tree. Its roots provide protection for the baby fish from their natural predictors. As the new trees are protected and monitored, they do not get cut down again by the local fishermen. This also helps to make fishing sustainable and help the local biodiversity, and these fish are a critical part to the ECO system of the local reefs.

 

The local Village is in charge of the project and the funds generated. Some of the funding is given to local issues and has helped build the new school and new freshwater supplies to the village. So this is also how Himaya can contribute to society.

 

Plastic collection for the ocean.

Himaya’s policy has been to create a circular system. It has achieved this with refillable packaging. Himaya's plastic can and is recycled in current waste management systems. However it is designed to refilled by the customer, so reducing the amount of plastic created by Himaya.

However, we wanted to be Plastic neutral by offsetting every bottle sold. Himaya calculates its total weight produced by plastic packaging every year. Then it removes this amount of plastic from the ocean. This removed plastic is then sorted, and recyclable sent for recycling, and the rest is changed back to oil and diesel by a process known as Pyrolysis. This diesel is then used to help power the system of the plastic collection form the the ocean.

1% for the planet

Himaya joined the One percent to the planet club. So we give 1% of our turnover to the planet.

Social policy

Himaya also gives work to a social integration work placement organization. This is to help people who have social integration problems to become independent again and get themselves settled back into society. For example all our packing of the bottle into the boxes is handled this way so every bottle sold contributes to this social integration program.

Reef friendly

Himaya has been using Zinc as a filter for over 15 years, and its natural sunscreen has no known impact on the reefs.

 

Ocean friendly

Back in the late 90s, the founder of Himaya has had a concern about where all the sunscreen ended up that was washed off in the water. At the time, the founder made a lot of in-water surf photography, and noticed this issue personally.  This is why he wanted to make a totally waterproof sunscreen that would not come off the skin. Aqua fix was created, and it was the first High protection, SPF 60+, sunscreen that was not water-soluble. Since then, some other manufactures have followed this concept, but now Himaya has managed to make this all-natural. With this and the reef-friendly filters zinc, the CO2 offsetting, and plastic removal, this makes Himaya the Orginal Ocean friendly sunscreen.

Refillable

We have created this refillable system so that it is a circular system. Reuse or refill is better than recycle, as no energy is involved, and so no carbon footprint. Currently, we believe this is the best eco friendly solution we could find for sunscreen packaging.

Packaging

The purpose of packaging is to deliver the product in prime condition to the user. As we have a natural product, any contamination has to be avoided at all cost.  Natural sunscreens, can be changed by contact with the air and this leads to oxidization, so this is why we use an airless system to help keep the cream as fresh as possible. The only system at the moment which can offer this is a plastic airless vacuum system. Protection is Himaya’s top priority. Plastic is not bad when used and reused correctly. Himaya opted for a refill system and offsets all our plastic production, making us plastic neutral and creating a circular packaging system.

This is why Himaya uses a Bottle system as all bottles can and are recycled easily in the waste systems. Also with the vacuum system inside the bottle this helps to self clean the bottle before disposal making it very easy to recycle.

Himaya does not use plastic tubes as we have found out 90%+ of all tubes are never recycled. They are too expensive to clean and then recycle so they end up in Indo Asia and in land fill or burnt. Also the new “Bio Plastic tubes” Are made from ethanol and this is sugar cane grown mainly in Brazil on land created by cutting down the rain forest. It is then used for growing Bio Fuels like sugar cane repeatedly and so they call this sustainable as they can repeat this process on the land which was created by the removal of the forest. Also the process itself requires a lot of water. At the end of the day the footprint from this productions, out weights any benefits that could come from it. At the end of the day these, bio plastic tubes are then never be recycled but end in land fill or burnt in Asia.

Boxes

Himaya uses recycled cardboard packaging due legal and also shipping requirements of the market. We would prefer not to, however it is a requirement for languages and also instructions of use.

So we have added as much information on to this packaging in and out, and added not extra paper instructions.