Jenise Lee (BASc ‘06) was featured on BNN for her social enterprise CertClean, which administers Canada's only certified seal of approval for safer beauty and personal care products.
Through CertClean, Jenise is helping consumers avoid harmful ingredients found in many of the beauty and body care items used daily. Jenise has self-funded CertClean for the first two years of her endeavor. This past fall, out of over 400 Canadian start-ups, CertClean was one of the 2015 recipients of Futurpreneur’s Spin Master Innovation Fund which included 50K in financing.
Alumni Relations had the chance to speak with Jenise to talk about her venture and life after Waterloo.
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CertClean is part of the cancer prevention movement that aims to help consumers avoid harmful ingredients. Why was creating a venture like this important to you?
Over the last few decades, given the funds spent, we know more about cancer than we once did, but we don’t seem all that close to curing it. At the same time, most cancer rates have been increasing. We are all aware that harmful chemicals are lurking everywhere – from BPA in hard plastics and receipts to phthalates in soft plastics (toys, shower curtains, water bottles) to chemicals off-gassing from our furniture to pesticides in our food to ingredients in our personal care products. You don’t need a chemical engineering degree to recognize that if we do not want carcinogens (cancer causing chemicals) in our lives, then we should just eliminate the use of it, wherever and whenever possible. So by administering a new certification for safer skin care, I have literally and metaphorically created a new standard for better beauty. This venture is important to me because I personally believe that chemicals that may cause harm to our health have no place in the products we use every day.
Can you tell us more about CertClean?
In a nutshell, CertClean is the certification shoppers need, and the distinction brands want.
CertClean, a social enterprise, administers the CertClean certification for safer beauty and personal care products so consumers can recognize and purchase safer beauty brands.
In Canada, if one ingredient is natural, then the beauty product can be labeled natural. The same goes for the term “organic.” Concern is mounting over the effects of long-term exposures to chemicals found in cosmetics and personal care products. CertClean is aiming to change this by certifying safer products, and creating markets for these products.
Can you tell us about your journey after graduating from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Chemical Engineering to where you are today?
Upon graduation, I worked as an environmental engineering consultant for a boutique firm. After several years, that feeling of wanting to make a difference in the world felt unaddressed. I proceeded to get an MBA from Schulich School of Business.
I joined the board of an environmental health charity in my mid 20’s where I was the youngest board member (and later chairperson) at the time, the only visible minority, and engineering graduate.
After my MBA, I worked as an independent strategy consultant positioning small environmentally-oriented businesses for growth. Frustrated with only being able to help a handful of companies at a time, I then proceeded to launch CertClean as it was time to address the perverse irony of beautifying ourselves with products that can potentially cause harm to our long term health!
You are an advocate for women in STEM fields, why is this so important to you and what are you doing to help promote women in STEM?
As a role model, not only do I leverage my privilege of being a visible minority and a female engineer but I also demonstrate to younger women that my engineering skills have helped me simplify complex systems and solve intricate problems within a non-engineering industry. I am promoting women in STEM by challenging the perception that engineering is intertwined with technology or machinery; I offer a broader perception of engineering by sharing that engineering skills can be applied to various and all sectors.
Was there someone or something during your time at UWaterloo that influenced you to get you to where you are today?
UWaterloo’s co-op program has been instrumental to my success. Not only did I graduate with a lot of experience in different sectors, but also with savings in my bank account. Being able to save money right away allowed me to self-fund both my MBA degree and CertClean.
What is next for you and CertClean?
CertClean has an exciting marketing campaign coming up early Spring to get CertClean certified products in the hands of shoppers so please follow us on Facebook!
