On Monday, Natura &Co — the Brazilian parent
company of beauty
brands Natura, Avon,
Aesop and The Body
Shop
— unveiled its sustainability vision for 2030, called Commitment to
Life.
Having acquired Avon in 2019, Natura &Co is now the world’s fourth-largest
pure-play beauty group. Its sights are set on not only being the best beauty
group in the world, but also the best beauty group for the world. It aims to
become fully regenerative by 2030 through its Commitment to Life strategy, which
is defined by three pillars:
- To address the climate crisis and protect the Amazon;
- to defend human rights and be human-kind; and
- to embrace circularity and regeneration.
“We strongly believe that business can and should be a force for good. It has
been part of our history across all of our brands,” Roberto Marques,
Executive Chairman of the Board and group CEO at Natura &Co, said during a
virtual press conference. “Today, we are putting a stake in the ground — a bold
commitment in sustainable practices. Our motivation is to engage with a broad
range of stakeholders to allow faster progress.”
With a network of four brands and over six million consultants, the group plans
to use its wide reach to encourage consumers to play a part in its regenerative
ambition. Marques emphasized that this sustainability vision is embedded
throughout the business.
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“We want to have the same discipline to measuring and reporting on
sustainability as we have to financial reports,” Marques said. “We will hold
ourselves accountable, updating stakeholders annually,” confirmed Marcelo
Behar, VP of Sustainability & Group Affairs.
Commitment to Life: The three pillars
1. To address the climate crisis and protect the Amazon
“The climate crisis is serious,” Marques said, before unveiling the group’s plan
to achieve net zero GHG
emissions
by 2030, 20 years ahead of the UN commitment. To this end, Natura &Co will set
science-based
targets
for all four companies, covering its own emissions and those of its suppliers.
In 2011, Natura launched a project investing in multiple activities in the
Amazon, contributing to preserve 1.8 million hectares of rainforest. Commitment
to Life aims to increase that to 3 million hectares, partnering with 40
communities. The group pledges to share at least R$60m (US$11.5m) in value
with communities, as well as foster collective efforts towards ending
deforestation
by 2025.
2. To defend human rights and be human-kind
Natura &Co promises to increase the number of women on its board or senior team
from 35 percent to 50 percent, and close the gender pay gap, by 2023. It commits
to pay a living wage, or above, for all associates by 2023. The group is working
towards 30 percent inclusion, in management, of under-represented groups —
racial or
ethnic;
sexual diversity and gender identity (LGBTQI); socio-economically disadvantaged;
physical or mental disability.
Natura &Co aims to achieve measurable gains for its consultants and sourcing
communities in the areas of earnings, education, health and digital inclusion.
For the last three years, the group has measured its impact using the UNDP
Human Development Index (HDI).
Defending human rights includes adopting a robust Human Rights policy in line
with the UN Guiding Principles by 2023. The group confirms its intolerance
to human rights infringement across its supply chain and promises full
traceability and/or certification for critical supply chains — namely palm oil,
mica, paper, alcohol, soy and cotton — by 2025.
3. To embrace circularity and regeneration
In response to the damage that can be caused by plastic packaging that ends up
in the ocean, Natura &Co is setting targets for packaging circularity — at least
20 percent less packaging, in weight; 50 percent of all plastic used to be of
recycled content, in weight; and 100 percent of packaging material to be
reusable, recyclable or compostable.
“We are confident that we will be able to reach these targets by 2030, but we
are ambitious to get there sooner; because that is what the planet needs and
what our consumers are asking for,” said Christopher Davis, International
Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Campaigns for The Body Shop.
Consumers are already getting on board with The Body Shop’s refillable shower
gels, where they pay slightly less when refilling their bottle. “We will
continue to experiment with price, which will be a factor on how consumers
respond to what we are doing,” he added. So far, it has been more challenging to
develop home compostable packaging, to which Davis said, “We are looking at it,
but we will only launch it when it is right and when our customers will value
it.”
Natura crowdsourced solutions to combat plastic waste generation and pollution
when it launched its Natura Innovation Challenge — Zero Waste
Packaging in 2019. The company is testing
three projects from the Challenge and has made more solutions available to the
market.
The circularity pillar of Commitment to Life also promises 95 percent+ renewable
or natural ingredients, 95 percent+ biodegradable formulas; and 100 percent of
new formulas will have lower environmental footprint, measured by life cycle
analysis (LCA). On the regeneration front, the company has committed to invest
$100 million (or more) in developing solutions, such as:
-
Biotechnology e.g. from waste to ingredients, plastics, etc
-
Regenerative agriculture in deforested areas to reduce use of chemicals and
create alternative to monocultures
-
Creation of renewable revenue streams (new ingredients) that are more
economically attractive than deforestation
Achievement through collaboration
Natura &Co is calling on civil society as a whole to join them in taking a stand
and act in favor of a better future for the planet and its inhabitants.
“We are not going to get there by ourselves,” Marques said. “We need
governments, academia and other companies to work with us. By looking after our
relationships, we will take care of the climate. By taking care of the climate,
we will take care of our future.”
Marques also presented Commitment to Life to business leaders at the Business
for Nature
event,
‘Building business resilience: How collective leadership will reverse nature
loss’ earlier in the day, to issue a rallying cry: “We need businesses to join
this effort, collaborating and committing ourselves as leaders and companies.”
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Published Jun 16, 2020 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST