Roots to branches

Natura &Co is a family of four purpose-driven businesses – Avon, Natura, The Body Shop and Aesop – united by their common goal to shape a better, more caring world.

Natura, the mother company, is a Brazilian global personal care cosmetics group. As a founding member of the Union for Ethical BioTrade, Natura's sourcing practices work to conserve biodiversity, respect local and traditional knowledge and share benefits fairly throughout the supply chain.

For example, the group collaborates closely with over 30 communities and more than 7,000 families in the Amazon to sustainably source ingredients from biodiversity. Through a team of anthropologists Natura goes deep into the jungle, working respectfully with local and traditional communities, to identify business practices that benefit the people, forest and business.

"Natura sources in a way that goes far beyond fair trade," said Marcelo Behar, Vice President, Sustainability and Group Affairs for Natura &Co. "It helps communities evolve and enables children to stay in those communities."

In 2020 Natura &Co established a sustainability vision for 2030, Commitment to Life, which sets out 31 bold and ambitious targets to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues. These include, among other things, paying the living wage, reducing packaging, and becoming net-zero.

As a business that relies on natural resources, some ingredients are only available at certain times in a natural cycle. This results in some products not being available all year round. How could Natura turn this commercial obstacle into a plus for customers?

When collaborating with communities, the business also sometimes encounters unsustainable practices driven by economic reward. For example, in the Amazon, loggers began to prize the Ucuuba tree's strong and lightweight wood for making products.

The felling of the tree put the species at risk of extinction, in response to which Natura began working together with local communities to preserve Uccuba. "There's a lot of beauty in the world. The biggest challenge now is working out how to adopt practices that will regenerate the world's living systems."

To overcome the issue of some products not always being available, Natura turned to tried-and-tested honesty. The company is upfront about the natural cycles that drive product availability. At the same time, Natura offers sustainable alternatives to unavailable products: "For several months, we sell other alternatives. That creates some commercial difficulties. However, it enables us to position products as special items at certain times in the year."

Ensuring Natura is 100% sustainable depends on the business collaborating with communities in its supply chain according to the principles of fair trade, engaging in Access and Benefit Sharing, and supporting local development. The company offers these communities alternative streams of income which do not involve harming the forest. For example, by planting and selling Ucuuba seeds rather chopping down the trees.

Ucuuba seeds provide highly hydrated and light ingredients for skincare products. The trees are five-times more valuable to communities when they're alive and growing, than they are when cut down for timber.

As a global business, Natura &Co does all it can to operate sustainably: "Natura &Co endeavors to advance a progressive way of thinking. We believe deeply in the power of collaboration and are working hard to spread sustainable practices on a global scale. We all need to start operating in a different way."