Arnaud Fournial, Sederma Managing Director
Sederma is a world leader in the field of active ingredients for skin, body, sun and hair care products which are internationally sold to all major cosmetic manufacturers. It has been a member of Croda International Group since 1997.
Tell us a bit more about Sederma’s commitment to being ‘climate, land and people positive by 2030.’ What are some of the concrete steps you are taking on the ground in sourcing areas to meet this commitment.
Sederma actively supports Croda’s sustainable commitment to be Climate, Land and People Positive by 2030 through its Be ACTIVEly Committed strategy. This CSR approach is declined at each stage of our product development, from upstream evaluation of a project to the shipping of the finished product, and with all our stakeholders. The ultimate goal is to minimise our social and environmental impacts on our stakeholders without compromising innovation. Eco-designed technologies, green solvents, decarbonisation project, ethic and sustainable sourcing, safety observation program, code of conduct, …these are some of the elements that illustrate our approach.
Regarding sourcing, we have set-up a code of conduct and a letter of engagement to be signed by our suppliers to ensure that they share our ethical, social and environmental commitments and to set up a sincere cooperative approach with them, in accordance with our customer’s expectations. The idea is to unite all our stakeholders around such values.
Arnaud Fournial, Sederma Managing Director
Sederma is a new UEBT member since September. For Sederma, what is the strategic importance of working with UEBT?
Thanks to this membership, Sederma will keep on improving its sourcing practices. It will help us structure our approach in developing sourcing with local partners in the plant collection areas, respecting traditional know-how, improving the living conditions of local populations, mastering the traceability of raw materials of natural origin for more transparency and ethics.
It will also allow us to pursue our ambition to be a recognised responsible player of the Cosmetic industry
At Sederma you talk about “Committed beauty” by providing transparency all along the supply chain. Can you tell us a bit about your work with local partners at the top of the supply chain – how do you ensure Sederma’s work at the local level is respecting traditional know-how and supporting local communities?
Thanks to our code of conduct, we establish collaborative partnerships with our suppliers rather than common business relationship. We audit and validate their commitments by ourselves or thanks to third party organisations, but the idea is to inject confidence into the exchange thanks to a win-win collaboration that leads to a continuous improvement of our respective practices.
In terms of ethical sourcing, what challenges still remain for the wider industry?
When it comes to sourcing, the influence of the cosmetic industry is relatively low compared to the food industry and it is more complicated to convince our suppliers of the importance of improving their practices. But we’ll keep on making things happening as sustainable business is at the heart of Sederma development strategy and to meet the requirements of customers and consumers.
It’s a difficult time right now in the world. How are you staying positive for your customers, employees and partners?
At Sederma, we ensure that all our employees are aware of our CSR strategy and that they apply and contribute to it in their day-to-day activities. Trainings are regularly organised for all the employees and each of them knows the role he/she has to play to meet our purpose: “Smart Science to Improve Lives”. The understanding of the stakes of the current situation is shared globally. Together with all our stakeholders we can “Be ACTIVEly Committed” and continually improve our CSR practices to contribute to the challenge of the SDG.
Efficient communication and cooperation with all our stakeholders are the keys to achieve our goals together especially during the crisis the world is facing now.