Roberta Roesler, Circularity and Regeneration Director, Natura & Co
Natura & Co. launched three years ago its Commitment to Life, emphasizing what it means for ethical sourcing of ingredients from biodiversity. In your role, how do you ensure that the natural ingredients you source are in line with this commitment?
Natura &Co had the honour and privilege to join UEBT as a founding member in 2009 with the ultimate purpose of building awareness and capability around ethical sourcing of natural ingredients within our business and beyond.
By partnering with independent and credible organizations, we have developed and deployed strong guidelines and frameworks to enable our internal teams to address the most important challenges regarding natural ingredients’ sourcing. This includes biodiversity protection, fair and equitable benefit sharing, fair prices and living wages, and sustainable use of wild species.
In addition, we are committed to assessing and reporting our global biodiversity impacts and dependencies by 2025, and full traceability and/or certification for critical supply chains such as Palm Oil, Mica, Paper, Alcohol, Soy, Cotton by 2025. We have also set a goal is to achieve verified deforestation- and conversion-free critical supply chains by 2030.
In parallel, we have a zero tolerance policy for human rights infringement across our supply chain. We continue to advance our process to identify, prevent and mitigate human rights risks across our supply chain and operations, making sure to engage with potentially affected stakeholders, promote access to remedy, and use our leverage for positive impact.
In terms of the global R&D, how to you integrate these ethical sourcing considerations into product development and innovation?
Natura &Co’s brands are committed to protect and promote biodiversity and traditional knowledge. Over the last 20 years, we have proven it possible to bridge science and traditional knowledge to develop disruptive, sustainable business models that promote healthier natural ecosystems and thriving human societies.
The focus of our R&D is to deliver delightful, effective and sustainable innovations that promote the wellbeing of our customers and the entire ecosystem we operate in, in addition to supporting the fight against climate change, biodiversity loss and inequality.
Brazilian biodiversity, in particular the Amazon, is close to my heart and has been an infinite source of inspiration for me. Rainforests are unique places, with the Amazon considered the most diverse area on Earth, home to millions of native and endemic species and, above all, home of millions of people including traditional indigenous and ethnic groups. You can feel the power of the Amazon throughout all of your senses - the energy, tastes, smells, colours, formats, sounds. Combined, this experience strongly impacts your body, your heart and your soul forever.
Embracing circularity and regeneration is a key pillar in the Commitment to Life. As part of this, you have some formula circularity targets. What are these and how will you work on this transition?
To me, the ‘Embrace Circularity and Regeneration’ pillar within our Commitment to Life is the most exciting one. Not only because I lead this pillar 😉 but also because circular and regenerative solutions will help us to transform challenges into opportunities and will enable us to drive systemic positive change, ensuring healthier natural ecosystems and thriving societies.
Specifically, for formula circularity we have two targets.
Our first target is to achieve a minimum of 95% biodegradability. We want to ensure that we are not using ingredients which can have a cumulative impact. Having made made excellent strides towards this target over the past 3 years, we are proud to say that we have now achieved it.
Our second target is to ensure that 100% of new formulas have a lower environmental footprint, measured by lifecycle methodology.
We are focusing on entire life cycle assessments, using the science based Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology, as recommended by the European Commission. Our purpose is to design better formulas, measuring the full impact over their lifetime, including sourcing the ingredients, manufacturing, transport, consumer usage and even after use. By using Life Cycle Assessment, we can understand the different planetary impacts, such as climate change, land use, and biodiversity.
This is a super exciting and ambitious target, especially as we are at the very beginning of this journey. One challenge we face is the need to build more and better data globally, as well as refine existing methodologies to enable us to consolidate into one single score not only the planetary impact of a product across its entire lifecycle but also the benefits of circular and regenerative models.
Natura & Co is beginning to dive more into regenerative agriculture and committing to have at least 30% of Natura &Co key Ingredients certified as regenerative by 2030, with UEBT supporting in this transition. Can you tell me more about this?
In addition to our targets on formula and packaging circularity targets, we will also invest in regenerative solutions.
For Natura &Co, regeneration goes beyond the “do no harm or zero harm” mindset. The concept encompasses delivering measurable positive impact:
For our society through reducing social inequality by building resilient livelihoods and improving wellbeing
For our planet through promoting biodiversity, protecting and restoring ecosystems and their ability to provide environmental services such as carbon sequestration, climate regulation, water purification and soil fertility.
Put simply, we believe that a regenerative solution must capture carbon, conserve and restore biodiversity and ecosystems, and promote social progress by being just and inclusive for all.
It is a challenging journey and we are aware that strong collaboration and hard work are critical to build awareness, capabilities and solutions using regenerative practices in order to make this fundamental transition.
Choosing to start our journey with regenerative agriculture, we have committed to have at least 30% of Natura &Co’s key ingredients certified as regenerative by 2030.
In addition, we will help small farmers and communities to adopt ethical biotrade and regenerative practices for the key ingredients* certified as regenerative, supporting them to make the fair transition with us.
Natura &Co has been a partner of UEBT for over 15 years. Together, we have just concluded a regenerative pilot assessment on six key Natura &Co ingredients, using the UEBT standard for ethical sourcing and UEBT’s regenerative add-on indicators, including conducting a living income and living wage analysis. The regenerative pilot assessment covered five countries (Brazil, Ghana, Namibia, Peru and Switzerland), five native species, two production systems and around 14,000 farmers and wild collectors with more than 200,000 hectares of land.
Your professional career I believe started with Natura & Co through a 20 year stint at Natura Cosmeticos where you created the first lab and pilot plant in the Amazon. What are you most proud of in terms of the work you have done in the Amazon, and what are your hopes for the future in those communities?
My passion for cosmetics started at Natura where I have learned how cosmetics can help us protect our personal health and promote wellness. This includes day to day products such as shower gel, skin moisturizer and hair shampoo, and also more functional products such as hair treatment and skin defence. They are an essential part of our lives, and science has proven not only the biological benefits of natural actives to prevent early skin aging, but also the uplifting and relaxing effects of essential oil. Skin is our bodies’ largest organ and it plays a fundamental role to protect and promote our health and wellbeing, from temperature regulation to immunity. I am excited by the recent scientific data on the skin and scalp microbiome. We are learning how cosmetics ingredients can support the balance of microorganisms on our body and how they are associated with the skin barrier and its functions. It is a fascinating field of knowledge.
Before joining Natura, I was working with functional foods at a global brand. Here, I was inspired by the abundance and diversity of nutritious compounds from Brazilian biodiversity native species, and the use of these species by traditional communities to nourish and heal their families, passing this precious knowledge from generation to generation. After this, I had an intense urge to return to university and as a result did a PhD in natural ingredients and their biological benefits for our health. I ended up joining Natura based on a common passion and commitment to protect and promote Brazilian biodiversity native species and traditional knowledge.
I am proud of the Amazon R&D facility, capabilities and the research program on Brazilian biodiversity. I had the privilege to lead this work for almost 20 years, including not only the lab and pilot plant you mentioned, but also a portfolio of more than 40 key ingredients. These ingredients are the core functional actives of Natura product lines such as Ekos, Chronos and Biome, in addition to ingredients from sustainable field production innovation such as palm oil agroforestry. This portfolio feeds Natura products with exclusive and effective ingredients and in return, we share benefits and give back to the communities and the environment. We have a very passionate multidisciplinary team which works closely with the communities and is well-integrated into the global innovation ecosystem. Our goal is to empower the traditional communities to protect their culture, their values and fight for their rights, defending the soil, the water, the climate and the biodiversity we all on depend on.
As a leader in the industry, what message would you like to send to other companies about the importance of ethical sourcing, specifically in the cosmetics sector?
We cannot live like there is no tomorrow …
We can no longer take it for granted that the planet will be able to continue supporting life and human wellbeing indefinitely.
We must replace current “business as usual” linear models, which are based on extraction and production and were designed with a disposal mindset. Instead, we need to move to systemic circular and regenerative models that are in service of life.
It is estimated that by 2050, we will need at least three planets worth of natural resources to satisfy our demands. Consumption rates of biomass, fuels and minerals will double in the next 40 years and waste could rise by 70%. Resource extraction and processing activities account for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions and 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress. The UN notes that 70% of the Earth’s land has been changed, causing far-reaching environmental damage and socio-economic effects.
We need to raise awareness for the extent of our dependency on biodiversity. There is no food, clean water or climate regulation without biodiversity. In addition, there is an urgent need to reinforce that we cannot address the climate crisis without acting for nature and society.
We must engage all our stakeholders to collaborate towards more inclusive and fairer models that enable life to thrive.
The good news is that we can see more and more organizations, of different types and sizes, committing to raise awareness and build capabilities and solutions to address biodiversity loss, climate change and social inequality.
In my opinion, it is a fascinating journey for all of us. The change needs to start deep within, focused on how we can live today for a better tomorrow. We need to start with our house, our family and our community, to change the way we value, consume and design everything, and then walk the talk, communicate and engage others.
Life flows though us. We need to design for life to thrive with love and humility. It is our duty to help enable nature and people to thrive. I believe that purpose driven organizations like Natura &Co and UEBT can catalyse others to evolve our collective understanding, build awareness and create systems such as the regenerative programme and UEBT’s ethical sourcing certification which enables companies and consumers to understand and actively make more informed and better choices.
Roberta Roesler, Circularity and Regeneration Director, Natura & Co