Natura &Co (parent firm of the brands Avon, Natura, The Body Shop, and Aesop) has revealed its comprehensive sustainability plan called “Commitment to Life.” The new package of sustainability commitments will step up the company’s actions to tackle not only the climate crisis but also the protection of the Amazon and the defense of Human Rights, among many other things.
Silvia Lagnado, Natura &Co’s Sustainable Growth Officer, said:
We are united, all four companies, in our decision to become Net Zero within 10 years, to develop regenerative solutions in pursuit of full circularity, and to take bold action towards more equality and inclusiveness in our network. We are focused on our destination and know our path will require innovation as well as collaboration over competition.
The core of the scheme is a pledge to reach net-zero emissions throughout its entire value chain and embrace circularity and regeneration by 2030. The commitment covers Natura &Co and all its brands. Emissions reduction targets are aligned with the 1.5°C Paris Agreement recommendations and include both operations and supply chains – albeit twenty years ahead of schedule.
Natura &Co was already a founding member of the UN Global Compact’s ‘Business Ambition for 1.5°C: Our Only Future’ campaign before having set this 2030 deadline. The campaign consists of 28 other founding members, including Levi Strauss, Unilever, and Vodafone. And while the operation is fantastic, it only binds the signatories to set net-zero targets for 2050. But as Natura &Co’s chief executive Roberto Marques stressed; the 2050 deadline is too long-off, the firm “now needs to move faster.”
Like that wasn’t amazing enough already, the firm’s intention to track emissions throughout its entire value chain is a big bonus. The CDP says that a firm’s supply chain emissions are an estimated five-and-a-half times greater than that of their operations! To calculate the “entire value chain” means it will factor in emissions from the extraction of raw ingredients for its products to the disposal of packaging. Wherever it cannot eliminate emissions, it will purchase offsets.
Emissions have to do with the climate crisis pillar of the plan. Also included in this pillar is the preservation of nature. Three million hectares of the Amazon will be protected from deforestation by 2030. This pledge consists of a 2025 commitment to ensure zero-deforestation in the South American supply chain.
The other two pillars are related to establishing a circular economy and ensuring equality and inclusion throughout its network. The pledges for circularity include using at least 50% recycled content in all its plastic packaging lines, and transitioning to only materials that are either home-compostable, recyclable, or reusable in its global packaging portfolio – both by 2030. The pledge for human rights will require the firm to develop further measures to ensure that suppliers are working in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights by 2023 and deliver full traceability of supply chains by 2025.
Roberto Marques, Group CEO of Natura &Co, said:
We understand the critical moment we live in right now and the role that companies need to play to engage themselves and commit to a better, more sustainable, and more inclusive society. We still need to do so much more to be the generation that restores our planet and protects its people. Aligned with our guiding principles, Natura &Co hopes to be a part of the dialogue and the solution. We’re the generation that has the knowledge and the technology to stem the rise in global temperatures, put an end to the global waste issue, and create equality for those who need it most. But we now need to move faster, we need to act and be held accountable.
The firm is calling on civil society as well to drive the necessary change. It reaches out to everyone – competitors, partners, academics, and NGOs – to make a stand and challenge the status quo. It urges everyone to work collectively to reshape the world into one we can all be proud of.
