About

Natura is proud not only because of the positive evolution of its financial results, but also because of the application and diffusion of socially responsible and environmentally sustainable company practices that are part of our dream of contributing to the construction of a better world. The company is moved by its passion for cosmetics as a vehicle of self-awareness and human relationships.

Headquartered in Cajamar in the state of São Paulo, with a modern center that includes research, production and logistics facilities, Natura also operates in other locations across Brazil and is also present in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia and France. More than 700,000 consultants distribute the company’s products through direct sales.

A publicly owned company since 2004, the company’s shares are listed on the New Market of the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa). In 2006 Natura’s consolidated gross revenues were R$ 3.9 billion, 19.9 per cent higher than gross revenues reported in 2005.

Natura is a leader in the cosmetics sector in Brazil, and the brand is among the most admired brands in the market. Over the last four years, its share of the Brazilian market jumped 12 per cent to 22.8 per cent.

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Strategy

Thinking of the Future as a Whole

In agreement with Natura’s long-term commitment to sustainable development, something that has been definitively registered in the company’s own name since its foundation in 1969, and in the trajectory of a Brazilian company with a global commitment to prioritize the value of biodiverse assets, Natura is deeply engaged in the issue of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and has adopted a commitment to neutralize all our greenhouse gas emissions resulting in our entire company and our products becoming carbon neutral in 2007.
In 2007, we put into practice the Carbon Neutral Program. With a focus on the reduction of emissions, we began to offer our clients products that are neutral in terms of greenhouse gases (GHG) generated in all our processes and activities, starting with the extraction of raw materials up to the disposal of packaging.

This commitment is the crowning achievement of a process that was formalized with the creation of Natura’s Greenhouse Gas Effect System, which was in 2006 a task force comprised of ten employees in six areas of the company.

Natura will not limit itself to purchasing carbon credits in the market, or to only streamlining internal processes to reduce emissions caused more directly by those processes. The company has decided to go to the root of the problem and assume responsibility for all the emissions caused by its operations, meaning it plans to neutralize all greenhouse gas emissions generated throughout its supply chain, from extracting raw materials acquired by suppliers, to final disposal of our products and packaging.
The focus will be on reducing emissions, and only that which cannot be reduced will be offset by supporting external projects that have obvious socio-environmental benefits.

Natura has identified a potential to reduce emissions by 33 per cent throughout its business chain over the next five years. All the company’s actions related to greenhouse gas emissions will be monitored by external auditors. The results attained will be publicly communicated.

1. Sustainability commitment

Natura has a long history of commitment to conserving nature. In the same year (1983) in which the UN created its Commission on Environment and Development (also known as the Brundtland Commission), the company pioneered the use of refill packaging in Brazil in our sector. In 1997, when the world saw the creation of the Kyoto Protocol, Natura converted our distribution fleet in Greater São Paulo to natural gas vehicles (NGV). These two examples indicate a more profound identity of perception and responsibility regarding the natural limits of economic activity, and the need to encourage sustainable development: that which meets present needs without compromising the capacity of future generations to meet their own needs.

An influential event in this journey of incorporating the requirements of sustainable development into the heart of our business was the launch of the Ekos line in 2000, in which Natura assumed an explicit commitment to sustainably use Brazil’s biodiversity, and with the social division of benefits generated by innovation based on traditional knowledge. In the same period, the company took the first step toward direct involvement with the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, sponsoring the Natura Project for Scientific and Environmental Development around Ilha do Bananal (Pium, TO), run by the Instituto Ecológica. This was the start of a growing engagement with the issue of climate change which would culminate with Natura’s commitment to neutralize its emissions in 2007.

Natura’s commitment to sustainability is strongly expressed today in its policy of replacing traditional mineral-(with petroleum derivatives) and animal-based ingredients with plant-based products in its product lines.

2. Inventory of emissions

The first step was to establish the level of greenhouse gases that Natura emits. With the help of a consultant specializing in environmental issues, the company inventoried its total emissions for 2006. Using far-reaching methodology including the emissions generated by the entire supply chain, Natura estimated its total emission at 270,000 tons of CO2 equivalent in 2006.

Natura emitted in 2007 a total of 183.6 thousand tons of CO2e. Det Norske Veritas (DNV) verified the inventory. Examine beside this the emissions throughout our value chain. Already in 2007 we have achieved a reduction of 7% and a drop from 4.40 to 4.09 kg of CO₂e/kg per kg of product.

3. Reducing emissions

Natura’s internal learning process about GHGs led to the certainty that the focus should fall on emissions reduction rather than offsetting, because this would generate much greater socio-environmental benefits. Natura was already in the position to implement a significant reduction because since 2001 the company has incorporated the Life Cycle Assessment methodology for packaging into the development process for its finished products.

This methodology quantifies the entries and exits of material and energy of a system, allowing an objective comparison of the “environmental performance” of products.

Our goal is to reduce GHG emissions in relation to those of 2006 by 33% within five years. We are taking steps in all phases of the carbon cycle: the extraction of raw materials and materials for packaging, our suppliers, internal processes, the transport and disposal of products and packaging. We have created six internal groups made up of collaborators from various areas, who together have the missions of identifying new reduction opportunities.

4. Offsetting emissions

Emissions that cannot be reduced will be offset by projects that avoid greenhouse gas emissions, or that are capable of reducing or capturing the CO2 equivalent issued into the atmosphere. The emphasis is on solving socio-environmental problems and being consistent and monitorable, besides being geographically close to areas where Natura operates, thus contributing to local sustainable development.

The focus will fall on forest projects (Agroforestry Systems and reforestation with native species) and renewable energies, but there will also be room to sponsor innovating initiatives. When selecting projects, Natura will apply guidelines similar to those required for carbon credits credentialled for purchase and sale in the mandatory market, (i.e. projects created to facilitate realization of the obligatory goals of reducing emissions assumed by developed countries that are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol).

As with Natura’s emissions inventory process, the compensation system will also be audited by external inspectors. Finally, Natura will provide complete transparency to its performance in matters of GHG management, on the product level, incorporating related information in the Environmental Table added to the packaging in 2007.

5. Neutralizing emissions

By assuming the responsibility to record and also neutralize emissions throughout our productive chain, Natura increased the total cost of neutralization; but the company considers this cost to be an investment in process improvement that will mean productivity gains, and also as an increase in Natura’s value proposal. This combined burden and opportunity will be distributed throughout the company’s sector in order to engage its employees in the process.

The share of this effort to innovate, however, will not be only within Natura’s limits. By also assuming the emissions of Natura’s partners in the supply chain as its environmental liability, Natura will come to depend equally on their involvement in the process of reducing the impact of products throughout the life cycle – as of 2007, this is now enshrined in the universalizing GHG theme.

Natura will also deepen its commitment to corporate responsibility, seeking to influence its supply chain in inducing transformations that interest all of society and guarantee its future, as well as the future of future generations. Natura will thus be confirming its determination to participate in the construction of a better world, with concrete actions to reduce and offset its own emissions, but also as vectors of improvement and reflection about a new economic development model, from verification that what
is happening now is insufficient to meet the planet’s challenges.

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