The first Natural Beauty Summit America (15 -17 May, 2008) brought together some of the biggest players in the natural cosmetics industry but it also underlined the fragmented state of the sector
Rarely do conferences spark open debate during presentations but in the case of Natural Beauty Summit America, heated discussions set the scene for a very lively three days focusing on the natural and organic cosmetic market.
Following the success of the European model, organisers Beyond Beauty Paris and Organic Monitor brought the concept stateside with an impressive line-up of speakers including Aveda founder Horst Rechelbacher, Farah Ahmed, assistant general counsel, Personal Care Products Council, Weleda president and ceo, Eric Schuchhardt and Dr Karl Lintner, md Sederma, who presented a diverse selection of subjects to a packed audience.
Some 250 delegates attended the two-day conference, with a further 50 attending the more intimate half-day technical workshop.
The conference was split into four sessions with an Introduction to natural cosmetics & sustainability and Standards & regulatory issues taking up the first day, and Market & product developments and formulation & Technical issues occupying the second day.
Unsurprisingly the Standards & regulatory issues and Formulations & technical issues sessions were surrounded by controversy, with hard-hitting questions and answers stoking an already lit fire.
SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PRACTICE
Opening the first session, Introduction to natural cosmetics & sustainability, Horst Rechelbacher painted a very negative picture of the current state of world health, blaming the rise in cancer cases and infertility on today’s consumer lifestyle.
“It is difficult to ignore there is a global crisis - we are addicted to petrochemicals. We are living in a chemical stew and we need to get out of it,” he said. “The word natural has been so overused that chemists don’t even know what it is anymore.”
He then implored the audience to change its working ways. “If we continue to do what we are doing in our industry the consumer will boycott us. We need authenticity and transparency – we deserve to bring excellence to this industry.”
Rechelbacher’s passionate opening was followed by a presentation from Amarjit Sahota, president Organic Monitor, who spoke on the Global & North American market for natural & organic cosmetics.
According to Sahota the sector has seen huge growth. “The market share for natural and organic cosmetics is 2% globally, growing between 15% and 17% annually, with Europe and North America representing 93% of global sales,” he said. “The reasons why consumers are buying these products are changing. They now see these brands as luxury brands.”
But he warned the current certification situation could harm this growth, confusing an already fickle consumer base. He compared the cosmetics industry with that of the organic food industry and organic textiles industry.
“Food has a plethora of private standards – logos have become entrenched and regional standards are incompatible,” he explained. “The textiles industry has in contrast just one standard, which provides a level playing field for growers. This has created high consumer trust and acceptance. The cosmetics industry is at a crossroads and it’s up to you which route you wish to take – that of the food industry or the textiles industry.”
Following Sahota, Chuck Bennett – vp Aveda Earth & Community Care explained how his company has taken on the challenge of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
“Consumers are informed, active and involved and being proactive and honest reduces brand reputation and risk,” he said. “The reason for organic goes beyond marketplace competitiveness. We are very much focused on the ingredients not just on performance but on responsibility of sourcing.”
He explained how CSR had been implanted in Aveda from its outset, underlining the importance of the brand’s involvement in Earth Week, its recent Cradle to Cradle certification, manufacturing using wind power and its drive to improve the recycling of its packaging.
Building relationships with indigenous farmers also play a key part in Aveda’s principles according to Bennett, a sentiment shared by Brazilian ingredients supplier Beraca.
Ulisses Sabará, president and Filipe Sabará, development manager, Beraca discussed the importance of supporting indigenous peoples in Sustainability & ethics in ingredient sourcing.
“As suppliers we are asked for exotic claims and functional actives but sustainability is becoming more and more important,” explained Sabará. “The key is that you cannot work alone in the Amazon, you work with the communities. The community has to gain something so we offer them work that won’t harm the forest – there has to be a good financial alternative to deforestation for them.”
MARKETING WITH MEANING
Mike Indursky, chief marketing & strategic officer, Burt’s Bees discussed the huge marketing potential for CSR in Managing & marketing corporate social responsibility, responsibly! “It’s going to hurt you if you don’t,” he warned. “Consumers will assume that you are not making the effort.”
CSR he said was: “The biggest business phenomenon since the dot.com boom and even more important. Over 60% of consumers view business as the chief cause of our environmental problems.”
“It has to be part of your company’s DNA,” he continued. “We are not 100% there yet but we are working on it. It’s not easy and requires a lot of work and expense but it will be worth it.”
To illustrate this, the profile of those consumers to whom CSR is a core issue was discussed by Ted Ning, executive editor LOHAS Journal (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability).
“The LOHAS consumer is 13 - 19% of the population and is willing to spend up to 15% more for products,” he said. “They will ask more probing questions about a product, and won’t be sold something they don’t need or want. Don’t greenwash consumers – they won’t be taken in.”
PACKAGING POTENTIAL
The impact of packaging on the environ-ment was explored by Nicholas Thorne, director innovation and development, Alcan Packaging. “Packaging is not popular with consumers,” he said. “It has an overly high visibility and it’s easy to finger point. However if you put packaging within an overall context it has a function – to deliver a cream or perfume etc. In some cases the packaging will actually reduce the overall environmental impact.”
Initiatives such as carbon labelling, the promotion of recycling by labelling, government advisory boards and marketing initiatives on sustainability from brands have helped but there is still much to do, according to Thorne. A key point is waste management policy: “What’s the point of developing biodegradeable packaging when many policies for waste management are incineration?”he asked.
FRAGMENTATION IN CERTIFICATION
The afternoon session, Standards & regulatory issues set the scene for a fiery exchange of words between Rechelbacher and the speakers’ panel, which was made up of representatives from the different certification authorities. Blaming the panel for contributing to consumer confusion and a fragmentation of the certification process, Rechelbacher accused them of being “self-serving organisations”, which was met with a round of applause from the audience.
The run up to this heated exchange of words had illustrated the differences between each certification process and highlighted the lack of cohesion and difficulties for manufacturers to comply to every standard.
Farah Ahmed, assistant general counsel, Personal Care Products Council (formerly CTFA) focused on the USDA regulatory process, arguing that the standard is still evolving and that it may not be the best match for personal care and cosmetics.
Jody Villeco, quality standards coordinator, Whole Foods Market echoed this point, providing a retailer’s perspective on certification and explaining why Whole Foods launched its own standard.
“The key intention with Premium Body Care was to make it really easy for consumers to find top tier products so we created a logo,” she explained. “The standard is very specific to Whole Foods and there are now close to 2,000 products which have the logo. Manufacturers have reformulated many existing products to comply with our criteria for Premium Body and we also have some exclusive products in store as a result.
David Bronner, president, Dr Bronner’s Magic Soaps spoke about his reasons for using the USDA NOP standard in Applying the USDA NOP standard for cosmetics.
“The current situation is a mess in the US,” he said. “It’s the wild west of organic misbranding and labelling, with companies slapping organic claims on formulations that don’t meet the most basic consumer expectation that main cleansing and moisturising ingredients are made without petrochemical compounds from certified organic material.”
He believes that the situation will improve as the USDA label begins to establish itself. “It’s good to think the word natural is beginning to have meaning again,” he added.
Joe Smillie, senior vp, NSF/QAI and Curt Valva, president, Aubrey Organics updated the audience on the American NSF standard, while Gay Timmons of OASIS introduced the new OASIS certification standard. “The goal of OASIS is to develop industry standards that give raw materials suppliers an incentive to produce sustainable raw materials, give manufacturers clear guidelines for producing products that are environmentally responsible and give consumers a credible and transparent certification seal,” she said.
James Kightley, business development account manager, Soil Association Certification outlined his company’s standard and updated the audience on the progress of the European cosmetics standard.
“It is unlikely the standard will be ready any time soon but we are confident it will come. There are still some outstanding issues,” he said.
DYNAMISM IN DEVELOPMENT
The second day of the conference opened with presentations on Market & product developments. Fresh from his remarks the previous day Horst Rechelbacher introduced his latest project, Intelligent Nutrients, a new line of certified organic beauty from within cosmetics.
Dr Linda Miles, vp Derma E, gave a very balanced evaluation of natural cosmetics in Creating dermatological naturals. She argued that the opinion that all synthetic chemicals are bad, as put forward by more than one speaker, was irresponsible and a more balanced view of chemicals was needed.
“The umbrellas natural and synthetic are very destructive,” she said. “Some synthetic ingredients are very good. I have real issues with making green cosmetics - our primary goal is safety for the consumer. Mould and bugs are not good and the preservative issues are huge.”
She introduced several natural extracts that could be used as synthetic substitutes but was keen to point out that sourcing some organic and natural extracts was not always the best option for manufacturers.
ORGANIC OPPORTUNITIES
Changing tack, Daria Myers and John Masters gave presentations on how their brands have embraced organic. Myers spoke about how the Origins Organic range has become the brand’s third pillar, having successfully linked a premium skin care line with organic ingredients. Similarly John Masters gave an insight into his organic hair care line, John Masters Organic, which is now available in over 20 countries worldwide, as well as being used in Masters’ salon in New York.
The potential for natural cosmetics in spas was explored by Mark Wuttke, principal, Wuttke Group. “Spas are becoming a crucial part of an integrated lifestyle,” he said. “A lot of the LOHAS community had not taken it seriously but that is changing. Groups such as the Green Spa Network are becoming increasingly popular.”
TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS
The final session of the conference focused on Formulation & technical issues, outlining developments and the challenges of replacing synthetic ingredients with naturals.
Judi Beerling, technical research manager, Organic Monitor introduced Natural & organic formulations: meeting the challenges, and argued that the industry had a certain amount of responsibility on its shoulders over the issue of natural and organic cosmetics.
“It is better to focus on the amazing benefits plants can offer rather than focus on the negatives,” she said. “There is little peer reviewed, non-discredited scientific evidence to back up many of the media scare stories and we must make sure we don’t add to this confusion.”
She highlighted the misconception that natural is not necessarily safer, explaining that certain essential oils have come under fire for their potential carcinogenicity.
Dr Karl Lintner, md Sederma explored the possibility of anti-ageing ingredients for natural products but was concerned with the apparent lack of safety data connected to many of the presentations on natural products.
“We should be careful about what we say to the consumer. I don’t agree much with what I’ve heard. I am a cosmetic scientist and to me the most important thing is safety,” he said. “I think the last two days have shown that a definition is impossible and I wish you good luck with harmonisation.
“Why do we need a definition?” he asked. “Is natural really better? What is actually natural? I have big doubts about these questions. At least with a synthetically made peptide you know what you are putting in the cream.”
Ulrich Isseberner, marketing manager, Personal Care NAFTA, Cognis offered another insight from a supplier’s perspective, suggesting the lack of one standard for green cosmetics meant a dilution of the term natural beauty. “How green do you want to be?” he asked. “There are different levels out there. All suppliers are working very hard in this area to overcome the challenges.
Another impassioned question and answer session followed the presentations with Rechelbacher leading the charge.
“There has got to be a longer term strategy than petrochemicals,” he said. “I know you can do it – you have the technology. There is a lot of animosity in this room about chemicals and there has got to be a way to find raw materials that support the standards.”
With feelings running high on the conference floor, there is no doubt that natural and organic will continue to be a flash point for the C&T industry. A lack of cohesive global standards as illustrated in the half-day workshop and the rather haphazard evolution of the sector in the US shows there is much more to be done to ensure the sector reaches its potential.
Summing up the situation perfectly Lintner told SPC: “This sector has become too emotional – we need to use the rational part of our brain to get results.”
