Provital’s new project in Mexico
A decade-long purpose towards a fair future and a sustainable cosmetics world
With consumers becoming increasingly aware of the issues surrounding sustainability, a comprehensive and far-reaching initiative is essential to limit environmental damage.
At Provital, we believe that the cosmetics industry has an essential role to play in this regard, so, in line with our commitment to the people and the planet, we presented this past June the project behind our latest launch, Ethicskin, a multifunctional and well-aging active ingredient, developed and produced around our most emblematic eco-ethical initiative in Mexico, and in collaboration with Mujeres y Ambiente (M&A).
The collaboration with this association of local producers (M&A) began ten years ago with the ultimate goal of improving the well-being of rural communities in Querétaro.
However, with the development of Ethicskin, a further step has been taken by obtaining the first IRCC (Internationally recognised certificate of compliance) for the Nagoya Protocol ever awarded to a cosmetic ingredients’ supplier.
In accordance with this protocol - particularly with articles 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 - producers in Querétaro’s rural regions signed a first-of-its-kind agreement, giving access to the genetic resources of plants cultivated in Mexico for traditional medicine, and fairly compensating rural producers for their labour and inherited knowledge.
The M&A initiative has been internationally recognized for its work in conserving biodiversity. It has had the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with the award of its 2020 Equator Prize, which described the project as an “example of effective biodiversity conservation through the sustainable use of genetic resources”.
Such biological diversity supports the functioning of a healthy ecosystem and contributes to economic development and improving local livelihoods, an essential aspect to achieve its 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Thanks to this initiative, collaborations were established between public organisations, private entities, academic organisations and local communities, and the benefits are beginning to appear in the form of business opportunities, employment, research, technology transfer and capacity-development opportunities.
In addition, for the production of Mexican arnica (raw material used for the Ethicskin), producers that participate in the project are remunerated 45% more than the average wholesaler in the Mexican market.
Aiming to keep on contributing more and more to a just world and a sustainable future, Ethicskin embodies Provital’s new broad-spectrum ethos, an ethos that will expand the limits of sustainability and ethical practices in the beauty sector with a new way of acting where biodiversity and environmental conservation go hand in hand with economic and social growth.
