Shannon Hess talks about working with Aveda towards a more organic and sustainable future
Naturals and ethics have always been at the heart of Aveda’s strategy. Now part of the Estée Lauder group, the company still adheres to its founder Hoerst Rechelbacher's principles: “Our mission at Aveda is to care for the world we live in, from the products that we make to the ways in which we give back to society. At Aveda, we strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility, not just in the world of beauty but around the world.”
Today direction comes from Aveda president Dominique Conseil and for the last four or five years that has included a move towards certified organic ingredients in aromas. Shannon Hess is research project manager in the aroma lab, co-ordinating aroma formula development and overseeing ingredient approval processes. "Dominique has really pushed the mission of the company," she says. For Aveda and any organisation, Hess says there are four key things that define the rules for organic: no GMOs, no petrochemical solvents, no irradiation and no sewage sludge.
"The focus has been on aromas as we thought we could do aroma as a whole, compared with something like a shampoo which is much more complex," she says. "For example, I have a colleague who has been working on an organic shampoo for ten years. He has done one but the performance isn't right. The most important thing is the performance and we can't compromise on that. So we focus on possibly using organic starting materials even if the whole process can't be organic."
Hess herself joined Aveda six years ago as a hair and skin care formulator and also had a stint in the colour cosmetics group before moving to the aroma lab where she works closely with in-house perfumer Ko-ichi Shiozawa. Having already introduced All-Sensitive Body Formula and Comforting tea bags and loose leaf tea, the company has just developed its fourth fully organic product and its first totally organic fragrance, Rose Attar Pure-Fume Absolute, a limited edition blend of certified organic jojoba and Bulgarian rose essential oils.
Of crucial importance to Hess and Aveda is where these and other fragrance ingredients have come from. "The area where we have focused our organic committment is within aromas and two years ago we began a programme looking at them all and where we could replace them," says Hess. "We went to suppliers and told them what we were trying to do (we actually asked them to start thinking about this around five years ago) and we now work with a small group of oil suppliers." Aveda currently works with 15 such suppliers but Hess would like to get this number up to 30 and for this to include two or three certified suppliers of each organic oil; there are inevitably unpredictable problems with certain harvests in certain years and back-up is essential.
In the case of the Rose Attar Aveda worked with the third generation family run Enio Bonchev distillery in Kazanlak, Bulgaria, its sourcing partner for certified organic rose and lavender. The distillery harvests using biodynamic methods "that allow the distillary to live in sustainable harmony with the land," and Aveda says its partnership helps support the distillery, allowing it to employ many local villagers and to continue environmentally responsible farming practices.
One of Hess's main responsibilities is the mentoring of suppliers and developing partnerships through the approval process for new ingredients. "Mentoring is really a hand holding exercise," she says. "Approving an ingredient can be difficult on the ground as you might be in the middle of the jungle with no computer or telephone. We explain what an ingredient is for and help them through the paperwork while they help us understand what they do. If additional testing or information is required, for example, we will put them in touch with someone in the area. We really work with a group. Individual farmers can have problems on various levels so we work with a liaison between us and the farmer on things like storage and shipping.
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My passion is the suppliers... that's what drives me at Aveda |
"Whether you're working with R&D, with the press or as a stylist, the place where it all comes together is when you're standing in the middle of a field with the farmer and realise they're just a regular person like you. It's a very close relationship. We're learning from them as much as them from us and that's why it's successful. It really is a partnership as it's mutually beneficial and you couldn't have one without the other. And because of this good relationship and being closer to the source we have good traceability in comparison with a regular fragrance through a regular fragrance house where provided a fragrance meets the criteria the source is less important."
This is all part of Aveda's Soil to Bottle position on traceability. As Conseil puts it: "bringing high integrity ingredients from soil to bottle through the web of precious connections that Aveda nurtures with wisdom keepers and stewards of the Earth."
"It's a case of changing your mentality and changing your way of life; you can have a business and something marketable on a worldwide scale," says Hess. "It's a great story but you also need to have a market for the ingredients otherwise you could be doing something that is actually detrimental. We decided to put the highest standards on ourselves and maybe be conservative in our claims so we could be seen as a leader and as being true. We want to make sure that what is out there is honest. The integrity of our brand and products is very important."
Aveda is also moving forward on sustainability, which should not be confused with traceability. "With pure-fume, Aveda is looking at developing a sustainable business," says Hess. For example, the company switched from Indian sandalwood to Australian sandalwood, working with an aboriginal community to ensure responsible sourcing and harvesting practices as well as fair payment. Aveda also worked with Mount Romance and the Songman Circle of Wisdom, a community of indigenous leaders. The group will establish the first protocol of indigenous raw material certification, facilitate economic capacity building and environmental conservation, work towards cultural preservartion and promote indigenous wisdom.
"It's all to do with enabling communities to have a voice," says Hess. "It does feel good. A farmer at a recent conference said 'we finally feel like someone is listening to us' - and without them we have nothing."
Hess clearly loves her job but is setting herself new goals. She plans to develop her love of perfumery by training as a perfumer in Grasse. She would also like Aveda to get organic conversion up to 95% in the next few years, though she appreciates this could be tough, particularly when it comes to asking a supplier of 1-2kg of something a year to comply. It also takes time as farmers can't sell something as organic until the third year of production. "My passion is the suppliers and when I'm training as a perfumer I will still keep up with them. That's what drives me at Aveda."