How to develop new cleaning systems that revolutionize our personal care rituals? This was the question posed by the Natura Campus Challenge “New Cleaning Technologies for Personal Hygiene,” which invited students from various fields to reflect on personal care rituals for the development of new cleaning processes, without the use of surfactants. “We wanted to think with people from outside if there was any other gentler way, both for the environment and for the skin, that could be used for body cleaning,” explains Adriana Fregonesi, Scientific Manager at Natura.
The challenge, which was launched on September 25, 2014, concluded on July 3. Lasting almost ten months, this edition of the challenge had a novelty: the prototyping process. “This challenge was quite different due to the methodology we used and the audience we reached.
“Our idea this time was to work with rapid prototyping concepts, engaging the university audience with the goal of ending the challenge with a viable prototype and a developed product concept,” she adds.
The idea selection process began with the publication of the announcement in September of last year. Groups that submitted ideas in the first weeks of the registration period were also able to participate in the interaction – provided for in the announcement – with a researcher from Natura. This feedback stage allowed for a preliminary evaluation by Natura specialists who redirected some proposals to better fit the challenge's idea. The company also held a hangout to explain all the stages, requirements, and evaluation criteria.
In addition to being free of surfactants, the solution created by the groups had to meet some requirements: the ideas had to present, in addition to the technical solution, an innovative mode of use and low environmental impact. The formula also could not contain ingredients tested on animals or use toxic and/or harmful raw materials or processes for humans.
The ideas that met these requirements were evaluated, scored, and ranked. The eight best proposals underwent a second evaluation, led by Natura's innovation leadership. “In the second stage, we worked with several different areas of Natura. We invited collaborators from different areas within the company's vice-presidency of innovation to work on this selection,” recalls Adriana. The goal of the challenge was to bring not only a different cleaning technology but also a differentiated mode of use that would bring well-being to the consumer.
Three groups were chosen as finalists and advanced to the prototyping stage, with one of them not completing the entire stage. The prototyping phase was accompanied by the accelerator Aceleratech, a partner of Natura, which worked with the groups as if they were startups. “The role of Aceleratech was quite broad in guiding the groups on how to make these validations with the consumer and how to apply these results when defining the project. They already had an initial idea and went to test it. They also helped a lot in preparing the groups for the final presentation,” says Caio.
Another distinguishing feature of the challenge is its multidisciplinary nature. Students from all fields of knowledge were invited to participate, from computational engineering, chemical engineering to administration, biology, and design. In fact, the two finalists in the prototyping stage had backgrounds in Biology and Product Design.
“This is a very rich part of the challenge, the power of this convergence of different ideas and the possibility of hearing various sides to reach a product with the same goal,” evaluates Caio. According to him, participating in this process made it possible to see how interesting it was to bring this diverse audience together and observe how they can contribute in different ways.
The “Cleaning Technologies for Personal Care” Challenge concluded with the final presentation of the projects on July 3. Recall the Briefing of the challenge and meet the winners.
