Natura partners with UEBT to monitor and evaluate suppliers from the Amazon and other regions of Brazil
“One day, the andiroba producer from the Amazon will be able to proudly tell a buyer interested in purchasing their product: look, I have the biodiversity seal from Natura!” This scene reflects how Renata Tozaki, a researcher in the field of bioagriculture at Natura's Sustainable Technologies Group, envisions one of the outcomes of the project that developed Natura's supply chain verification system in partnership with UEBT (Union for Ethical Bio Trade), a non-governmental organization based in the Netherlands.
The origin of the initiative, according to Sergio Camargo, manager of Sustainable Technologies at Natura, dates back to 2000, when the company began to systematically use raw materials from biodiversity. “We wanted these products to have certified origins, with specific environmental and social assessment requirements, which would provide us with security,” he recalls.
Until then, Natura relied on external certifications, which, however, were not specific to each product. “For example, organic certification values the non-use of chemical inputs, but if I want to certify the Brazil nut, a forest asset, it didn't make sense to focus on chemical products, which were obviously not used in this case. Therefore, starting in 2006, we felt the need for a new model, directed at different plant production models,” says Sergio. As a co-founder of UEBT, in 2013, Natura invited the organization to design a monitoring and verification system that would later evolve into an internal certification model.
Several stages followed to define the scope, requirements, protocol, principles, and tools of the system. There were many meetings with different areas of Natura, with field researchers, and with producer communities. “Later, we conducted two pilot tests for adjustments and trained internal auditors,” explains Renata.
“After all of this was designed and tested in the pilot chains, we developed an internal training process for the teams that will implement the system in the field,” adds Sergio. “In 2014, we managed to carry out this verification in six areas, and this year, the challenge is to extend it to 26 supplying communities.”
It was a meticulous and patient job, as there were no precedents with the intended characteristics. Sergio hopes that by early 2016, it will be possible to obtain an opinion from an independent party for the certification of the system: “We don’t want to rush, as it is a construction that requires maturity. The idea is that by mid-next year the process will be finalized.”
The crowning achievement of the project will be the creation of a biodiversity seal endorsed by Natura and UEBT, recognized internationally, whose effects will extend through a long chain, from producers in the most distant regions of Brazil to consumers of the brand's products.
Above all, the certification reaffirms Natura's socio-environmental commitments. “While we are going into the field to conduct these assessments, an internal committee at the company discusses the results and the potential improvements we can promote. It is a very dynamic process, which is not finalized, but follows a path of continuous evolution,” states Sergio.
Renata adds: “We understand that suppliers also need to develop both in relation to the production method and the organizational model, and this system contributes to that. The certification will make them evolve with us.”
