Aveda has been granted Cradle to Cradle certification for four of its botanical ingredients, the first beauty company to receive such accreditation.
The four ingredients – sandalwood oil from Australia, Bulgarian rose and lavender oil and Brazilian uruku oil were awarded the certification following three years of independent assessment by the Environmental Protection and Encouragement Agency (EPEA), which ensured that each ingredient met the ecological and health criteria based on the Cradle to Cradle Design concept. Under the criteria materials must be either continuously reusable or biodegradable, and they must also offer social and economic benefits for its producers.
In the case of beauty products, the concept also means that ingredients that are extracted from natural materials, or ‘biological nutrients’, are given back to nature after usage to become part of the ecological cycle.
“The Cradle to Cradle concept supports the Aveda mission of environmental and social responsibility,” said Dominique Conseil, Aveda president. “Our goal is to reduce the need for and use of ingredients that persist unnaturally in the environment and help replace synthetic ingredients with plant-based alternatives.