Brazilian beauty giant Natura &Co is taking action on climate control with a new pledge. The multinational, which comprises the brands Natura, Aesop and The Body Shop, has vowed to limit its contribution to global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit in September. The move, which is part of the "Business Ambition for 1.5°C: Our Only Future" campaign, will also see the group commit to reaching net-zero emissions by the year 2050.
"For the sake of the next generation, we cannot ignore the climate emergency we face today," said Roberto Marques, Executive Chairman of Natura &Co, in a statement. "Business, governments, civil society and individuals must act together and we must be more ambitious. Because when it comes down to it, we cannot run businesses on a dead planet. This campaign is a great start and I would encourage every business to get involved."
"It is very encouraging to see these climate leaders in the global business community taking action, both to help tackle the climate emergency and because taking climate action presents huge opportunities for early movers," commented Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Climate Action Summit.
The commitment follows a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which pointed to potentially catastrophic consequences if global warming were to exceed 1.5°C.
Recently, the beauty industry has seen a wave of sustainable initiatives. Back in June L’Oréal announced it had taken a minority stake in Carbios, a start-up that focuses on finding bio-industrial solutions to reinvent the lifecycle of plastic and textile polymers, with a view to financing a technology that uses specific enzymes in order to recycle PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) plastics and polyester fibers. Meanwhile, April saw the personal care conglomerate Unilever reveal a three-part plan to tackle plastic use in the US.
