TAGS: Natural/ Organic
The non-profit Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT) announces that Guerlain, a French brand has achieved membership in UEBT, showing it has made a commitment to sourcing its ingredients from nature with respect for people and biodiversity.
Commitment to Ethical Sourcing
Guerlain now joins 70 other companies that are part of UEBT and make even more progress to source their ingredients in line with the UEBT Ethical BioTrade standard. These companies are involved in natural ingredient supply chains in the food, cosmetics and natural pharmaceutical sectors.
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It is wonderful to see such an important and iconic French brand signal their commitment to ethical sourcing. By committing to improving how their suppliers collect and grow ingredients from nature in line with our internationally recognized standard, Guerlain is at the forefront of their sector. They are responding to the ever-rising expectations of consumers today that brands should protect biodiversity and the communities where raw materials are harvested,” said Rik Kutsch Lojenga, UEBT’s executive director.
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Gaining UEBT membership was a crucial step for us, and in line with our commitment to biodiversity. Since 1828 nature has been the source of inspiration for Guerlain products, so we are proud to share with consumers that we have an independently verified commitment to align our sourcing with a standard that covers important social and environmental issues we all care about,” said Cecile Lochard, Guerlain’s chief sustainability officer.
Responsible Sourcing Practices
The brand’s commitment includes a plan to begin with its 40 most emblematic ingredients. These will be assessed by UEBT, including its famous Damask roses from Turkey and Bulgaria, among many others. UEBT will look at Guerlain’s responsible sourcing practices in each of these ingredients and the company will set up plans for improvements with respect to people and biodiversity. As part of this approach, Guerlain aims to achieve UEBT certification of these ingredients by 2026.
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For us, nature has been part of our company’s ethos for almost two hundred years. We are driven by a duty to act and to preserve our precious world for the next generations. For many years now we have been acting on this ethos, such as placing the preservation of bees at the heart of our work with several meaningful partnerships. It is therefore particularly sweet that this announcement comes just after World Bee Day as well. The UEBT standard contains some of the most rigorous requirements on biodiversity, including practices that promote pollinators like bees,” said Lochard.
UEBT’s standard covers issues, such as conservation of biodiversity; sustainable use of its components; fair prices; living income; respect for indigenous people and local communities; human, children and workers' rights; local development and food security. The UEBT standard can be applied anywhere in the world and pertains to ingredients from biodiversity including parts and compounds, such as leaves, roots, seeds, oils, extracts, waxes, colorants and flavors.
Source: UEBT