Organic Monitor to host sustainability summit

The Sustainable Cosmetics Summit will cover a host of major issues facing the natural and organic personal care industry, and is claimed to be the first of its kind to donate a portion of the profits to charity.

The summit will be held from 16 – 17 November at the Frankfurter Hof Hotel, close to Mess Frankfurt and will entail a series of conferences covering topics such as market and industry developments, sustainability, CSR best-practices as well as developing green formulations.

The event will also include some of the leading suppliers and finished goods providers in the business, including names such as Cognis and Croda, together with Weleda and Greek naturals player Korres Natural Products.

Korres gives keynote speech​

Indeed, George Korres, CEO and founder of the company, will start the event off with a keynote speech entitled ‘Building a sustainable future through natural cosmetics.

Likewise speakers from Weleda and Laverana will add to the presentation given by Korres, sharing their experiences of how they have met the often tough criteria necessary to fulfill both the ethical and ecological challenges of doing business in this segment.

Representatives from other major global players such as Johnson & Johnson, Unilever and Henkel are also said to have confirmed their presence at the summit, as well as key representatives from certification bodies such as NaTrue, EcoCert and Union for Ethical BioTrade.

The opening first session of the summit will be given by Amarjit Sahota, director of Organic Monitor, who will be lifting the lid on the current issues that are facing the global natural cosmetics industry.

Latest trends and market data​

This presentation will include key data on the market, as well as highlighting some of the most recent developments with respect to the trends that are driving this fast growing and rapidly evolving category.

There will also be an update on one of the most contentious and complicated issues for the industry: natural and organic certification standards.

This part of the conference will include presentations about the leading certification programmes, including details about the soon-to-be introduced Cosmos standard, as well as NaTrue, NPA and NSF.

Naturals in developing markets​

The session will also includes updates on certification standards in the Latin American and Asia-Pacific markets, as well as an insight into the mindset of the ethical consumer given by the Boston Consulting Group.

The second session will focus on CSR and sustainability practices, demonstrating how the environmental impact of personal care products can be reduced.

Other presentations given by both suppliers and cosmetic companies in this session will include ethical sourcing, biodiversity preservation, waste reduction and offsetting carbon emissions.

Green formulations​

The third session will focus on green formulations, with an opening presentation by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation, which will be backed up by presentations from a fair trade cosmetics company as well as a look at technical and formulation issues.

There will also be two workshops given on the first day of the summit, one on food ingredients in cosmetics, which will be led by Organic Monitor’s technical research manager Judi Beerling; the other will cover business opportunities in the ethical cosmetics market.

For further details about the contents of the summit and attending, please click here​.