The Brazilian hero brand; Chinese consumers high expectation in sourcing of natural ingredients; and the consumer push for fair wages; the latest findings from the 2022 Union of Ethical BioTrade global survey reveal a picture of growing biodiversity awareness and an increasingly expectant consumer.

On October 19, 2022, Leila Rochet, CIC’s Chief Innovation Officer and also Consultant for the UEBT, was in Grasse for the annual UEBT conference, where the team unveiled the results of its latest global biodiversity survey, conducted by Harris Interactive/Toluna.

Since UEBT began back in 2009, the world looks like an entirely different place. Change that has never been so marked or occurred so rapidly than in the past two years. The pandemic forced everyone to take stock of their environment - quite literally - and since UEBT’s last in-person event in 2019, consumers have taken the time to get better informed on the impact of their purchases. In the interim years, they have grown to value brands and companies that act today to improve tomorrow.

Reflecting on this seismic consumer shift, the UEBT barometer was changed - moving on from measuring improvement of biodiversity awareness (which is now globally high) to focusing on more nuanced insights and behaviours. This year, a total of 14 questions were asked to more than 6,000 people spanning 6 countries (France, UK, Germany, Brazil, USA and China).

Below is a summary of the key findings:

1 - The Biodiversity Boom

Biodiversity is chosen by 21% of global consumers as their second most urgent concern, ranking second after climate change, from a pre-set list of five topics. In Brazil and China, biodiversity is ranked as number one, while in Germany, a country where biodiversity awareness is still low (76%), it ranks as the fourth most important concern after climate change, plastic pollution and forest loss.

What is clear is that biodiversity is of significant interest to consumers. In fact, 54% of those surveyed said it was very important to them to have information regarding a product’s impact on biodiversity listed on the product packaging or web page, only slightly lower in importance than the list of ingredients. This figure goes up to 61% amongst those consumers who have the highest awareness of biodiversity and reaches 61% among consumers who buy natural beauty brands. Respondents in Brazil appear to be particularly interested in these issues, scoring the highest for each item. Importance is also given to labels that validate a company’s ethical practices, being especially very important to consumers in Brazil (76%), China (46%) and France (42%).

2 - The Human Imperative

A total of 9 out of 10 respondents agree that it is the obligation of humans to protect nature, and 82% believe they can have an impact by buying products from companies that respect biodiversity. A figure that is also high on expectations they have regarding companies. 53% think it is a moral obligation for companies to respect biodiversity and the figure has increased since 2020. They want to be informed of the actions and expect companies to take a stand, for example, when the agreement for nature is adopted at the end of this year.

3 - Fairness and Ethical Practices

When asked to select the most important actions taken by companies from a pre-given list of 18 items, paying a fair price and a decent wage takes the #4 position. Ethical practices, especially relating to biodiversity and the protection of nature, are expected from brands. To note, in the Top Five, paying fair prices or decent wages and protecting the bees are mentioned by half of the sample as very important actions. These results are even higher among women below 30 years old. 57% said it is very important that companies address reforestation and 50% mentioned fair prices.

4 - Brands perceived as the most supportive of biodiversity

So which brands are considered to take most concrete action to respect people and biodiversity? Only a few brands clearly stood out spontaneously in all countries, except for Brazil. 72% of consumers could name just one beauty or food brand, with younger consumers, consumers aware of biodiversity and women being ahead of other cohorts.

In France, 25% of respondents mentioned Yves Rocher (in augmentation vs 2020). In Germany, Nivea is mentioned by 21% (with higher level among men). To note that 19% of natural brand purchasers cited Weleda (joint top with Nivea). In the UK, The Body Shop was mentioned by 24% of respondents ( 33% for female respondent)s. From the US, all figures are low - Burt's Bees’ heritage in beekeeping helps the brand score 12% overal. Like previous years, Natura emerges as the clear biodiversity champion in Brazil with 69% of mentions overall (up from 55% in 2020), rising to 73% amongst females over 30 years old. In China, L’Oréal reaches the first position with 21% and respondents mention more prestige brands.

The CIC Take:

Consumers are increasingly aligning respect for biodiversity with respect for people (in terms of fair wages, etc). Ethical practices (and therefore, transparency) are now top consumer priorities.
Opportunities exist for brands to own the natural/ green beauty conversation in their territories - with the exception of Brazil, there is no clear natural beauty hero brand.
Chinese consumers have high expectations and are important natural beauty brand buyers.

The UEBT Biodiversity Barometer Full report can be downloaded on the www.biodiversitybarometer.org website.

Photo Credit - Unsplash - Nordwood Themes

On May 20, 2019 the UEBT held a conference in Paris that gathered more than 300 people from the industry, Ngo’s and brands. The “Beauty of Sourcing with Respect” is an amazing event held every year to learn more about the advances made in terms of consumer knowledge, industry practices and regulations concerning the ethical sourcing of natural ingredients (and the impact on biodiversity and people).

Since its creation in 2009 this organization has been growing in importance and has become a reference in the field of Biodiversity sourcing and Access and Benefit sharing. During the conference, small and major companies were together to share experience and discuss the new axis around the topic of sourcing.

Why is Biodiversity an important topic in the Beauty Industry?

Today, the beauty industry is increasingly using natural ingredients, from organic companies to traditional companies, the sourcing of natural ingredients means collecting ingredients from biodiversity. These ingredients are usually collected in countries where biodiversity is rich but communities living from this biodiversity are not, but the knowledge of these collectivities, transmitted from generation to generation, is huge.

We see more and more Cosmetic Companies participating in the event, and this is encouraging for the future of our industry.

What are consumers thinking? What did we learn this year

Since 2009, the UEBT has been running a Biodiversity Barometer every year, measuring the consumers’ awareness and insights on the subject. One part of the barometer is a quantitative survey among thousands of consumers around the world. In 2019, the survey was run in Japan, China, Vietnam and South Korea. The other part of the research involves street interviews, allowing to collect valuable insights.

This year’s results show that the awareness of Biodiversity is quite high, as a growing 83% of Asian consumers interviewed know what is Biodiversity (compared to the 72% in Western Countries average of France, USA, UK, Germany, and Brazil). This year survey confirmed the consumer preference for products coming from companies respecting people and biodiversity. Why? Because this has a positive impact of society (81% in Asia) and it makes the feel good (78%).

UEBT- Biodiversity Barometer - Results among total base (1000 people per country), Asia results in 2019, 78% refers to the Asian results. France, Germany, UK and USA - results from 2018 survey.

This research confirms that consumers are more and more demanding and are increasingly looking for more transparency. Trust among companies is low and they want to be better informed on the list of ingredients, the sourcing and the ethical practices that companies and brands conduct when sourcing an ingredient.

Download the results of the UEBT 2019 Barometer here.

Sourcing Natural Ingredients - Ethics and Respecting Local Communities

Sourcing ethically means respecting the planet, making sure we stop the exhaustion of plant species, but also making sure the social aspect is respected.

Biodiversity is a major source of ingredients for cosmetics. For L’Oreal, one of the sponsor of the event and speaker, more than 59% of the raw materials used for cosmetics are renewable, representing 1,600 ingredients from 340 plant species sourced in over 100 countries.

According to Nisrine Zaaraoui, Responsible Sourcing Manager at l’Oréal: “biodiversity is decreasing, this is an environmental issue but also social issue”. Traceability is key, including the origin, method of cultivation, etc. but this is only the first step of a 4 step program from the the L’Oréal Solidarity Sourcing. This project initiated in 2010 has initiated more than 40 projects, helping more than 47 000 people from communities in 13 countries.

ABS - Access and Benefit sharing - What it is and why is this key?

When sourcing an ingredient from biodiversity, there are certain rules to follow concerning the access to the ingredients and the sharing of the benefits with local communities that hold most of the knowledge and live from this natural richness.

‘Cosmetics companies are very involved as these companies are exposed, with strong story telling, and need to comply with the rules of Access and Benefit Sharing’ says Maria Julia Oliva, Deputy Director of the UEBT.

This year, one of the key subject discussed and sharing of practices were around ABS. Following the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol and related EU rules, ABS is an issue receiving increasing attention in corporate reporting, especially in the beauty sector. In 2019, 17% of beauty companies made reference to ABS (up from 2% in 2009).

If you want to learn more, this video is a great summary of what ABS is all about and why this is an important subject for the Beauty Industry.

Our agency is proud to be a long time partner of the UEBT for more than 10 years and has worked on tracing the amazing evolution of the respect of people and biodiversity in consumers and company minds.

The UEBT offers amazing material for the public and companies who wish to learn more about this important topic. Don’t hesitate to visit their website: www.uebt.org