Lush Cosmetics and the Amazon
Founded in 1995 in the UK, Lush has grown to be one of the world’s largest cosmetics companies with over 900 stores globally. Years ago, the company mapped the supply chains of their raw and processed materials to identify ‘sourcing hotspots.’ When layering the data over maps of biodiversity, carbon, and migration, the company understood that its sourcing communities coincided with the regions of the planet most in need of conservation. Since then, as a buying strategy, the company created ‘sourcing hubs’ in key locations, setting up demonstration farms, forming trade relationships directly with communities, and supporting local processing infrastructure development. As intended, the process created new economic livelihoods as alternatives to poaching and forest degradation, while supporting the transition from conventional agriculture to agroecology. Join us to meet Ruth Andrade, Lush Head of Environment, and Livia Froes, Lush South America Sourcing Hubs Coordinator. They will share a decade of experiences developing these programs, talk about collaboration with philanthropy, and discuss plans to verify carbon and biodiversity impacts embedded into raw materials as part of an insetting strategy.
