On 25th May 2023, NATRUE held its annual Membership Assembly in Frankfurt (Germany). The Membership Assembly was the perfect occasion to provide NATRUE’s Members with an overview of the association’s activities in the areas of advocacy, label, international events, and communications. Moreover, the Assembly’s open session provided attendees with three amazing talks and timely discussions covering some of the hot topics of the industry: EU regulation and green claims, natural complex substances, and reusable cosmetics packaging.
New NATRUE Members
NATRUE membership is flexible and welcomes producers, manufacturers and distributors of natural and organic cosmetics, as well as associations and friends of the industry who share the values and ethics represented by the NATRUE Label.
During the meeting, NATRUE kindly welcomed a new Member B to the association: My bioLUXE (Germany). With this new addition, NATRUE consolidates its membership with almost 70 Members (5 Member A, 58 Member B and 4 Associate Members).
The NATRUE Label
Certified products carrying the NATRUE Label continue to show a strong presence in the European market with over 90 % of the certified Label Users are located across Europe, which mirrors the historically matured markets for certified products. The remaining distribution of the label reflects its expansion into fast growing markets such as Americas, Oceania, Asia, and Africa, and reflected new countries such Israel, Morocco and Singapore. As of May 2023, globally greater than 6700 certified natural and organic cosmetics from over 285 brands in more than 30 countries carrying the NATRUE label.
The NATRUE label is not only carried by finished cosmetic products but also raw materials, which now account for over 25% of the total products carrying the NATRUE seal. Since the implementation of the scheme in January 2020 to further facilitate and promote the formulation of NATRUE certified finished products: the NATRUE Raw Material Scheme has now reached almost 2,400 certified and approved raw materials.
To promote the various activities of the association, NATRUE joined 6 international trade fairs, where NATRUE promoted the seal; and participated in 15 conferences all around the world.
Continued collaboration and support with industry
Over the past 12-months, NATRUE signed new partnership agreements and initiated new collaborations with relevant international stakeholders, such as COSlaw (editorial committee), the Organic Trade Board (to grow awareness and promote organics in the UK), as well as the association’s continued participation and contribution to the Eco Beauty Score Consortium (a science-based method for measuring environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of products).
NATRUE’s commitments and activities in 2022
With greenwashing and environmental claims high on the agenda over the past 12-months globally, the key advocacy points presented by NATRUE covered the association’s involved in providing feedback to three evolving areas in the USA, the UK and the EU.
In the USA, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) revision of the Green Claims Guide was discussed together with an explanation of NATRUE’s feedback to the recent public consultation; specifically in relation to the claim ‘organic’. NATRUE explained the need for an update to reflect a changing market and the essential role of third-party certification to validate claims across a diverse range of cosmetics products whilst uphold the integrity and consistency of the claim.
In the UK, NATRUE explained the current developments with the work of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to examine the accuracy of FMCG ‘green’ claims in light of the recently published Green Claims Code. NATRUE also provided context to enforcement powers of the CMA in light of emerging UK law under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill.
In the EU, NATRUE provided an update to the legislative process related to the amending of Directives as to regards empowering consumers for the green transition, where NATRUE highlighted the outcomes in favour of third-party certification. With respect to the newly proposed Green Claims Directive, NATRUE also outlined the continued need to engage and clarify points within the proposals, as well as the continue its involvement in the legislative process.
Open session: industries’ hot topics
Rosa Oyarzabal, from Covington & Burling LPP (Brussels), opened the series of conferences with an insightful deep dive into the EU Green Deal and the upcoming EU Green Claims Directives centred around greenwashing and environmental claims. Ms Oyarzabal provided a detailed explanation of the challenges and opportunities of natural and organic claims, covering the proposed Greenwashing Directive in terms of scope, communication requirements, certification and verification requirements and further next steps.
This presentation was followed by a comprehensive summary and update from Jennifer Dorts, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager of IFRA, who covered the impacts for natural complex substances (NCS) in relation to aligned of the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability to the CLP and REACH revisions, which were supported by a case study of p-cymene. The talk was complimented by Chaima Elyahmadi, Regional Public Affairs and Sustainability Manager Europe at IFRA, who introduced the latest of IFRA’s advocacy activities and the necessity to engage at a political level so that emerging legislation takes into account the needs of not only the industry but the communities that produce the NCSs.
The open session ended with a look into the reusable cosmetics packaging with Stuart Chidley, co-founder of Re and Beauty Kitchen UK Ltd; who addressed the need for an absolute reduction in single-use packaging by introducing the Re initiative, a universal reusable packaging platform. Mr Chidley made the case for the need for industry to improve, collaborate, and standardise to overcome today’s barriers through a whole-system approach favouring prefill supported by a digital return system empowering and enabling consumers to play their part too. In addition to the overview, the basis for validation and how enable further commitment with stakeholders, both internally and externally, was presented.
Big thanks to all of you who joined us during this special day! See you next year!
Questions? Contact the NATRUE Secretariat.