On 13th May 2024, NATRUE held its annual Membership Assembly in Frankfurt (Germany) – a highly anticipated event, which this year featured an engaging workshop event.
The day’s first session provided NATRUE members with a comprehensive overview of the association’s activities including: advocacy, updates to the NATRUE label, international event participation, and communication strategies. The workshop brought together members and stakeholders, focusing on three of NATRUE’s key pillars for the future: sustainability, innovation, and communication.
Welcoming new NATRUE Members
NATRUE membership is open to producers, manufacturers, and distributors of natural and organic cosmetics, as well as associations and supporters of the industry who share the values and ethics represented by the NATRUE Label.
During the assembly, NATRUE welcomed four new Member B to the association: Herbalind GmbH & Co KG, Kluge Vision (Kluge Vision Organic), and Things we Love (lipfein) from Germany; and Liv Naturkosmetik – QuraDea from Switzerland. With these new additions, NATRUE now boasts 65 international Members (5 Member A, 56 Member B and 4 Associate Members).
Expanding the NATRUE Label
Certified products carrying the NATRUE Label continue to show a strong presence in the European market, with over 90 % of certified brands based in Europe. However, the label is also experiencing significant growth in rapidly expanding markets in the Americas, Middle East, Oceania, Asia, and Africa including new countries such Israel, South Korea, Taiwan or Saudi Arabia. As of May 2024, over 6,400 natural and organic cosmetics from over 260 brands in more than 30 countries carrying the NATRUE label.
The NATRUE label is not only applied to finished cosmetic products but also raw materials, which now account for over 33 % of all products bearing the NATRUE seal. Since the implementation of the Raw Material Scheme in January 2020, designed to facilitate and promote the formulation of NATRUE certified finished products, NATRUE is now counting with over 3,150 certified and approved raw materials.
In 2023, NATRUE actively promoted its label at 5 international trade fairs and participated in 27 conferences and events all around the world. These included first-time appearances at NYSCC Suppliers’ Day (New York, USA), a technical webinar organised by the UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade, and an online training session organised by FiBL, the Swiss Research Institute for Organic Agriculture.
Strengthening industry collaboration
Over the past year, NATRUE has forged new partnerships and collaborations with relevant international stakeholders, including Commit for our Planet ( an unprecedented cosmetics industry-wide initiative with the goal to reduce the sector’s environmental footprint in Europe), the Organic Trade Board (to grow awareness and promote organics in the UK), and the Eco Beauty Score Consortium (a science-based method for measuring environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of products).
Moreover, in May 2023 Dr Mark Smith, NATRUE Director General, was appointed Co-Chair of the British Beauty Council’s Sustainable Beauty Coalition (SBC), alongside Jo Chidley (Co-Founder of Beauty Kitchen and a circular economy expert and chemist) and Oriele Frank (Chief Product & Sustainability Officer and Co-Founder of Elemis.) Together, they are leading the SBC’s strategy, combining their expertise across packaging, certification, and product sustainability.
Ongoing advocacy and communication
During the assembly, Members were updated on NATRUE’s advocacy efforts principally focused upon the European Commission’s proposal of a Green Claims Directive, where NATRUE had joined together with European and international associations from across various industrial sectors to issue numerous collective statements and letters to raise awareness amongst policymakers ranging from specific topics to the application of the proposed framework itself. For more details, please visit our “Policy Perspectives and contributions” section on the NATRUE website, available here.
Over the past year, NATRUE established 13 new media partnerships, and published 80 NATRUE articles and interviews in international journals. Additionally, NATRUE collaborated with several retailers, producing a factsheet on why NATRUE is a win-win for brands and consumers (available here). NATRUE also launched two infographics that provide a step-by-step guide to get the NATRUE certification for both finished cosmetic products and raw materials. Finally, several key documents were updated and published here, ensuring continued support for the association’s communication initiatives.
NATRUE 2024 and beyond!
The day also included an enriching workshop where attendees shared their perspectives on three core topics of the association: sustainability and label criteria, new market needs and adaptation, and international expansion of the label. Each pillar was taken up into three working groups with independent moderation from Stefan Bohmann to coordinate the steps to be taken in order to successfully define objectives, forge strategies, and adopted action points for 2024 and beyond.
This workshop provided a valuable opportunity for members to collaborate and develop innovative solutions to drive the association’s future initiatives.