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Friday, August 12, 2011

Hall Pass: Natura

Natura Cosmeticos is one of the most recognized brands in Brazil. Started over 40 years ago, they pride themselves on sustainability and that is evident from start to finish in the manufacturing of their naturally aromatic products. From the packaging to the ingredients everything is harvested and executed with Brazil's ecology in mind. The suppliers typically live in small areas within the amazon and it is an important part of Natura's business that even if they abandon a specific material they do their best to ensure that the community can sustain without them. Known for always giving back, be it through k-12 educational funding or environmental charity, the company is a poster child for sustainable marketing and business strategy. Their motto, "bem estar bem," means to live well, with yourself, your relationships, nature and the world around. The company is set up as a direct sales model only, so to purchase their products you either have to have a consultant in the same way that Avon and Mary Kay operate or you can pick them up at Duty free in the airport as well as at their first ever store in Paris, designed by a distinguished Sao Paulo architect, Arthur Casas.

I recently got a tour of their plant and central offices in Cajamar, which is about 40 minutes from downtown Sao Paulo.  It was a beautiful campus where people truly work, play, eat and nurse in nature! Nurse? Yes, there is a nursery and a children's day care on site next to the restaurant and cafe, as well as a large gym with a pool nestled into the hills. The building itself is completely open air with offices surrounded by windows for great daylighting. If LEED was around in Brazil at the time of design, this would surely be at least LEED Silver. If only everyone could work in an environment like this...









the pearly white halls...



boxes = furniture! 




employee store





educational wing


the picking area.... 7 days a week its rolling



4 comments:

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Dear Jana,

This is awesome! So cool! Thanks for sharing.
Great pictures by the way. I always loved Natura. My favorite is still the ever so classic Sr.N line :)

Ray

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing this...I've used Natura products in the USA, but have yet to find anything 'natural' out here in Rondonia.

Zoe said...

Really cool post, Jana! Personally I HATE their direct sales model, but I'm sure there's a lot of research telling them to keep it that way in Brazil. My Colombian friend who now lives in SP told me she used to buy Natura stuff in a store in Bogotá, but that must have been some sort of reselling operation.

Meredith said...

I LOVE Natura. I was so happy to learn that they sell it in Brasilia - for some reason I thought it was a Manaus (northern region) thing. One of my co-workers sells it; I'm def. going to be ordering soon.

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