Report suggests rising awareness of biodiversity will increase ethical ingredient demand

“The rising awareness will contribute towards the on-going trend to use more and more natural ingredients and the trend of ethical sourcing. These trends come together in ethical sourcing of biodiversity,” said Rik Kutsch Lojenga, executive director for the UEBT.

The organization says that this trend is linked to the rising popularity of natural and plant-based ingredients that are being sourced from developed countries, particularly in Africa.

Biodiversity Barometer​

The UEBT ran an extensive survey in February of this year to gauge international recognition and perception of biodiversity, finding that 65 per cent of people interviewed in the US, France, Germany and the UK said they had heard of biodiversity. This figure compared to just 56 per cent of respondents who said they had heard of the term in February 2009.

The findings are contained in a recently published report from UEBT entitled Biodiversity Barometer, which also points to the fact that much of the increased awareness can be attributed to the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, which set out to increase awareness of the issue worldwide.

Biodiversity is a crucial element to a long list of industries that rely on agricultural resources, but in the cosmetics category rising awareness of the subject area is likely to lead to more pressure from consumers as to how ingredients are sourced.

Consumers vote with their feet​

“The UEBT’s Biodiversity Barometer showed that in 2011 nearly 90 per cent of consumers want to know more about how companies are sourcing their natural ingredients, and over 80 per cent said they would boycott a brand if it was not respecting the environment or ethical trading practices,”​ said Kutsch Lojenga.

“Companies are likely to respond to this by increasing the number of products that respect ethical practices and that are openly communicating about how biodiversity fits into their supply chains.​ “

However, there is still some way to go until biodiversity awareness becomes an integral part of the ingredients sourcing process for cosmetic products, as the UEBT report also highlights.

Rising to the challenge of consumer perception​

This is reflected by the report finding that only one in three people were able to correctly define exactly what biodiversity is about, although the survey results also pointed out that the number of correct definitions had risen.

There is also an element of cynicism amongst consumers that the cosmetics industry will have to tackle in the future if it wants to incorporate biodiversity into its business strategy successfully.

Evidence of this comes from the report finding that while 88 per cent of people interviewed would like to know more about how cosmetics companies source biodiversity, only 40 per cent say they are confident that cosmetics companies source biodiversity in an ethical manner.