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Green Materials Featured at Sustainable Cosmetics Summit (15-17 May)

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For the first time, a summit will look at the entire supply chain of green cosmetic ingredients: from the sourcing of agricultural materials, processing methods, sustainability standards, ingredient authenticity, to the formulation and marketing in cosmetic products. Green materials are featured in Sustainable Cosmetics Summit's dedicated sessions and a technical workshop.

Chris Kilham, TV personality, educator and author of 14 books, will kick off the session with a paper on novel sources of natural actives. Kilham, also known as the ‘Medicine Hunter’, searches for medicinal plants in remote parts of the planet. The French company Naturex employs the Medicine Hunter to research novel actives and enter fair trade agreements with indigenous tribes. In his paper, Kilham will highlight some of the novel actives that are emerging for cosmetic applications.

With growing debate about the environmental impact of green cosmetic ingredients, Mike Martinez from Natural Plant Products will describe how agricultural raw materials can be assessed in terms of sustainability. His company has developed a methodology to measure various environmental parameters of vegetable oil production. The methodology enables the sustainability performance of a number of vegetable oils to be compared.

The prospects for a sustainability standard for cosmetic materials will be explored. Recent years has seen a proliferation in certification schemes and standards for green ingredients, as well as finished products. Most however, do not take a holistic view as they focus on specific aspects of sustainability. Marsha Bro from Kemin will discuss the multi-faceted approach of a new sustainability standard for agricultural materials. Could the standard simplify - if not unify - existing standards and certifications?

The growing use of agricultural materials in cosmetic products also raises questions about ingredient authenticity. The food industry has been rocked by a number of scandals involving false labelling and fraud; the horse meat scandal in Europe is one of the most recent, involving the false labelling of horse meat as beef in processed food products. With rising prices of agricultural ingredients, there are concerns that such incidents are also occurring in the cosmetics industry. Kenneth Ross, CEO of Global ID, will discuss the risks associated with ingredient fraud. By sharing best-practices from the food industry, he will show how cosmetic and ingredient firms can mitigate fraud risks by strengthening supply chains.

Most demand for green raw materials has traditionally been from natural and organic cosmetic firms. The summit will bring together heads of selected green brands to form a CEO roundtable to debate key industry challenges. Major discussion topics are changing market conditions, rising consumer expectations, new marketing technologies, and environmental footprints. The CEOs of Aveda, Primavera, Weleda North America and Desert Essence will form the panel.

Judi Beerling, Technical Research Manager at summit organizer Organic Monitor, will round up the 3-day summit with an interactive workshop on Green Actives. Plant-based actives in personal care products are common, however new green actives are emerging from marine and new technological processes. The workshop will outline the various types of novel green actives that are emerging, and discuss their applications in cosmetic formulations. The technical issues involved in using green materials will also be discussed over the 3 hour workshop.

Organized by Organic Monitor, the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit is an international series of summits that covers major developments in sustainability in the beauty industry. The North American edition will be hosted at Westin New York at Times Square. More information is available from www.sustainablecosmeticssummit.com or [email protected].

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