The 1992 Rio Earth Summit was not only a landmark event in global environmental policy. Aimed at producing a new blueprint for international action on environmental and development issues, it also inspired many businesses to take action toward making the planet more sustainable. Among them was a non-Brazilian beauty company that was already sourcing natural ingredients from the Brazilian forest. Following the summit, it decided to focus its sourcing activities on a specific Indigenous community, aiming to generate more wealth for the community that would benefit the people and safeguard their land.
The intentions were noble, but the extra economic activity generated by this community sparked an unforeseen divide; the elders wanted to maintain traditional ways of life while the younger generations saw the new income as a chance to buy material goods. Tensions grew, fracturing the community and undermining the project’s original goals. It took decades to repair the damage, offering a hard-earned lesson about the complexities of doing good.
When rural and forest-based communities lack sustainable livelihoods, they face challenges that often drive migration to cities, creating a ripple effect of social and environmental issues. Economic instability forces families into poverty and food insecurity, while migration erodes cultural identity as traditional lifestyles and practices are abandoned. Urban areas, already strained, struggle with overcrowding, inadequate housing, and overburdened infrastructure.
Migrants often experience social displacement, facing discrimination and isolation in unfamiliar environments. Meanwhile, the environmental toll of urban expansion leads to pollution and resource depletion, compounding the pressures on both rural and urban ecosystems. This raises the question of what the company could have done differently to lead to a more positive outcome.
Based on over two decades of experience in the beauty and consumer products industries by one of this article’s co-authors, we have identified four overarching principles that can help businesses drive positive action for the planet, people, and profit:
We illustrate how to translate these principles into action based on the examples of Natura &Co, The Body Shop, and The Eden Project.
Previously, the ucuuba trees were cut down and sold as timber, often ending up as broomsticks in the domestic market and generating little wealth for the community.
Natura &Co has been actively working with Amazonian communities to promote sustainable business practices through human development initiatives. Guided by a fundamental belief that humans are part of – not separate from – nature, the company focuses on empowering local communities by providing training and resources to cultivate natural ingredients sustainably. Part of this includes helping the community maximize wealth generation and realize the full potential of their natural resources when negotiating trade deals – which helps them multiply the price they can command for their ingredients even when up against large, sophisticated buyers.
Take, for example, how their multi-disciplinary team – chemists, biochemists, agronomists, and anthropologists – observed forest communities using oil from ucuuba seeds to moisturize their skin. They noticed the seeds floated on rivers after falling from trees, prompting research that revealed their potential for highly effective skincare products.
Previously, the ucuuba trees were cut down and sold as timber, often ending up as broomsticks in the domestic market and generating little wealth for the community. However, communities could triple their income by harvesting the seeds three times a year while keeping the trees healthy. In Natura’s words: “The tree is worth more standing up than lying down.”
The team not only helped by showing the community how to generate more wealth but also how to administer it for the benefit of all. As a result:
Natura’s efforts not only brought sustainable economic returns to the forest community during this period but also helped lift the firm’s financial performance to the top of its peer group. Executives were rewarded not only for generating profits but on the triple bottom line, which meant measuring and quantifying impact. This, coupled with a culture of relentless focus on results, proves businesses can be financially successful while being a force for good.
“One of The Body Shop’s longest-running partnerships is with the Ghanaian shea butter industry.”
Since it was founded by pioneering business leader Dame Anita Roddick, The Body Shop has been committed to working with communities globally to establish sustainable businesses through human development initiatives. The company collaborates with local producers to source ingredients responsibly, ensuring fair trade practices empower communities economically. By investing in training and development, The Body Shop helps enhance skills and create jobs, promoting self-sufficiency and resilience. This approach supports local economies and emphasizes ethical sourcing and sustainability, reinforcing the brand’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility.
One of The Body Shop’s longest-running partnerships is with the Ghanaian shea butter industry. The company has been working closely with women’s cooperatives in northern Ghana for over 25 years, providing them with fair wages, a stable income, support for local development projects, leadership opportunities, and the development of new skills.
Shea butter is a key ingredient in many of The Body Shop’s products, particularly in their skincare and haircare lines. Shea butter is one of the ingredients included in their fair-trade program, and as such, benefits from the company’s ongoing efforts to improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and local artisans. Processing is done by hand, turning the nuts into a rich, creamy end product. The women who harvest and process the shea nuts play a critical role.
This collaboration allows The Body Shop to support ethical sourcing practices, ensuring that the women involved are paid fairly and have improved access to education, healthcare, and other services. By purchasing directly from these cooperatives in Ghana, The Body Shop helps to ensure that a large portion of the profits stay within the local communities, providing economic support and promoting gender equality.
In addition to benefiting local communities, there are also positive environmental impacts. Shea trees, which grow naturally in the wild in the savannah regions of West Africa, are an important part of the local ecosystem. This sustainable sourcing helps ensure the protection of these trees as well as the biodiversity of the region.
The southern biological corridor of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica presents a unique natural ecosystem based on restored tropical dry forest, one of the world’s most endangered and fragile habitats. It encompasses around 65,000 hectares of a diverse mosaic of land uses and stakeholders within a relatively small area. The peninsula is part of a Blue Zone – one of five regions in the world with the highest concentration of centenarians based on quality of life and the relationship to the surrounding natural landscape.
Much of the area is difficult to access, with mules remaining as the primary means of transport, particularly during the rainy seasons. Communities are isolated and poor with little margin for economic setbacks, yet these are the people most connected with the natural world and the most at stake in its future. For many years, the region benefited from subsidies stemming from debt-for-nature swaps, pioneered by Costa Rica in the 1980s, which supported small-scale farmers in moving away from non-sustainable farming practices.
These subsidies, however, abruptly stopped in 2024 and could have led to financial hardship for many in rural areas where alternatives for income generation are limited. This could have forced farmers to return to non-sustainable practices, jeopardizing the positive effects of the multi-decade nature conservation initiatives.
The Eden Project, an environmental educational charity that aims to connect people with nature, stepped in to partner with local organizations and international consumer goods companies to create and protect a biological corridor in the Nicoya Peninsula. To get this project going, impact philanthropists have funded the setup, knowing there will be maximum positive impact given the strict approach to measurement and reporting.
The Eden Project engages the community in two fundamental ways.
The first initiative is the Agroforestry Cacao Model, where farmers cultivate cacao plants throughout the dry forest landscape. Farmers have benefited from technical support from the group of partners leading to an increased understanding of alternative land management practices, moving away from slash-and-burn agriculture (beans and corn) and extensive cattle grazing. The cacao is purchased by responsible businesses that incorporate it into their products and highlight its sustainable origins in their marketing. As seen with Natura &Co and The Body Shop, this partnership ensures the wealth generated remains within the local community, directly benefiting its members.
The second initiative, which could be instrumental in securing financing for these farmers to make the transition to sustainable and more regenerative farming, is the establishment of Biodiversity Credits. Developed in collaboration with experts in the UK and Europe including academics, scientists, and economists, placement of credits into voluntary markets in Europe is expected soon. The success of this project could be instrumental to critical funding for farmers. It would ensure the adoption of improved land management systems to mitigate the impact of climate change throughout the landscape over time and support the harmonious co-existence of people and forest.
Since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, many businesses have drawn valuable lessons from the examples set by Natura, The Body Shop, and The Eden Project. These cases underscore the importance of involving the local communities as key stakeholders, treating them fairly, and making them active participants in sustainable solutions. By doing so, communities can generate the wealth necessary to maintain and thrive in their natural environment, avoiding deforestation and unnecessary migration.
Transforming social and environmental challenges into business opportunities highlights how businesses can help address social issues, such as educational and health issues, or stimulate economic activity in environmentally fragile ecosystems. In each example, measuring impact and pursuing tangible results is fundamental to the ongoing success of the model, be it with consumers, capital markets, and impact philanthropists.
These principles extend beyond the businesses we have experienced through our career and research, and we hope they are an inspiration for anyone wanting to drive their business toward positive action for the planet, people, and profit.
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