NATURA SELECTION S.L.

a) The main facts about the activities of the company

The Natura Group, which set up in Barcelona in 1992, includes the brands ?Natura?, ?Natura Casa?, ?Natura Banana?, ?Tierra Extra?a? and ?Zabriskie?. The business is made up of franchise stores established in seven different countries and stands out for its commitment with the society and environment.
Found almost twenty years ago in Barcelona, Natura Selection has become one of the more well-known and loved giftware stores within the Spanish country. Its corporate culture consists in reducing ecological problems of the world and in order to get it, the company only sells recycled products or those ones that have been elaborated in a non aggressive way. Moreover, its designs are very original and exclusive, including from clothes and household goods to books and CDs.
The company seeks to promote cross-cultural understanding in order to conserve cultural diversity and protect the environment. Thus, they organize annual contests such as ?Premio Natura?, in which they invest money in honorable causes to benefit the underprivileged parts of the world.

b) The ethical challenges this company is addressing

Natura Selection came up with the project ?Premio Natura? in 1995, in which it was established that the company will donate a variable, but increasing through time, part of its revenues to different types of Foundations and NGOs oriented towards humanitarian aid and environment protection. Starting in 1995 with a donation of 6,000? to some well-known entities such as Intermon Oxfam, Greenpeace or Medicos sin Fronteras, this project evolved becoming a source of inspiration to all local initiatives willing to collaborate with this project. The company sets up an annual content in which any foundation and organization can present its social project. The selected plan will be awarded by the jury in accordance with the following criteria: effectiveness, technical quality and feasibility. The presentation style is always free as long as it is attached to a detailed report of objectives, schedule and control plan of revenues and expenses incurred in its realization. The total annual amount donated to such projects has tripled over the last ten years, reflecting a constantly more involved company with its social responsibility towards less privileged societies and environmental conservation, enlarging the action scope by achieving a wider variety of ventures.
Following this trend, Natura Selection has joined the global trend of the ?slow movement?. The Slow Movement advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace and proposes to take control of time rather than submitting to his tyranny, which is achieved by giving priority to activities that lead to the development of people, finding a balance between the use of technology-oriented devices and the personal time to enjoy activities like taking a walk or sharing a meal with others. After all, this is what we all seek in our lives and Natura Selection address es these needs.

c) What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it

The smells, the tranquility, the sounds and the touches that you experiment just entering in a Natura store makes you feel in peace with yourself, bringing you to a perfect world from which you would love not to ever leave.
Not only we trust this company because of its pleasant environment, but also because Natura was set up as an ethical firm from the very beginning. Their philosophy has always been focused on the social and environmental concerns, trying to compensate the negative impact produced by most of the companies set up around the world and creating a new and better way of doing business. Thus, these values are not a consequence of the last business trends about social and environmental care that during the last decade have progressively been acknowledged and acquired by the companies behind the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, in most cases with the purpose of washing their image and improving their reputation.

d) The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve

We believe Nautra will continue carrying out these initiatives in the future because they are part of its philosophy and of its reason of being. Hence, the company?s activity would have no sense without taking care of these concerns.
Moreover, in the course of time some of these initiatives such as the fight against climate change and the defense of human rights will acquire an increasing importance and will become essential if we want to achieve a more sustainable and fair world.
As said above, the new ?environmentally and socially friendly? tendency of business could mean in a near future a new challenge for Natura, in the sense that more and more companies would be willing to join the example of Natura, acquiring these values as their own core principles from the beginning. Consequently, Natura Selection should maintain tightly faithful to its strategy as a pioneer in this lovely and dreamy way of doing business.