How Davines ensures sustainability is at the core of its business
Please attribute quotes to Davide Bollati, Chairman Davines Group:
If you were to describe the Davines Group and its outlook to someone unfamiliar with the brands (which includes Davines and [ comfort zone ]), what would you say?
The Davines Group's adventure began with a small research and contract manufacturing laboratory for hair care. It is 1983 and last year we celebrated our 40th anniversary. Everything happens in Parma thanks to my parents Silvana and Gianni Bollati: my mother creates the products and my father travels around Italy with a van to sell them. Over the next ten years the company became more and more structured, perfecting and consolidating its skills.
In 1992 I returned to Parma after a specialization in Cosmetology in New York and studies at Harvard, and the company changed strategy: from contract manufacturers to a branded company with the Davines brand, dedicated to the professional haircare market, followed in 1996 by the cosmetics division [ comfort zone ] for spas, spas and qualified beauty centres. On these two production pillars, the Group concretizes its growth.
Today we are a community of almost 900 people, our products are sold and distributed in 90 countries and – in addition to our headquarters in Parma – we have branches in New York, London, Paris, Mexico City, Deventer (Netherlands), Hong Kong and a brand new Davines branch in Düsseldorf, opened in January 2023. We faced a steady double digit increase over the past 11 years, closing 2022 with revenues of €229 million. Despite our fast and increasing growth, our values remain the same and so our purpose: we still aim to do our best for the world and to create good life for all through beauty, ethics, and sustainability.
The Davines group was one of the first companies to really place sustainability and environmental wellbeing at its core. Why was this important to the founders?
Sustainability, as well as a strong care towards all our stakeholders, have always been in our DNA. We have been committed to sustainability for more than 16 years with a growing, increasingly holistic, and integrated engagement, which was further evidenced by our certification as a B Corp Company in 2016. Last year, in December, we obtained our second recertification with a score of 123.5, further expressing our consistency and willingness to improve.
I often say that the future of a company like ours is written in its past: ever since our company was founded at the hands of my parents, there has always been a focus on caring for others and the planet. We consider it as a priority and a responsibility we have towards present and future generations: we must do everything to guarantee the transition from the current extractive economic model to a regenerative one.
In 2022 we defined our first materiality matrix, the result of a thorough analysis, to highlight the issues most dear to our stakeholders. This allowed us to redefine our sustainability strategy in light of the 9 material themes that emerged: decarbonization, circularity, biodiversity, water, impact on local communities, diversity and inclusion, new generations at work, B Corp advocacy and responsible marketing.
In terms of sustainability, you have implemented many initiatives around your packaging and formulations - can you tell us a little more about these initiatives and how they have evolved/grown over time?
Developing high-performance products that are as natural as possible is our priority. In 2022 we had 82,7% of naturally derived ingredients (natural or natural ingredients modified by sustainable processes) and 78,3% of rapidly biodegradable ingredients in our formulas. In our headquarters, the Davines Group Village in Parma, we have a 3,000 square-meter Scientific Garden, a proper “open-air lab” in which our researches investigate the properties of plants, new essences and ingredients, that are the basis of the professional formulas created in our laboratories. In addition to that, in 2021 we founded EROC – European Regenerative Organic Center – in partnership with Rodale Institute, a research and training hub that occupies a 17-hectare site in front of the Village, that aims to carry out cutting-edge research to demonstrate the many beneficial effects of regenerative organic farming for numerous sectors.
We pay a strong attention also to our products’ packaging; in 2011 we developed the “Charter for packaging research” to support our R&D team in designing more sustainable packaging, following the principles of ecodesign, in full compliance with the circular model: simplify design, favour recycled materials of materials from renewable sources, facilitate recycling and optimize space for logistical distribution. In 2022, 64,1% of our packaging was made of recycled, bio-based and mass balance plastic and since 2014 we avoided the use of 903,3 tons of fossil-based virgin plastic thanks to the use of recycled or renewable plastic.
You have also established many partnerships to enhance and protect nature including projects centred around ocean clean-ups and reforestation but which is the one that means the most to you and why?
As previously mentioned, we aim to have a positive impact on the planet but also on its inhabitants and circularity, as well as decarbonization, are a priority for us.
Regarding our commitment to circularity, to positively also impact the end of our value chain, we signed a partnership with Plastic Bank that in 2021 allowed us to collect 100 tons of plastic from the environment, preventing it from ending up in the ocean, in the coastal areas of Indonesia, Philippines and Brazil. The material was then recycled locally so that the economic value of these activities also remained in the countries involved. For 2022 we went a step further and for every product with plastic packaging we sold during the year, the same amount of plastic dispersed into the environment was removed from the coastal areas in the same areas. Thanks to that, 779 tons of plastic were collected in 2022.
Regarding decarbonization, in May 2022 we formally signed our commitment to SBTi (Science Based Target Initiative) and we’re currently working to formulate our Net Zero goals and develop a long-term strategic roadmap to achieve them by 2050 at the latest. Meanwhile, we are conscious of the importance of balancing emissions that cannot yet be abated, this is why we decided to neutralize part of our carbon footprint by adopting natural sequestration solutions such as afforestation and reforestation, investing in high-quality, Plan Vivo-certified projects.
In 2021 and 2022 we supported Ethiotrees and Scolel’te projects. EthioTrees, supports soil and forest regeneration in the northern region of Tigray, Ethiopia. With the conclusion of the Tigray war, this project funded also humanitarian aid that provided support to 29,135 vulnerable families.
Scolel’te is an afforestation, reforestation and agroforestry project that simultaneously provides social benefits to local communities in the Chiapas region of Mexico. Since 2021, thanks to our support, 24,500 tons of CO2 have been neutralized through the restoration of forests and agroforestry systems.
Anyone who visits the Davines Group Village is highly impressed by it. How long did it take to establish? Why do you feel it’s important for the brand to have created such a space?
The Davines Group Village, inaugurated in 2018, is Davines Group’s headquarter right outside Parma. This architectural project was signed by Matteo Thun and Luca Colombo at MTLC and it represents our fundamental values of beauty, sustainability and wellbeing.
The building was developed starting from the concept of home and it reinterprets in a contemporary key the archetypes of traditional homes in Italian rural areas, thus emphasizing the family roots of our Group. The structure is built on an area of 77,000 square meters of which 80% is made up of green areas in a harmonious dialogue with its architecture.
I am beyond proud of the architectural gem it turned to be, which truly focuses on the wellbeing of those who work there and aims to represent a place where ethics and aesthetics coexist in harmonious balance.
There is a strong R&D focus at the village. How does the team approach the evolution of both the Davines and [ comfort zone ] product portfolio so that each brand has its own unique footprint but one that adheres to the Group’s vision?
The virtuous relationship between sustainability and performance is a central concern of our research and development department, which focuses on sustainable innovation: in fact, all our projects are aimed at creating high-performance products by leveraging sustainability. We look at nature not only as a source of inspiration, but also as a support, that is, as a primary producer of new active molecules and new ingredients for our formulas.
Our Scientific Garden, in Parma, as well as EROC – European Regenerative Organic Center – represent a source for the identification of functional active molecules to be scientifically evaluated by our research team. Once the appropriate species has been selected, the relevant production chain is defined – which may either already exist or be specially created – identifying farmers who can cultivate these plants according to sustainable principles in order to then enhance their extracts and thereby create new, high-performance products.
Our goal is to increasingly substitute synthetic ingredients in our products with natural ingredients that are biodegradable and low-impact, derived from renewable sources.
There is also a strong focus on regenerative practices and slow food presidia. Tell us more about these and how they influence the growth and development of the brands.
In 2014, Davines – our Hair Care division – started a partnership with Slow Food: each Essential Haircare product contains an active ingredient from an Italian Slow Food Presidium that safeguards biodiversity and supports family farms. These Presidia passionately cultivate small traditional crops, as is the case of the Brindisi Fiaschetto tomato or the Salina caper. In 2017, Davines helped create a new Slow Food Presidium for the Quercetana olive, a typical variety from the provinces of Lucca and Massa Carrara, Tuscany. To date, 12 ingredients from Slow Food Presidia are used in Davines Group formulas.
In 2019, [ comfort zone ] too – our skincare division – made a decision to study new ingredients in its open-air laboratory at the Scientific Garden in Parma and to select farmers capable of cultivating them in line with regenerative organic principles. In 2022, for the relaunch of the Hydramemory line, [ comfort zone ] researchers added organically grown regenerative prickly pear extract to the new formula, with clinically proven effective moisturizing results.
In 2021, this holistic and innovative approach led us to found EROC, thus to expand the supply of ingredients, train farmers and push the frontiers of sustainability even further in terms of research, science and contribution to biodiversity conservation and CO2 sequestration. Our goal is to add 100 new ingredients, cultivated according to the principles of regenerative organic farming, to our formulas in 10 years.
How do you balance your BCorp status and ethos of sustainability while remaining innovative and competitive in the hair and beauty industry?
I believe that “precompetitive cooperation” between industries that share the same values and goals is one of the keys to success for sustainable innovation in the beauty industry over time. A concrete example can be the B Corp beauty coalition, a coalition established with the aim of improving the sustainability standards of the cosmetics industry and of which we were among the founders. The coalition today has more than 70 international member companies in the industry.
In the Coalition we commit to working together to share knowledge and best practices through the institution of cooperative working groups on the topics of ingredient sourcing, sustainable packaging and greener logistics.