The facility is named the Symrise Amazon Ecoparque in Belém, Pará, in the North of the Amazon region, and has been developed as a strategic manufacturing and development facility for its global beauty care division.
What is particular about the construction and development of the facility is that it integrates sustainability along the entire supply chain, from the sourcing and production of ingredients to contributing to social programs for local communities involved in the processes.
The facility was opened up earlier this month in a ceremony attended by community representatives, customers and politicians, as well as its long-term partner in Brazil, cosmetics player Natura.
Symrise partnered with Natura to build the facility
The two companies worked together on the development of the 2,000m₂facility, and Symrise states that it contributed a total of €5 million to build the production facility, which also includes a research and development platform for cosmetics ingredients.
The facility is located within a region where there is a rich variety of Amazon plant-life, and utilizes the most sustainable extraction and processing equipment to ensure high quality and effective end products, focusing specifically on its SymTrap technology to produce oils and butters.
Likewise, the air conditioning in the building runs on geothermal energy and botanical / mineral filters purify both rain and wastewater for production.
“At this facility, we intend to bring the richness of the Amazon rainforest to the world’s beauty consumers,” said Achim Daub, president of scent and care at Symrise.
“This is an important step to sustainably developing and producing ingredients for cosmetics and fragrances. We would like to thank the local communities, the city of Benevides, the State of Pará as well as our new partner Natura for the opportunity to make this vision in the Amazon region of Brazil a reality.”
Supporting local community
Symrise and Natura have also made an effort to both involve local communities with the project, in turn serving to encourage social development and local municipalities.
The project is said to support over 2,000 families in the region, employing them to cultivate, harvest and process the raw materials, while also providing benefits that include access to healthcare.
The companies say that the rewards are mutually beneficial, as working with the communities allows them to tap into their expertise about the land, it’s plant-life and ecosystem.