Natura + Sustainability 4.0: when excellence meets evolution

In Brazil, when we talk about Sustainability and need to cite an example of a sustainable company, Natura will certainly be among the first references, and this became even more evident during a recent visit to the Cajamar (SP) unit, where I came to know not only the business model, but also the facilities of the Innovation and Advanced Research laboratories.

As the author of the Sustainability 4.0 proposal and its multiple methods, I identified many similarities in Natura’s approach, such as the use of Biomimicry in research; nature-based innovation; in addition, these principles appear not only in the products, but also in the management model itself.

During the presentation by the Sustainability Manager, upon seeing the diagram of the operating model, I immediately drew a parallel with Sustainability 4.0 applied to corporate management, as well as realizing how it would be possible to transform what is already excellent into something even more innovative.

Natura’s model functions as a strategic architecture that integrates three main axes:

1. Strategy and Intelligence

It is the analytical foundation that guides the company’s positioning. Here, Natura captures global socio-environmental trends, regulations, and market movements, transforming risks into business intelligence and ensuring alignment with management practices, sustainable innovation, and ESG.

2. Business and Geographies

It addresses territorial and sectoral materiality, ensuring that sustainability materializes in operations, that is, Natura connects positive impact to business opportunities and specific geographies, such as the Amazon, emerging markets, and local value chains. It is this layer that ensures that discourse is translated into practice.

3. Specialists

At the center of the model are priority and sensitive themes, in which Natura mobilizes specialists: Human Rights, Amazon & Biodiversity, and Carbon & Circularity. These fronts are critical areas to ensure coherence, innovation, and sector leadership, reinforcing the company’s role in influencing global agendas.

At the base of the diagram is the concept of Sustainable Leads, which synthesizes the proposal, that is, they are sustainable leaders that Natura seeks to develop inside and outside the organization, since they function as vectors of transformation, influencing not only internal business, but also suppliers, communities, clients, and society as a whole. In other words: a SUSTAINABLE FOUNDATION.

This model transforms sustainability into the strategic center of the business, since, in its essence, Sustainable Leads is a governance system that articulates strategic intelligence, local action, and technical leadership in critical themes, with the objective of generating innovation, positive impact, and competitive advantage — fundamental pillars of sustainability.

In other words, Natura sees sustainability not as “a department,” but as an integrated model of decision-making and leadership that transforms socio-environmental intelligence into business strategy, supported by specialists and active presence in territories.

And it is at this point — sustainability as an integrated model of decision-making — that Natura’s model and Sustainability 4.0 converge in full harmony, making it possible to transform the excellence already implemented into something even more powerful.

Points of convergence:

As in Sustainability 4.0, Natura places sustainability at the heart of strategy, not as an appendix.

The emphasis on thematic specialists connects directly with some of the 30 Life Principles that guide sustainability management in companies, such as geographic specialization and modular components.

The focus on sustainable bioleadership aligns with the training of strategists and bioleaders at Beeosfera University, since such leaders must be capable of influencing ecosystems.

Where Sustainability 4.0 goes beyond Natura’s model:

Ancestral Intelligence (AI): while Sustainable Leads is anchored in socio-environmental intelligence, Sustainability 4.0 expands toward the ancestral intelligence of nature itself as a strategic mentor.

Biomimicry as a central axis: Natura already applies the logic of living organisms in product innovation, but can advance further by incorporating it into internal processes and governance.

The 10Rs of Sustainability 4.0: they offer a systemic vision and an evolutionary and pedagogical narrative, incorporating the notion of living knowledge, which Sustainable Leads does not explicitly present. This may limit its adaptability to a dynamic reality.

Multipolar ecosystem: while Natura structures its approach in axes, Sustainability 4.0 operates as a living and dynamic ecosystem, integrating Education, R&D&I, and Solutions, which generates greater fluidity, adaptability, and resilience.

Concluding this analysis, I state without a shadow of a doubt that Natura’s Sustainable Leads model is indeed very robust and explains why the company is recognized as a global reference in sustainability.

It is precisely for this reason that Sustainability 4.0 fits harmoniously, offering an opportunity for even greater evolution by bringing nature as a mentor, based on its principles, its ancestral intelligence, and an evolutionary and regenerative ecosystem logic.

Dr. Magda Maya | Geoscientist | PhD in Development and Environment | Theorist of Sustainability 4.0 | Founder of BEEOSFERA – Sustainability 4.0