Sustainability initiatives like post-consumer recycled plastic, refillable packaging, and 1% for the planet donations are table stakes for brands big and small. But a growing number of brands are tackling a far more ambitious goal by going to the source and conserving nature.Major companies like Natura &Co., L’Oréal Groupe, and Clarins, alongside indie haircare brand Rahua, have either allocated funding to the protection and restoration of biodiversity or outright bought land to protect it from deforestation and other exploitation. These efforts go beyond the usual planting-a-tree-for-every-purchase type of campaign, and instead demonstrate an emerging era of beauty industry sustainability.For example, Clarins publicly unveiled in 2019 Le Domaine Clarins, a 200,000-acre area that the brand purchased in the Alps for both conservation and the study of plants for use in its skincare and makeup products. Then, in 2020, Brazilian beauty corporation Natura &Co., which formerly owned The Body Shop and Aesop, announced its plan to preserve up to 7.4 million acres of Amazonian rainforest by 2030. That’s the equivalent of the size of Maryland. While the majority of companies and brands capable of conservation are large-scale with millions of dollars at their disposal, the inclusion of Rahua shows that indie brands can play a role, too.“You can do both—you can [be in] the beauty [industry] and take care of nature at the same time,” said Anna Ayers, co-founder of Rahua alongside her husband Fabian Lliguin.For Rahua, its approach is distinctly different from other companies because it was a mission that formed a brand, rather than a brand that formed a mission.