Step into the world of clean and sustainable beauty as we shine a spotlight on Davide Bollati, the visionary Chairman of Davines Group. We unravel the journey of innovation and passion that led to the creation of a beauty empire committed to natural purity and eco-conscious practices. Get ready to be inspired by the driving force behind a movement towards cleaner, greener beauty.
Who is Davide Bollati? Tell us something about yourself and your vision for Davines Group.
I was born and raised in Parma, the city in which the Davines Group has had its roots since my parents – Gianni and Silvana Bollati – founded it in 1983.
In 1992, I returned to Parma after specializing in Cosmetology in New York and studying at Harvard. I wanted to contribute to defining a new strategy for the company: transitioning from third-party producers to a branded company under the Davines label, catering to the professional hair care market. This was followed in 1996 by the introduction of the cosmetic division [comfort zone] for spas, thermal baths, and qualified beauty centers. Building upon these two core production pillars, the Group realized its growth in the subsequent years.
The industrial framework took shape, distribution expanded, and I embarked on my journey at Davines Group in the Research and Development Laboratory. Subsequently, I tackled the challenges of marketing and international distribution, eventually assuming my current role as Chairman.
Today, my dedication lies in advancing the expansion and development of our company, guided by the values instilled by my parents. This entails marrying the professional excellence of our products with a profound respect for both the planet and its inhabitants.
Tell us about your brands and what sets them apart from others?
Our purpose is to do our best for the world – creating good life for all – through beauty, ethics, and sustainability. I believe that these words encapsulate the essence of Davines Group and what sets us apart within our industry: our commitment, both today and for the future, is to produce highly performing and scientifically advanced products – satisfying the needs of our customers – without causing harm to the planet or future generations.
As a B Corp, we make this commitment our mission and we aim to involve an increasing number of companies, not only in the beauty sector, in embarking on this journey towards a regenerative future, capable of replacing the extractive economic approach – take, use, dispose of – that has characterized our economy for too long.
I believe that between a company and its customers, as well as with broader stakeholders, a bond of mutual trust and shared values should be fostered. Our business model is stakeholder-oriented, meaning it aims to positively impact all our stakeholders, in addition to our planet.
Tell us more about Davines Group Village. What’s your vision?
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.
We have an “open air laboratory”, our Scientific Garden, which is made of medicinal and aromatic plants, fruit trees, vegetables and flowers. At its centre, an English greenhouse hosts plants of tropical origin. The garden rises right in front our laboratories and a source of inspiration and connection with nature to our researchers.
How do you approach the evolution of your product portfolio in line with your vision?
Research, innovation, and science are fundamental elements for us to ensure high-quality and high-performing products. We have a team of over 60 researchers who work daily on researching new formulations, with an increasing percentage of natural ingredients.
Our commitment is to demonstrate that product quality, sustainability, and science are strongly interconnected. The study of new actives for our products begins directly from the Scientific Garden of the Davines Group Village in Parma, which serves as an open-air laboratory and where the R&D department’s research process begins.
In 2021, in partnership with the Rodale Institute, we founded the European Regenerative Organic Center (EROC), the first European center for research and training on regenerative organic agriculture. This initiative reflects our commitment to investing in the study of new ingredients cultivated according to practices that positively impact soil health.
Moreover, we will continue to work on safeguarding biodiversity and researching new ingredients for our supply chain. Our goal is to incorporate 100 ingredients from regenerative organic agriculture into the formulas of our products within the next 10 years.
How do you see the relationship between beauty products and well-being, and what kind of experiences are you planning for your customers?
We want to demonstrate that scientific research and physical well-being can get along with the regeneration of our planet. One of our priorities is to develop high-end, innovative and performant products to our clients and our customers, ensuring their well-being and the one of our planet and our people.
Your thoughts on sustainability in the beauty industry and its future. Can you share some key initiatives your Group has implemented to minimize its environmental footprint and promote eco-friendly practices?
We have been committed to sustainability for over 16 years with growing, increasingly holistic and integrated engagement, further evidenced by the certification as a B Corp company in 2016. We recently obtained our second B Corp recertification, in December 2023, with a score of 123.5, significantly higher than the average in our industry, which do not exceed 93.8 points.
Our approach to sustainability roots from our purpose, through three main areas of interest: environment, society, and governance. With specific regard to the environment, our strategy is based on four key pillars which guide our choices: decarbonization, circularity, biodiversity and we recently added water.
For instance, in 2022, we signed our commitment with the Science Based Targets initiative, with the goal of achieving Net Zero emissions no later than 2050 and in 2023, for the second consecutive year, thanks to our collaboration with Plastic Bank, we removed an equivalent amount of plastic from the environment for every plastic-packaged product we introduce to the market. If every company were to make such a choice, it’s not far-fetched to say that we would no longer have plastic pollution in the environment, or at the very least, the problem would be drastically reduced.
As per the incoming projects, we will build an agrivoltaics system in EROC to combine regenerative agriculture production and power generation by photovoltaics on the same land. At the same time, we’ll be able to quantify how soil quality and plant quality will be affected by the presence of solar panels and their effects on the agroecosystem microclimate.
Given the urgency of the Climate Emergency, should every company make a commitment to establishing green spaces?
We have no other choice but doing our best to ensure the transition to a regenerative economic model. However, long-lasting, and sustainable positive change can only occur when an ever-increasing number of public and private entities, as well as individual citizens, collaborate towards a common goal. In my opinion, this willingness and desire to collaborate are essential for anyone looking to be a part of this change.
How do you balance the pursuit of sustainability with the need to remain competitive in the beauty industry? Looking ahead, what are your goals or aspirations for furthering sustainability within the beauty industry, and how do you plan to achieve them?
We are aware that pursuing sustainability is often not the easiest choice and that this may discourage many companies. However, today it is the only possible choice to ensure a future for the next generations in an increasingly challenging global and social context.
As a B Corp, we strongly believe in cooperation over competition, and for this reason, in January 2022, we were among the founders of the B Corp Beauty Coalition, which now includes more than 70 companies internationally. The aim of this coalition is to promote and improve sustainable standards through the sharing of know-how and best practices within the beauty industry.
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