Can beauty be regenerative? Some companies talk about achieving sustainability objectives. Others weave its principles into the fabric of their business. Meet Davide Bollati, Chairman and CEO of Davines Group. His parents founded the Italian beauty brand in the 1980s. In their words, they treated the company as their own child, one who needs nurturing, care, and a strong foundation of values set at an early age. That philosophy continues to shape every decision from sourcing ingredients, designing facilities, or creating a workplace where science, nature, and commercial efforts come together under one roof.
In this interview with Sustainable Brands’ David Hopkins, Bollati shares how Davines sees beyond typical industry norms toward a model rooted at its core in regenerative agriculture, circularity, and this conviction: the beauty industry can only transform if companies — including direct competitors — learn from each other to move forward together.
Hopkins: Davines Group evolved from a family business into a globally recognized B Corp. How did the vision of “Sustainable Beauty” emerge, and what role did your family’s legacy play in shaping it?
Bollati: My parents, Gianni and Silvana, founded the company in the 1980s, at first manufacturing hair products for third parties. About a decade later, they created their own hair-care brand, Davines, followed in 1996 by the Group’s skin care division, Comfort Zone.
For them and then for us, the planet is always the primary source of inspiration. Sustainability was never just a trend, it is the only way we can imagine operating. The name “Davines” comes from my sister Stefania and my given names, so from the start the brand felt like a living being with a natural responsibility to grow in harmony with the world around us. That mindset showed in our earliest product formulations,”This Is An Oil Non Oil”, which embraced a more natural and mindful approach long before it became widespread.
Today, that vision continues to evolve. After over 20 years, we recently introduced Davines’ new tagline: “For a Good Life” — an invitation to rediscover balance, shifting the focus from individual gain to a more harmonious relationship between environmental, economic, and social wellbeing. It encourages us to actively welcome all the shades of life, even its complexities.
Hopkins: How does EROC, your European research center dedicated to regenerative organic agriculture, influence your products, supply chain, and the wider beauty sector?
Bollati: Born in 2021 from our partnership with the Rodale Institute, EROC is a European hub for research on regenerative organic farming, biodiversity, and supply chain impact, located right next to our Group Village in Parma.
Partnering with a non-profit agricultural organization allowed us to extend this vision across the supply chain, from food and fiber to the organic active ingredients we use in our products. We are currently working on reaching 80 regenerative organic ingredients by 2030.
We believe in a holistic chain: healthy soil leads to healthy plants, which in turn support healthier people.
At EROC we cultivate ingredients such as Achillea and Calendula, used in recent launches like our shampoo bar (2024) and hair, face, and body butter (2025) we developed for our Grow Beautiful campaign.
Hopkins: The beauty industry is often driven by speed and consumption. How do you balance commercial growth with a commitment to reducing your overall environmental footprint?
Bollati: Everything we do at Davines Group combines growth with a deep commitment to sustainability and regeneration. Our 2030 strategy follows a clear principle: decoupling growth from environmental impact, showing that it’s possible to expand while progressively reducing our footprint. We believe this approach transcends simply “doing less harm” by being proactive and regenerative, and built around four key pillars: decarbonization, biodiversity, circularity, and water.
For example, as part of our climate action, we are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the lowest possible levels, with a commitment to reach Net Zero by 2050. In 2024, the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) officially validated our emissions reduction targets. Our commitment to reaching Net Zero by 2050 complies with the scientific criteria set by the Corporate Net-Zero Standard and the Forest, Land and Agriculture Guidelines, using 2022 as the baseline year. In particular, SBTi classified the Group’s ambition for Scope 1 and 2 emissions as aligned with the 1.5°C trajectory, thus recognizing the robustness and concreteness of our decarbonization pathway.
Since 2021, we have partnered with different organizations that recover plastic waste from the environment before it reaches the oceans. From 2022, for every plastic packaging sold, our partners collect and remove an equivalent amount of plastic waste from the coasts of Brazil, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. By 2030, our goal is to collect 5,000 tons of plastic waste from the environment as part of ecosystem restoration efforts outside its value chain through eco-restoration projects.
We are fully aware that our 2030 Sustainability roadmap is ambitious: reducing emissions per product by 55%, achieving 100% self-produced renewable energy, and reducing water use by 75%. These will ensure our growth remains responsible to the environment.
Hopkins: Davines Group has been active in B Corp advocacy and industry coalitions. What lessons can you share to inspire others to adopt regenerative business models?
Bollati: From the start, it was clear this must be a collective effort. We support suppliers, salons, and distributors to expand their network of partners who share B Corp values. Between 2016 and 2024, we certified 25 suppliers, 7 international salons, and 2 international distributors.
In 2022, we co-founded the B Corp Beauty Coalition with 26 other certified B Corporations, including direct competitors. Today it has grown to around 60 companies across six continents, working together on ingredient sourcing, logistics, and sustainable packaging.
Collaboration is our greatest strength. Real change only happens when we move together. Imagine the impact if this mindset extended beyond business into everyday life!
Hopkins: How does the Davines Group Village shape innovation, culture, and employee engagement?
Bollati: Matteo Thun and Luca Colombo designed the Village to bring together science, research, and nature in a way that embodies our values—a long way from the family garage where it all started.
Our goal was to create a headquarters that felt like a home, a place where ideas can grow naturally. The central structure, a large glass “greenhouse,” symbolizes transparency and connection, while the Scientific Garden serves as our open-air laboratory for testing natural ingredients.
For us, the Village is more than a workplace. It’s where our mission becomes visible and tangible, and where our purpose feels stronger.
What emerges from this conversation is a portrait of a company that makes “harmony” its operating principle, between: 1) growth and responsibility, 2) business and nature, and 3) individual purpose and collective action. Bollati’s vision stays consistent throughout: beauty, at its best, is built from the ground up. As he puts it, for Davines, healthy soil leads to healthy plants, which in turn leads to healthy people. This is what the real beauty industry can look like: not surface-level, rather built from the soil up.
Published Apr 10, 2026 5am EDT / 2am PDT / 10am BST / 11am CEST
