LONDON, United Kingdom — Four botanical ingredients made by beauty company Aveda have been certified to meet Cradle to Cradle Design Concept (C2C) standards.

Rose and lavender essential oils come from a sustainable organic farm in Bulgaria. The company sources wild Australian sandalwood from the Mardu people of Western Australia based on standards of an indigenous raw materials certification. The Yawanawa people of the Brazilian Amazon sustainably harvest the organic uruku, which is a pigment Aveda uses in lipsticks.

The Environmental Protection and Encouragement Agency assigned the ingredients the certification following three years of assessment. The C2C materials must be reusable or biodegradable and renewable.

"Our goal is to reduce the need for and use of ingredients that persist unnaturally in the environment and help to replace synthetic ingredients with plant-based alternatives," said Aveda President Dominique Conseil. "Cradle to Cradle certification of four of Aveda's most prominently used botanical ingredients is an important first step towards our end goal of achieving C2C certification of all Aveda final product and packaging."

Aveda published its green ingredients policy in 2006 as a first step toward Cradle to Cradle certification. It also has made strides making its packaging more sustainable, such as using up to 100 percent post-consumer recycled high density polyethylene matierals in bottles and jars or packaging that can be easily taken apart for curbside recycling.