NATURA | The Amazon Greenventory | 2025
Earning from the forest without cutting it down / Natura "The Amazon Greenventory"
The assumption that the only way to profit from the Amazon is to cut down its trees? Drones and AI just proved that wrong.
The problem
The Brazilian cosmetics brand Natura already had a system for harvesting raw ingredients without felling trees. But that alone wasn't enough to show anyone just how much value a standing forest actually holds.
The insight
Cut the forest to make money, or stay poor and leave it standing. Those two choices themselves were a lie. If protecting the forest could actually pay off, local people would become its guardians on their own. That's what this bet was built on.
The idea
Using drones and AI, the team mapped 400 square kilometers of the Amazon and carried out an inventory of its trees. A survey that would normally take 25 years was finished in six months, identifying 30,000 trees that could serve as cosmetic ingredients. The result was a map that let Natura manage ingredients for its Ekos line, like tucumã and açaí, without cutting a single tree.
What happened
The project won the Grand Prix in the Sustainable Development Goals category at Cannes Lions 2025, Brazil's first SDG Grand Prix. Jury president Josy Paul commented that it proved sustainable profit can come from innovation, not destruction.
Afterthought
This is a project that didn't pit protecting the forest against the people who earn their living from it, but pointed them in the same direction instead. Its strength isn't in showing off technology, but in combining it with local knowledge and actually putting it to work.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2025
