CAREtain: The communication platform for sustainable innovation

• With CAREtain Evonik sets a new benchmark for cosmetic ingredients suppliers in terms of transparency, quality and comprehensiveness of sustainability features.
• CAREtain – winner of the Evonik Innovation Award 2013 in the creative communication medium category.

As the planet’s population continues to increase rapidly and as raw material reserves are dwindling, sustainability is one of the key drivers to support desirable living standards deep into the 21st century – which is also what consumers frequently demand. Multi-national cosmetic companies want to know the environmental footprint of their products over the entire value chain. With CAREtain Evonik's Consumer Specialties Business Unit simplifies this task for cosmetics manufacturers allowing them to choose and combine ingredients for the product formulations they envision – a novelty in the industry.

CAREtain – a holistic approach
CAREtain – the name is a combination of the words "care" and "sustain" – is the first approach to bring transparency to the supply chain and to the complete life cycle of a cosmetic product. It consists of three modules: Toolbox, Future Profiling and Evolution.

CAREtain Toolbox – the basis of the communication concept
It contains a comprehensive set of raw material information for interactive exchange, which enables the customer to claim and improve sustainability features of cosmetic formulations. It now maps about 25 environmentally relevant factors for Evonik’s most important cosmetic ingredients. Based on this information, customers can choose the ingredients according to individual requirements and design new formulations. This allows cosmetic manufacturers to distinguish themselves from the competition.

CAREtain Future Profiling – for products with a future
Once measurable it is possible to design a detailed profile of raw materials for the future. This is done in close partnership with our clients. New feedstocks, processes or applications are profiled while considering nesesarry aspects for the future.

CAREtain Evolution – targeted innovation management
Quantification of all profiling parameters result in KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) which describe the overall sustainability rating of a cosmetic ingredient allows to implement portfolio targets with our customers. It is now possible to track our progress and identify gaps.

CAREtain means sustainable innovation management towards successful products.
Evonik is the first company in the cosmetic industry to come up with such a comprehensive approach regarding sustainability aspects of products and formulations. This concept is different to the methods of key competitors as CAREtain adds transparency to the entire supply chain and to the complete life cycle of a cosmetic product. The objective of its open, multidimensional philosophy is to encourage customers to participate in creating new, innovative kinds of responsible cosmetic products with a lower environmental impact.