Scaling Purpose: How Natura Turns Sustainability into Innovation

Manuel Rios Krauss has spent his career proving that sustainability can scale. As Chief Innovation and R&D Officer at Natura—the Brazilian beauty company rooted in the Amazon and renowned for its sustainable business model—he leads a team turning purpose into performance.

On The Shift Code podcast with PMI CEO Pierre Le Manh, Krauss shares how clarity, adaptability, and decisive action fuel innovation across sustainability, technology, and the beauty industry. His journey shows what it looks like when doing good and doing business become the same thing.

Leading with clarity and adaptability

Krauss believes leadership is a “muscle” built through learning, adaptability, and connection. From his early days at Unilever, working night shifts in safety and environmental operations, he learned the value of clarity and agency: helping people understand not just the vision, but what to do tomorrow to move toward it.

Clarity, he says, is what turns purpose into progress—but too much can become bureaucracy. The balance is agility with purpose: enough structure for people to act confidently, enough freedom to adapt as the world shifts.

He draws inspiration from Safi Bahcall’s “Loonshots,” which explores how breakthrough innovation requires a “dynamic equilibrium” between dreamers and disciplined operators. He also cites Chip and Dan Heath’s “Switch”, which compares logic and emotion to a rider and an elephant. Leaders must guide the rider with vision, motivate the elephant with purpose, and shape the path with clear, immediate actions. For Krauss, that’s not bureaucracy—it’s clarity in motion.

From sustainability to competitive advantage

Many companies talk about sustainability. Few make it commercially viable. Manuel’s perspective is refreshingly pragmatic: doing the right thing only matters if you can do it at scale.

At Unilever, he witnessed the moment when sustainability goals and commercial imperatives finally converged. “We used to have two strategies: one for business and one for sustainability. But we realized if those aren’t the same thing, it doesn’t work.”

That shift, embedding sustainability into brand growth, became a turning point. For Manuel, sustainability isn’t charity; it’s endurance. Like brand-building, it’s a long-term investment in trust and differentiation. Done right, it creates superior products and loyal customers.

The Amazon as an innovation engine

Natura’s story is proof that purpose and performance can coexist. Two decades ago, when the company’s founders approached major R&D centers for partnerships, one executive told them, “You’re sitting in the middle of Amazon. You may have a differentiation there already.”

That realization reshaped Natura’s innovation model, rooting it in bioactives derived from the Amazon Rainforest, developed in collaboration with local communities. The company has identified more than 46 natural actives, each with its own independent supply chain.

The science behind these ingredients is complex, but the results are unique. The result? Products that perform better because they’re natural. At a time when beauty brands struggle to differentiate, Natura’s Amazon-first approach gives it an edge that competitors can’t replicate.

From sustainability to regeneration

For Natura, sustainability is evolving into something deeper: regeneration. The company’s 2050 vision goes beyond minimizing harm: it aims to actively restore ecosystems. From drone-based AI mapping that identifies tree locations to a guaranteed commitment to purchase everything communities harvest, Natura is blending technology and tradition to regenerate the rainforest and support those who live within it.

That same mindset applies internally. Climate change isn’t just an environmental concern; it affects everything from supply chains to consumer behavior. As seasons shift and crops fluctuate, Natura uses AI and data to adapt sourcing, production, and even product design, proving that climate resilience and business agility are two sides of the same coin.

AI as a catalyst for speed and truth

For Krauss, artificial intelligence isn’t just a new tool—it’s a force reshaping how innovation happens and how brands communicate truth. Within R&D, AI accelerates discovery: simulations that once took years in the lab now happen in days, allowing Natura to design new bioactives and molecules at unprecedented speed.

But AI is also transforming how companies reach consumers. As Krauss puts it, “the world of search is disappearing.” Traditional SEO tactics will give way to training large models with accurate information to ensure truthful, consistent brand communication. That shift, he says, demands a deeper “commitment to the truth”—ensuring the data and narratives we feed these systems are accurate, consistent, and aligned with brand purpose.

For Natura, that means preparing for a future where discovery is conversational, not keyword-driven—and where credibility becomes the most important competitive advantage of all.

Balancing global reach with local credibility

As global trade patterns evolve and trust in large corporations declines, Natura sees opportunity in going back to its roots—literally and figuratively. Krauss notes that the world is witnessing a return to local companies and supply chains, as consumers favor authenticity and values that feel close to home.

For a multinational like Natura, that shift demands a new kind of orchestration: balancing global reach with local credibility. It means partnering directly with communities, sourcing locally wherever possible, and proving consistency between brand values and local impact.

By connecting global technology with local knowledge, Natura is creating a model for regenerative business—one that scales purpose without losing proximity to people or place.

Krauss also brings an entrepreneurial lens to leadership, reminding his teams to stay close to the work itself. “The more you keep your feet on the ground and your hands active in things,” he says, “the better a manager you become.”

At its heart, the company’s mission reflects Krauss’s guiding principle: Do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons.

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