We are COSMOS & FFL certified - Expanscience Interview

• What motivated Expanscience Laboratories to pursue certification with Ecocert?

As an independent, family-owned French company, Expanscience Laboratories has been developing pharmaceutical products, dermo-cosmetics (B2C), and natural-origin ingredients for cosmetic and nutraceuticals brands (B2B) for over 70 years.

Driven by a strong CSR culture (Corporate Social Responsibility) and certified B Corp, the company became a Purpose-Driven Company in 2021 with the mission statement: "Helping each individual shape their well-being."

In this context, engaging in a certification process with Ecocert came as a natural extension of our values. These certifications are both drivers of transformation and tangible proof of our commitment to a more ethical, more sustainable and transparent industry. They also meet a growing demand from our clients and consumers for transparency.

• Why did you choose to certify your ingredients?

As a manufacturer of natural ingredients, these certifications provide our clients with an additional guarantee of traceability and quality. Certification by an independent third-party organization, such as Ecocert, highlights our commitments and values. It also serves as a driver for continuous improvement, as we have chosen to comply with demanding standards.

• Why choose the COSMOS certification?

We chose the COSMOS certification because it allows us to showcase the quality of our sourcing and to rigorously manage our internal processes. This standard helps us strengthen our ingredient selection criteria by incorporating high requirements in terms of naturalness, traceability, and sustainability. It is a structured approach, collectively embraced internally, that involves all our teams in a continuous improvement dynamic.

• And what about the Fair for Life label?

Fair for Life goes further on the social aspect. It allows certification of the entire value chain, from sourcing to our company, as well as sharing social initiatives and benefits with our partners, and securing our supply through the establishment of long-term contracts.

For our business, these two labels are complementary and valuable.

• What challenges did you face in obtaining these certifications?

Internally, the main challenge was to engage the teams, adapt our processes, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements of the standard. We need to be thoroughly prepared for certification audits. This cross-functional work is demanding but also very structuring.

We also face geopolitical challenges. As suppliers of ingredients sourced abroad, it can be difficult to ensure their compliance during times of crisis. Despite this, we must continue to secure our supply chains and uphold our commitments.

Finally, we need to adapt to evolving certification standards, which pushes us to stay up to date in a continuous improvement process.

• What is the impact of certification on your clients? How do you communicate it?

For our B2B clients, being certified by an independent body such as Ecocert is a mark of credibility. It allows them to reassure end consumers, who are increasingly seeking organic, traceable, and safe products.

In our commitment to transparency from the field to the ingredient, we highlight the certifications of each of our ingredients through our commercial, marketing, and communication tools. Recently, we were finalists in the Innovation Sustainability category at the nutraceutical trade show VITAFOOD with our latest launch, the active ingredient TULSINITY® Bio, which is certified, among others, Fair For Life. This has given us a real boost in terms of visibility.

• What are your next steps toward even greater sustainability?

We are pursuing a clear ambition: continuous progress. We are rolling out our CSR strategy for 2030, “impACT”, across every department of the company. With a structured roadmap, we set clear and ambitious goals to accelerate our transition towards a positive-impact and regenerative company.

For our Natural Ingredients Department, specializing in cosmetic ingredients, one of our objectives is to have 50% of our active ingredient portfolio certified organic, Fair For Life, or other certifications by 2030. We are currently at 46%, and upcoming launches will further strengthen this momentum.

We are also exploring regenerative agriculture, convinced of its environmental and social benefits. This is an additional step toward positive, sustainable-impact cosmetics, which we are proud to build every day alongside our partners and with the support of Ecocert.