Lycored is encouraging wellness and beauty industry professionals to write “living love letters” to the earth. The initiative is part of a campaign to highlight the importance of sustainability, minimal waste, and transparency ahead of this year’s Earth Day (22nd April).

In recent years global wellness leader Lycored has put in place a number of initiatives to improve sustainability and reduce waste, and it is committed to using as much as possible of the tomatoes it harvests. The oleoresin it extracts is used in its range of real-food ingredients as well as its wellness and ingestible skincare products, with unused raw materials repurposed, for example as animal feed.

The company has celebrated Earth Day since 2015. This year, it has sent stakeholders kits containing cards embedded with tomato seeds, on which messages of love to the earth can be written. When planted using the biodegradable trowel also included in the kits, the cards grow into “living love letters.”

Zev Ziegler, Vice President of Brand & Marketing at Lycored, said: “All of us owe a huge debt of gratitude to the earth, and especially so if we work in the nutrition, beauty and food industries. We hope these living love letters serve as reminder of the importance of honoring all things green, great and growing. Most importantly, we hope they will inspire action. However much companies are already doing, they can always go a step further to work in harmony with nature.”

Lycored’s Earth Day activities also include a new live stream from the farm in Israel where it grows the golden tomatoes used in its skincare extract, LumenatoTM. This year’s feed offers two vantage points, including a “playing in the dirt” perspective that allows viewers to follow planting and growth from seed to sprout.Meanwhile, a new film, ‘Behind the Seeds’, documents the installation of the webcam and how it supports the company’s commitment to transparency.

Zev Ziegler added: “Transparency is no longer optional in the food and nutrition industries.  Consumers and producers alike have a right to know – and ideally see first-hand – where ingredients come from. We’re proud of the way we farm the tomatoes we use, and we love the idea of our stakeholders watching them grow via a live stream.”

The living love letters initiative is a spin-off from Lycored’s #rethinkbeautiful campaign, which for the past three years has invited people to write themselves love letters to promote beauty from within. During the pandemic, the company has also encouraged people to bridge the lockdown divides by writing letters to strangers.

View the live stream at: https://share.earthcam.net/tJ90CoLmq7TzrY396Yd88IaPjyjKeTm9RPRtp9ESJ64!/israel_cam/view_2/live

Find out more about Lycored’s sustainability and traceability initiatives at lycored.com/techniques