For the Iberian Peninsula, the year 2017 was one of the worst on record in terms of forest fires, according to the last report of 2018 published by the organisation WWF. More than half a million hectares were ravaged by fire and more than one hundred people died across Spain and Portugal. However, not only the Iberian Peninsula is affected, global warming is causing a notable increase in the risk of forest fires in more or less all the rainforests, forests, mountain regions and grasslands on our planet.
Each year, 350 million hectares of land are consumed by flames – an area more or less the size of the whole of India.
Meanwhile, the conventional cosmetics industry causes considerable damage not only to our skin but also to the environment, the question “what does it do” being put before “how is it made”.
ASHES TO LIFE was developed to provide a solution to both problems. The aim of the project is to develop a protocol to restore forests ravaged by fire through the sale of organic skin‑care products made of ash. ASHES TO LIFE products are good for our skin and good for our planet. Filled with sadness after seeing what terrible consequences a fire has on a forest, we decided to find a way to help forests recover from fires.
We spent a long time conducting research and studies together with various professionals in their different fields and we finally realised that one of the main reasons the areas left after a forest fire do not recover is that there is no money to help them do so. Delving into the past, we found that ancient cultures such as the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used to use plant ash to create soap like substances that they used to wash and care for their skin.
We realised that the ashes themselves could be the solution. We could create life from those ashes by turning them into various products that would raise money to restore the forests.
These ash-based products help us achieve our environmental goal, as the money we raise through selling them helps us develop the ASHES TO LIFE Project. Through this project, we are aiming to develop a standard operating procedure for restoring areas affected by forest fires. Our detailed objectives are as follows:
- To create a detailed report analysing what each forest needs to recover from a fire and to develop an optimal method for extracting a certain percentage of ash from these forests without affecting their recovery
- To certify and standardise this ash for use in the production of skin care products
- To produce and then sell these products made with the ash, so as to raise money that will contribute to the recovery of these forests through the Restoration Protocol
- To develop an Ecological Restoration Protocol to help forests recover and to implement it using the money raised by selling the skin care products
Our protocol offers alternative ways of helping forests recover, restoring the divers ecosystems that will help them regenerate, so that they can, once again, provide communities with goods and services.
We need other people and businesses to join the ASHES TO LIFE Project, so that we can fulfil our aim of properly restoring damaged ecosystems. We currently use two types of ash.
Just as ancient cultures did, we use coconut shell ash to make our organic skin care products. This ash is particularly good for the production of cosmetics. Coconut shell ash is completely natural, highly porous and contains a large amount of carbon (around 98%), which makes it good at absorbing toxins, impurities and other substances that can damage our skin.
To make our shower products, we use ash from the waste produced by sustainable, controlled pruning and the tidying of forests, meaning we are turning a waste product into something useful. Our business model is based on the Triple Bottom Line theory:
- Profit: To create a financially sustainable model that focuses on skin care and is aligned with the values of the circular economy. The ash-based products that we produce help us fund our environmental goal, with 10% of the price of each product going towards this.
- Environment: To have a positive effect on the environment by developing ASHES TO LIFE Project, an environmental research project that is about caring for the forests on our planet. Doing so will help forests recover from fires through environmental restoration.
- People: To re-establish the relationship between local communities and natural environments by restoring ecosystems and promoting alternative business linked to these natural spaces.
We are a business that is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as this is a framework that ensures everyone benefits – the natural, as well as the social and business environments.
Our aim is not to reduce the negative impact society has on the environment; our aim is to have a positive impact on it.
In other words, ASHES TO LIFE is not based on an extractive business model but on one that is entirely generative, from beginning to end.
