Lycored celebrates Earth Day with “living love letters”

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

In recent years, Lycored has run several initiatives designed to improve sustainability and reduce waste, and has committed to using as much as possible of the tomatoes it harvests. The oleoresin it extracts is used in its food ingredients, wellness and ingestible skincare products, with unused raw materials repurposed, for example as animal feed.

For this year’s Earth Day, the company 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, VP 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 honouring 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.”

The company’s Earth Day activities will also include a live stream from the farm in Israel where it grows the tomatoes used in its skincare extract, Lumenato. The stream will feature two vantage points, including a “playing in the dirt” perspective that allows viewers to follow planting and growth from seed to sprout. Meanwhile, documentary, titled ‘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.”