Human Heart Nature: Walking the talk of 100% natural products, justice for farmers
By Marivir R. Montebon
New York - It’s been a long time coming – this wellness store, the Human Heart Nature (HNN) on A.S. Fortuna in Mandaue City in the Philippines. Each purchase of an organic lipstick or shampoo has a direct impact on the lives of local farmers and saving the environment.
It’s a tall order made possible by HNN, a social enterprise which boasts of “genuinely natural Philippine-made personal care products” while improving the lives of producers.
HNN, a social enterprise which boasts of “genuinely natural Philippine-made personal care products” while improving the lives of producers.
Josine Climaco Marzo
Human Heart Nature products: Safe personal products for customers, regenerating the Earth, and providing incomes to small producers.
HNN began selling in March 2009 and was established as a concept store in Mandaue in 2015 by Cebuano entrepreneurs who wanted to make a difference. Josine Climaco Marzo, branch manager for HNN in the Mandaue franchise, provides an in-depth look at the business of beauty and wellness in the safest, most natural way while ensuring sustainability of farmers at the back end.
Branding on being pro-Philippines, pro-poor, and pro-environment, Human Nature pretty much sums up what Philippine enterprises need to do in these trying times. This model was set up by the couple Dylan Wick and Anna Meloto through the auspices of the world-renowned Gawad Kalinga which was founded by Anna’s father, Tony Meloto.
Anna and Camille Meloto, sustainability prime movers.
Human Heart Nature has established branches in the Philippines since 2007 and has opened stores in Singapore and the US. Its resource base is farmers cooperatives which have engaged in organic farming and are using natural resources from the land.
Truth to tell, I have been using HNN make-up, shampoo, lotion, face powder, to name a few. I have not stopped ever since my sister Joan gave me an HNN lip balm as pasalubong when she visited me in New York. These wellness products suit me best.
Our online interview took place after Josine and her team provided free breakfast in their hood, proof that this enterprise has a heart too.
Excerpts of our conversation:
Marivir Montebon: Free breakfasts on Fridays. How cool is that.
Josine Climaco Marzo: Yes, we give libreng pamahaw to the neighbors every early Friday. We have been doing this since June of last year. It was Dylan Wilk, the owner of Human Nature who initiated it at their flagship store in Commonwealth, Quezon City. He has been encouraging the branches to do the same.
The intent of the free breakfast is to promote goodwill in the neighborhood, so we give the free breakfast to anybody who just passes by our branch. We serve it as early as seven o’clock in the morning to uh construction workers, vicinity security guards, drivers, and vendors.
We just want to show them that we can really be kind and compassionate. We hope that every person who receives the free breakfast will also replicate their kindness to others.
This writer and Josine in her Mandaue City Human Heart Nature shop.
MM: Do you carve that out from your income every week?
JCM: Yes. We really set aside the budget from the uh from the store income. But we also have very willing advocates who sponsor it because they see that it’s been doing good to the community.
So, they’d also like to share their blessings by sponsoring the free breakfasts. There is a ripple effect to this yes.
One of the thrusts of Human Nature is really to raise the new middle class coming from the working poor. They are always left behind, right?
Think of it, they wake up early every morning going to work every day, churning the wheels of the economy. But when it comes to the benefits progress, it comes down to them in trickles.
We’re just inspired to share whatever we can share with the working class because when they go to work happy and with a full stomach, they’re more energized.
MM: How did Human Heart Nature evolve as a social enterprise?
JCM: Human Nature is not a conventional business. We are a Filipino social enterprise with the principles of pro-Philippines, pro-poor, and pro-environment. We came to know of Human Nature through the Couples for Christ, our community. Gawad Kalinga at that time was the Social Ministry of the Couples for Christ.
The owners of Human Nature are the children of Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto. My husband and I have been since part of Couples for Christ since 1993.
MM: What was the learning process that the business has matured into being pro-Philippines, pro-poor, and pro-environment?
JCM: The founders Dylan and Anna were doing volunteer work fundraiser for Gawad Kalinga in the US. They noticed that even Americans were already using organic products.
When they looked at the organic ingredients, they noticed that many of the ingredients could be grown and sourced in the Philippines like virgin coconut oil, essential oils, aloe vera.
They queried how come that the Philippines being the agricultural country that we are, could not afford. We always think of organic and natural products as very expensive.
When they came back to the Philippines, that started the ball rolling. Together with Anna’s sister Camille, the couple explored producing natural products and make it affordable for Filipinos.
When people ask me if these are genuinely natural products and affordable, my answer is yes. They are made intentionally affordable so that even ordinary Filipino the mainstream who cannot afford to get sick can afford to use them. We made it easy to make the switch to a healthy lifestyle.
MM: How do you operate as a social enterprise?
JCM: Most of the raw materials of our products are found in the Philippines, mostly sourced from farmers cooperatives. However, we also have social enterprise partners like Apicuria and the internationally awarded Theo and Filo gourmet chocolates.
Our partners are also sourcing their raw materials from their own farms and from other farming communities here in the Philippines.
One of the goals of Human Nature is encouraging organic farming amongst our Filipino farmers. Many farmers opt for the traditional method of farming using chemical pesticides and fertilizers because it’s a way lot cheaper and yields faster.
However, we are an agricultural country, and we all know the effects synthetic chemicals have on our health, on the soil and the environment. By assuring farmers that there will be a steady demand for their organic produce, they would go into organic farming.
MM: How far have you saturated the market with Human Nature products?
JCM: We have a lot of work to do and that is why we really need the support of our advocates. Filipinos people like you who are who are in the U.S and everywhere else in the world. We must be proud of our own Filipinos who are very talented, smart, brilliant.
We just really must believe that Filipinos can be excellent, world class. We are here to really raise the Philippine map in the international scene.
MM: How do you market your products to the local public?
JCM: We have noticed that the Japanese are very conscious of organic products. So, they themselves really look up where to find organic products in the country. They just come to the store by word of mouth.
We have one Japanese Human Nature member who runs a non-government organization and brings in her group to the store. We give them a short talk about our social enterprise and fair trade. They get excited and do repeat orders. They bring Human Nature as gifts when they go back to Japan.
Lately, we’ve noticed that the Koreans are also catching up. Foreigners are liking our products. Filipinos are slowly getting there too. I believe it is slowly going in that direction.
MM: What is your competitive advantage and how did you manage to survive during the pandemic?
JCM: To be honest, our recovery from the pandemic is very slow. You know, we are just really struggling to keep our heads above water. However, we never closed. Thank God, Human Nature was identified as one of the essential goods during the pandemic. The customers were just outside to pick up their purchased products.
Even at the height of the pandemic, our detergent, bath soap, and cleansing bars were being sought. Our products are made from Philippine virgin coconut oil and it's cold processed, so the natural glycerin is retained even during the production of the soap.
This is why our soaps are non-drying and very moisturizing because of the way they are made. One of our best sellers during the height of the pandemic is essential oils. People were working on finding ways to relax using essential oils.
We really have a very simple way of contributing to nation building and that is simply in the choice of products that we use which are excellent quality. There’s no need to buy imported products.
MM: Human Heart Nature can assure the market of quality products that are organically grown?
JCM: We are very proud and very happy to declare that all the ingredients on our Human Nature product labels stand by the international standards of nature.
In fact, our microbial standards are 100 times stricter than the microbial standards of the Philippine FDA. So, you'll be sure that you're getting excellent quality. BTW, our lipsticks come in one paper packaging already sourced from local suppliers.
MM: It seems to me that Filipinos needed to patronize more of our own products, right? Isn’t that the biggest challenge?
I believe that Filipinos will come to realize that they don’t need to search far for excellent products because we have a lot of wonderful products made in the Philippines by Filipinos.
We have already met international standards. So Human Nature is genuinely natural with 100 percent no harmful chemicals. We hope that by using Human Nature products we lift farmers out of poverty and help raise the working poor to be the new middle class.
We are also changing the world’s toxic definition of beauty. Our tagline now is “You are more than just be beautiful.” We define beauty as really being kind, compassionate and brave. #
This article was first published on the 2nd issue of Cebu State Magazine.
