"Innovations are all around us and can take any form", said Silvia Pavlova, founder of the organic cosmetics company Orenda Group in an open lecture to students of the course "Green Marketing" at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski”.

Convincing confirmation of this is the fact that a start-up Bulgarian company is making an innovation in the highly competitive cosmetics industry and it is entirely based on natural products with long-known properties. The company creates a 100% natural sunscreen lotion with transparent zinc, which does not leave marks on the skin and clothes, does not pollute the environment and does not harm marine life, which is a major problem with widespread sunscreens. This opens the door to world markets.

Today, the company's products are successful in 40 markets, especially in Sweden and Japan, and the Wooden Spoon baby cosmetics series is featured in a book about the lives of Prince Harry and Megan Markle and their baby Archie.

According to Silvia, sustainable development must be at the heart of the business model. It should be value-oriented, not price-oriented - the main question is not what money you will make, but what is important to you and how not to lose yourself in what you do. As long as you are true to your values, your work makes sense.

The most important thing in business for the company is to remain honest and responsible to:

• customers - in compliance with the promise of using the cleanest products and production processes with uncompromising continuous control and hence for guaranteed healthy products;
• nature - with a view to its protection, reducing the environmental footprint of each activity of the company and each stage of the life cycle of its products, from ingredients to packaging and use;
• employees - with the understanding that they are not only working, but also parents and people with social and cultural needs;
• suppliers and the entire value chain - with a flawless partnership.

Especially important for the development of a sustainable and innovative business is the existence of an appropriate ecosystem, an environment in which these values ​​are shared. That is why the company "opens" its laboratory and freely provides the innovations and technologies created there. "When it comes to the environment, there are always solutions, if something is not environmentally friendly, you just change the concept. We must give people an alternative, to help them leave a smaller mark on the planet", said Silvia Pavlova.