Innovation

Hadrien Collot co-founded the NIU brand with his childhood friend. Being very keen on the environment, especially because he does freediving and snorkeling, he wants to find a balance between environment and business model by creating an impact brand. This brand is NIU a brand that creates organic, natural, and biodegradable sunscreens. But these creams are not just cosmetic products, no, they are different for several reasons.

First, in terms of UV filters, in Europe twenty-seven UV filters are authorized: twenty-five is chemical filters (they capture UV rays and destroy them but being in the form of nanoparticles, they enter our body and are brought to poison us) and two mineral filters (zinc and titanium). It is these filters that are used at NIU in raw forms and not in the form of nanoparticles because there is also a risk of penetration of organisms (whether human organisms or in marine organisms such as corals). This allows for an "ultra-water resistant" cream which is thicker and more difficult to remove because it dissolves less well in water.

Second, NIU creams are organic and contain mainly natural ingredients, that is to say, no silicone or other fatty substances that stagnate on the surface of the water and pollute the oceans by preventing light from passing in the water and ultimately suffocate marine flora and fauna.

Finally, in terms of packaging, the bottles are currently made in France and in aluminum because it is the least bad currently. This material is a neutral metal, infinitely recyclable which does not lose any of its properties during recycling and where there is no risk of intoxication.

All these facts show the research that has been developed around these products to protect both humans and marine organisms.

Inspiration

Being a great diving enthusiast, Hadrien the co-founder of NIU is in direct contact with marine pollution. Therefore, it is in the foreground in the face of the increasingly blatant degradation of marine ecosystems. That’s why he decided to create his own brand to be able to act in his own way in favor of SDG14. That is to say to conserve and sustainably use the seas and marine resources for the purposes of sustainable development but also by participating in SDG12 (responsible consumption and production) by manufacturing these products in the cleanest possible ways.

"I wanted to create a project that is both in line with my values ​​but still with a business model that allows for living because if there is one thing that I have learned in the environment, it is that an environmental solution without economic interest: that does not interest anyone. "

At the same time, to further strengthen its positive impact on the environment, he created the NGO Octop’us: "We wanted to push our commitment to the environment even further, but also we wanted to show that we can be a start-up, have exponential growth and get involved other than by donating 1% of our turnover to such an association because we found that a little false but also because we took the crazy bet from the beginning to transfer the big part of the budget of a strat-up which are the marketing and the communication to inject it in environmental action to show that we are transparent and committed. "

Overall impact

The impact of these innovative sunscreens is that they have little or no impact on the environment. Being biodegradable, it leaves no residue in nature but does not pollute the environment as well. These packagings are made of aluminum, that is to say infinitely recyclable. Even if a bottle of these creams is inadvertently found in nature, it will not pollute biodiversity because, being made of aluminum, it does not break down into toxic nanoparticles. In addition, the bottles don’t have labels, the designs on them are print with natural, non-toxic ink.

At the same time, with the budget that NIU devotes to the environment, the brand has allowed the establishment of an artificial coral reef in Greece, to enhance the value of French corals, to organize beach cleaning operations in Marseille in France, and much more.

Finally, the overall impact is notably on the environment as specified previously but also the NIU brand itself institutes a new way of managing a company with the creation of the NGO Octop'us it redefines the distribution of profits but also the way of allocating the budget within a company. Finally, NIU is a brand that inspires by the innovation it has created but also by the complementary actions it carries out.

Business benefit

First of all, NIU was financed with bank loans so as not to have to bring in investors and for the founders to keep all the shares of their company as long as possible. They started with Ulule (a crowdfunding platform) to make pre-orders asking for € 3,000 but they collected € 30,000! Today there are several hundred distributors in France. From the first summer of launch, NIU sunscreens sold very well.

That’s why they also have a plan to set up in Japan because Japanese consumers are very careful not only with nature but also with their skin. This project is quite substantial because to respect their value and their short-circuit logic, NIU will have to find manufacturing plants in Japan to minimize transport to market its products in this part of the world.

Finally, part of the NIU budget which was initially planned for communication and marketing within the start-up was redirected towards environmental actions and partly participated in creating the NGO Octop'us, an NGO which has a mission to limit the negative impact of human activities on marine ecosystems. To do this, it is gradually putting in place complete solutions to save and preserve the oceans, from raising awareness to collecting marine litter, including their transformation and recovery.

Social and environmental benefit

The creation of NIU itself begun to solve a real problem. Hadrien, the co-founder, started out from the simple fact that the big issue with free-diving is that when you dive, you put on a product that is bad or even toxic for yourself, for your friends, and for the ocean. But you haven’t others choices, you have to put it on. Especially in the common imagination: sunscreen protects us from the sun, so it is necessarily good for our skin and therefore for us, whereas not at all, on the contrary. That’s why NIU sunscreens respond to this problem which affects all users of the sea.

By launching NIU, and in the face of its rapid success, they noticed that what people were buying was not so much their products but their values ​​in the sense that they were completely transparent about the composition of their products and that there had a real commitment behind it. Especially since the products are developed and manufactured in France and not on the other side of the world. Therefore, this favors the short circuit.

Also, the success of NIU has enabled its founders to quickly create their own NGO, the NGO Octop’us and today this NGO has many partners all over the world such as Precious plastic, Coral Guardian, and Aegean breath.

Finally, this innovation helps to respond to a concrete problem, to make available sunscreens that are neither dangerous for the oceans nor for humans, to change mentalities by showing an example of an innovative entrepreneurial strategy, which works but also to raise awareness among users of their creams about the environmental problems we are currently facing.

Interviews

Hadrien Collot, CEO

Hadrien Collot, CEO