Wild about wild plants

CHRISTIAN Courtin-Clarins is not a fan of air-conditioning. Casually clad in a button-down shirt sans blazer and tie, the owner of Clarins and president of the Clarins supervisory board gripes about how it's freezing indoors in Singapore and sweltering hot beyond the plate glass windows of his Grand Hyatt suite. After all, preserving and maximising some aspects of one's natural environment lies at the core of his family's beauty business.

"We developed a lot of help for farmers, because we want them to grow the plants in a natural environment, with no pesticides," says Mr Courtin-Clarins, who is said to be worth a combined US$2 billion with his brother Olivier. "We guarantee that we are going to buy what they produce, and instead of buying them at a higher price, which may result in an unbalanced economical system, we build schools, we help them to build wells, we grow trees."

In town to celebrate the 60th anniversary of a business started by father Jacques, a chiropractor, Mr Courtin-Clarins believes that a focus on sustainability is the only way to ensure the beauty empire's existence. To date, he has spearheaded a drinking water supply network in Madagascar, developed the Pur Projet in China to fight against desertification and replanting according to principles of agro-ecology, as well as launched Feed Projects to provide school meals to children to fight hunger worldwide.