Sustentabilidade sob as lentes do consumo: uma crítica sociológica às práticas da Natura e do Grupo O Boticário

Abstract

This paper critically analyses the sustainability practices of the Natura and Boticário Group companies and their relationship with consumption in contemporary society, based on a look at the Sociology of Consumption. The study begins by reflecting on how sustainable consumption, often presented as a solution to environmental and social problems, can function yet another element in the reproduction of the logics of the capitalist system itself. The main objective was to understand how corporate sustainability practices are perceived by consumers, what social impacts they generate and to what extent these actions represent a transformation or merely reinforce existing structures. To this end, we carried out a qualitative and descriptive study, based on documentary and bibliographic analysis - including academic studies and institutional reports from both companies. We described and compared the main sustainability initiatives employed by companies and how they associate their brands with discourses of socio-environmental responsibility and encouraging conscious consumption. However, the study points out that these practices are often perceived by consumers in an uncritical way, functioning more as mechanisms of social distinction than as real instruments of transformation. Structural barriers to sustainable consumption were identified, such as the high cost of products and the lack of infrastructure, which contributes to the responsibility for change falling disproportionately on the consumer, while social and economic structures remain unchanged. The paper concludes that sustainable consumption, as it has been practiced and propagated, runs the risk of functioning as an extension of the capitalist system itself, serving more to legitimize the market than to transform it. Overcoming this situation requires not only changes in individual choices, but above all a transformation in business practices, in the role of the state and in relations between the market, society and the environment. It is necessary to rebuild the role of the consumer as a critical subject and agent of transformation, and not just as a buyer of causes converted into merchandise.