Organic And Sustainable Industry Standards (OASIS), the first organic standard for the U.S. beauty and personal care market, recently launched, aiming to “bring clarity to consumer confusion around organic product claims,” according to a statement to the press. The only “industry consensus” standard, OASIS was formed by a group of trade professionals representing the beauty and personal care industry supply chain.

 “Ten years ago, my own experience of trying to certify products in this fragmented market led me to bring a group of people together to work on a standard for the industry. OASIS is the result of this committed group of people”, says Tim Kapsner, senior research scientist for Aveda and founding member of OASIS.

In the past, USDA Organic has been used as the default standard for beauty and personal care ingredients and products. But its standards were never designed for this industry. ECOCERT is the current prevailing European standard.

The OASIS Organic Standard is the first of a number of planned standards that will verify defined conformance with organic and sustainable practices used to produce beauty and personal care products. “It is our hope that we will work together to develop Health and Beauty America (HBA) standards that will measure different types of sustainable practices: including organic production and sustainable packaging for the HBA category, to eventually include household cleaners and other products,” said Mr. Kapsner.