Trilogy's growth mirrors the growing demand for natural, organic, and now sustainable skin care products. Trilogy is now the number two brand in self select skincare in New Zealand after L'Oreal amid the 500 skin care brands available in this market.

But Trilogy's success is more than growing demand, being in the right place at the right time. Trilogy is a savvy business, staying in front of the demand wave, and at least one step ahead of competitors.

Trilogy's directors are passionate about skin care but they are passionate about growing a viable business too, says Co-Director, Sarah Gibbs.

How has the global skin care market moved since Trilogy started?

You can track the market's movement by the amount of shelf space for different types of skin care products. First, there was a shelf-space increase for natural skin care products, then free from animal testing and no preservatives, then for organic products, then fair trade and products with recyclable packaging.

Now, we're on the cusp of more products that feature carbon neutrality, or other claims that relate to business sustainability. We see this in all our offshore markets: the UK and Ireland, Europe, North Asia, Australia, North America. It's a trend that started in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumable Goods) and has moved into all categories.

We think the next phase is full transparency for businesses. A demand for completely transparent business practices.

How are you placed for this phase?

We feel in good shape for this because we've always thought carefully about it. You have to have a sense of responsibility across your whole business: sourcing, manufacturing processes, recycling  opportunities, traceability. Everything needs to be covered. We do all these things but it's not our key marketing message. In all of our markets, even the most advanced in terms of understanding responsibility and sustainability, product functionality is still the key driver.

We can do all these things but first and foremost we've got to produce products that really work. So that's still our key marketing message and I can't see that changing. But it's backed up by our secondary message which is about our responsible business practices.

If you tell someone you are carbon neutral, 90 percent will probably say that I didn't think skin care was made with carbon anyway. So there's a lot to do to educate people about what it means to be a responsible business.

But on the other hand, we're also noticing how some customers want to be very close to businesses that make products they love. We have a phenomenal number of customer service enquiries; you wouldn't believe how interested people are to know our ingredients, where they come from, how they are harvested, processed, all those sort of questions that are part of our secondary message.

In some respects your primary message is about the product, the qualities the customer will enjoy. And the secondary message is about the company that brings it to you - your processes and sense of responsibility?

Our company is certified carbon neutral, but we don't claim that any particular product is carbon neutral. There are a few reasons for that. One is that it's extremely commercially challenging for us to go there. And, practically, it's even more challenging at this stage. So we try and do as much as we can do. And we claim only what we can accurately claim. It's all audited and structured; we have material safety documents that show product traceability and emissions for every step of the process. And we can review them pretty easily and, if we think things aren't quite in the right direction, we can get them back on track.

Our website provides a wealth of transparent information about our processes. But that's the next thing to tackle, to try and make the big selling products - because they're obviously the ones having the biggest impact - carbon neutral. Cath and I always said, we're passionate about skin care but we're passionate about business. So there's a balance required there to make sure you can keep growing a viable business.

Our products are essentially purchased as 'wants' not 'needs'. Knowing this, you might as well create the sort of business you want to be in. Otherwise what's the point? When we started the company, we felt there was a responsibility to do the best we could do. The bonus for Trilogy is that our preferences are in line with extremely positive market trends. Here's an example: we are donating $1 from the sale of our Rosehip Oil face care product in New Zealand, Australia and the UK to the Borneo Orangutan Foundation, the world's largest orangutan rescue sanctuary. The cosmetic industry is a player in the palm oil industry. A small percentage of palm oil ends up in cosmetics. We want to take a position on that because we are in that industry, and the upside of that is orangutan welfare is massively topical at the moment, and so it should be because they are on the way to extinction.

But you can't be passionate about it if you think of it as a marketing tool. In my view, you're not going to do it properly if that's why you're doing it. And people will see through you - they will see through you totally. Let's face it, you may as well get on with it because in 20 years' time you will have to, it will be compulsory. And if it's not compulsory, in another 20 years' time after that, none of us will be here. So, you know, we may as well get on with it, hadn't we?