9 tips to go green with natural ingredients for health products

Now, more European consumers understand that the products that they buy can be bad for the environment. Because you export natural ingredients for health products, you and the producers you work with are responsible for sustainability in the supply chain. If the natural ingredients are not produced in a sustainable way, they can damage the environment forever. The tips in this document show how you can use green principles in your business, for example in production, processing, logistics and packaging. If you follow this advice, you can make your export business more competitive on the European market, because you will be able to attract buyers who value environmental sustainability in their supply chain and who want to share their story with consumers.

1. Stay informed about EU Green Legislation to protect your export business

The EU has introduced new policies to promote sustainability in global supply chains. The biggest change in legislation involves the EU Green Deal, which is a plan to make Europe’s economy sustainable by turning challenges for the climate and environment into opportunities. The EU Green Deal also aims to protect ecosystems and biodiversity, reduce pollution and promote a circular economy. This involves ‘the 3 R’s’ – reusing, reducing, and recycling waste – and using renewable resources.

Figure 1 introduces the EU Green Deal. Businesses will not have to comply with the Deal until 2024, and once the Deal comes into law, it will only apply to the largest companies. However, there is already a proposal on ‘Corporate Due Diligence’, which offers guidelines and advice for how businesses should operate in global supply chains. The proposal states that “large European companies will be required to identify, and where necessary prevent or mitigate the adverse impacts along their supply chains on human rights and the environment”. Sustainability requirements are becoming stricter, and European businesses like Givaudan are increasing transparency and due diligence in their supply chains. For example, the Ecovadis sustainability assessment questionnaire helps businesses to measure how sustainable they are and to make changes that are based on recommendations and results.

Another important update in the EU is the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). This regulation says that products that are imported to the EU should not be involved in forest degradation or deforestation. For European businesses that import natural ingredients for health products – for example cocoa derivatives for the health market – it will be very, very important to be able to prove where their products come from and how their activities affect the environment.

Transparency in agricultural supply chains is becoming more important. Because you export natural ingredients, you will need to give detailed information about all your activities to potential clients and to your current clients. The information should include how you grow the materials and what methods you use for processing. The next tips will make you more aware of what you can do to show that you are committed to environmental sustainability.

Figure 1: The European Green Deal

Source: The European Commission, 2020

2. Build a relationship with your producers to work towards green production methods

To achieve green production, it is important to work closely with your producers, because only 10% of medicinal and aromatic plants are grown. The rest are harvested in the wild. Your producers may not know about the agricultural techniques that are the best for the environment, and they may damage the land. European companies understand how important it is to promote sustainability, but many of them do not have information about where the product comes from.

Because you are close to where your producers work, you are in the best position to work with them to make sure that their activities help to protect the environment and to renew forests. Talk to your suppliers and tell them about the EU’s environmental standards. Explain how it will be good for them to comply with these regulations. Be honest, encourage them to be honest, and work out what you can do more easily and what the biggest challenges are for green production. Once you have done this, talk to your European clients and see if they are willing to offer support with necessary improvements for sustainability.

Sometimes, your European partners may offer training or finance. Many European companies are creating partnerships directly with producers to deal with production challenges. This means that you may need to change how you buy products and be less dependent on local distributors and intermediary traders. Instead, you can work more closely with producers at the production level. This will improve the environmental sustainability of your business, and it can also make you more competitive and successful.

Here are some examples of how it is good for exporters to work closely with producers:

1. Your story of going green
   Working closely with producers means that you can develop practical ways to make production more sustainable. This knowledge is the basis of your story of going green.
2. Better quality control
   When you work closely with producers, it is easier to make sure that the production meets the quality standard. This reduces waste.
3. Saving money
   Working together to improve production processes can help you and your producers to use raw materials better, to be more productive and to save money.
4. Faster delivery
   Working closely with your producer can make delivery times shorter and help you to meet tight deadlines.
5. Better knowledge of competition
   You will be in a better position to compete with other local traders who may trade in the same product.
6. Flexibility for adaptive management
   When an exporter knows what is happening on the ground, it is easier to adapt when production conditions change and to react when the market wants something new

There are also international projects that encourage green production. For example, TRAFFIC is a conservation organisation in the UK that works on wildlife and biodiversity. TRAFFIC works with 15,000 producers to promote the sustainable cultivation of jatamansi. There is less jatamansi than there used to be, because too much has been harvested for export and because habitats have been lost. Now, producers are being trained in production quality and the FairWild Standard. The aim is to protect wild ecosystems, improve the local economy and promote jatamansi as an essential oil for therapeutic use in international markets.

3. Offer traceable products

Traceability is about how easy it is to understand where products come from. Traceability is very important for sustainability in the supply chain. European legislation on traceability and on production that does not involve deforestation is becoming stricter, and you will need to have detailed information about everyone in your supply chain. Your European clients will ask you about the sourcing locations and about how the harvesting methods affect the environment. Figure 2 gives an example of a traceability system that is used by an EU company. You must be able to offer your client full details of your supply chain.

You can set up your own traceable supply chain to comply with the standards that are set by the EU and used by EU companies. Traceability is the tool that allows you to prove where your product came from and how it was produced. A traceability system will help you to explain how your business works with producers to improve product quality and how the production methods help to preserve forests and natural plants.

There are many ways to make a traceability system. If you do not have a lot of experience with these systems, work together with your suppliers to design a simple system that shows where the products were grown and who was involved. Give each producer their own number in your system, and record what they do for each batch of the product. Give each batch a number, too, because this can help you track it. You can record traceability on paper, but it is more efficient and more sustainable to use computer programs.

To improve your traceability system when you export to the EU, it is good to include the location of the production areas. You can use a map of these areas to show that your product is produced within the agreed agricultural boundaries and that it does not cause deforestation or forest degradation. Maybe your product is produced close to a protected area, and you are helping to preserve natural biodiversity by valuing and maintaining the natural plants as a ‘buffer zone’. These are all good things about your business that make it more sustainable, and you should tell your customers about them.

This is especially important for the EUDR. If this regulation covers your product, you will need to show a map of your boundaries to be allowed to export to the EU. This means that each of your farms must be in the right place on maps that show forest cover on 31 December 2020, and you have to prove that your farms are not involved in deforestation.

Pacha Soap Co is a Somalian producer and exporter of frankincense. They have made a map of trees by choosing random areas of land, counting how many trees there are in those areas and looking at how healthy the trees are. Pacha Soap want to avoid harvesting too much, and the information about the health of the trees means that they can leave some trees untapped to allow the trees to rebuild their strength.

Figure 2: Nedspice traceable supply chain route of turmeric

Source: Nedspice, 2023

4. Differentiate yourself from competition by committing to sustainable production methods

Environmental sustainability is becoming the standard in the European market, and buyers are always looking for new ways to show that they are committed to sustainable supply chains and operations. This also sets them apart from their competitors. You can work with suppliers who are really committed to sustainable production methods. This will allow you to tell European companies about your unique approach to sourcing natural ingredients for health products.

For example, a product like vanilla usually has a big carbon footprint. The production of vanilla can increase CO2 emissions. Many processors use artificial methods to dry vanilla because they want to speed up the drying process. However, with enough planning, vanilla can be dried naturally. Whatever the carbon footprint of your natural ingredient is, you should explore original ways to reduce it.

Now you know about some different methods to have a better effect on the environment, and that can be really good for your business.

Look into concepts like ‘nature positive’, ‘regenerative’ and ‘net zero’

Think about exploring concepts like ‘nature positive’, ‘regenerative production’ and ‘net zero’. Basically, these concepts are about making sure that no more biodiversity is lost and renewing that biodiversity. The aim is to increase biomass and to use less fossil fuel in the production system. If you export a natural ingredient that is wild-harvested or harvested from a cultivated tree or shrub, you may already be doing this without even knowing it. If you export seaweed, you can highlight the fact that it is good for carbon sequestration and talk about how it helps to create habitats and increase biodiversity in the sea.

Develop a clear picture of production conditions

We advise you to develop a clear understanding of the production conditions (cultivation, harvesting and processing) of your natural ingredients, and what could make them green products. Talk to your producer and ask them to show you the whole process, from planting to harvesting. If you have a raw material that has a specific environmental advantage, you can highlight this feature in your production story.

Table 1 shows how you can highlight the sustainable features of your natural ingredient. Once you have done this, make sure that you include the good environmental features of your natural ingredient in your marketing campaigns and in your selling proposition to your clients.

Table 1: Promotional environmental features of natural ingredients by various companies

Source: ProFound, 2023

Pranarôm is a Belgian supplier of natural ingredients for health products. They encourage their producers to use responsible cultivation. They have worked with the same suppliers for a long time, and they support their producers to use sustainable development methods. Now, they are looking for unique approaches to soil and ecosystem regeneration by working with harvesters to grow endangered and environmentally useful plants like Vetiver.

5. Use a green technology for processing

Think about introducing eco-friendly methods when you process natural ingredients for health products after the harvest. This includes things like making water and energy more efficient and improving waste management. For natural ingredients for health products, the processing stage must become more sustainable, because the usual process involves drying seeds and other parts of the plant, removing fat and cleaning gums and resins. This process usually uses wood as a fuel to produce energy and it uses chemicals for extraction.

Solar energy is one of the most common green technologies. The FAO gives a good example of how farmers use solar energy to irrigate crops in Rwanda. Solar drying is a low-cost and environmentally friendly way to dry natural ingredients. For other processing actions, think about using steam distillation or cold pressing to extract oils. Both methods avoid using solvents and they only rely on steam, water or heat, which can improve product quality. Marketing your product as organic can also help you to get higher prices in international markets.

FairOils growers have 2 ginger growing projects in Tanzania and Madagascar. Their ginger processing involves more than 2,500 farmers, and the ginger oil is extracted by hydro-distillation. The heat for this distillation comes from biomass boilers, which are powered by their own bio-waste ‘briquettes’.

As part of their sustainability strategy, FairOils have solar panels at all their processing facilities. These panels are a clean, reliable source of energy. FairOils say that “changing the way we think about energy has enabled us to dramatically reduce our reliance on diesel and other fossil fuels”.

If you want to introduce more sustainable processing methods, it is important to look carefully at the process and to talk to your client about which parts of the post-harvest processing can be more eco-friendly. You must work together with your client, because changes in processing can affect the quality of the end product.

6. Green your logistics: avoid plastic packaging and apply sustainable transport solutions

Plastic pollution is bad for the environment. The EU Green Deal includes a plan to put less plastic waste in landfills. By 2030, the EU aims to recycle 55% of plastic packaging waste. As an exporter of natural ingredients for health products, you should try to reduce the amount of plastic you use in processing and packaging. Find out if you can use renewable, biodegradable or recyclable packaging to transport and export your raw material. You can also see if you can include fibres such as algae, bamboo or carton-based materials in packaging. Glass and metal are also possible, but they are heavy, and this may make it harder to reduce weight to save fuel in transport.

Your European clients will start to avoid using plastics in their supply chain. They may not be able to trace what materials you use before you export the product, but you should try to avoid plastics because you can highlight this to your client as something unique about your company.

The European Union has introduced carbon pricing in the maritime industry. This aims to encourage major ports to offer onshore power to ships and to use less of the fuels that cause pollution and make local air quality worse. Because European businesses think more carefully about their carbon emissions, we advise you to transport your products by ship whenever you can, rather than by air. Sea transport costs less and is reliable, and there are fewer limitations on transporting hazardous materials.

7. Implement circular economy practices and upcycling within your business

Another important part of the EU Green Deal is the circular economy. This is about reducing waste and using resources in the most efficient way. Basically, this means trying to use every part of the raw material that you source. IFF is a global manufacturer of fragrances and flavours. They have created a new product using an extraction process from the root of the turmeric. This new product, ‘Turmeric Root Ultimate’, is an example of a by-product that can be created from waste material, which would usually be thrown away.

Using the principles of the circular economy in your business can help reduce your negative effect on the environment. The example from IFF also shows how waste materials can actually be used, and this generates more income for farmers who would usually throw away the roots. Basically, the methods of the circular economy encourage businesses to see waste as a valuable resource, instead of simply throwing it away.

One of the most important areas of environmental sustainability is in ‘upcycling’ natural ingredient waste. ‘Upcycling’ is when you turn waste material into new products. IFF is a member of the Upcycled Food Association. The association’s certified mark highlights a company’s commitment to sustainability through the production of food by-products that are good for the environment. In 2022, IFF announced their first wave of 10 products that achieved the UFA’s Upcycled Certified Program.

Upcycling usually needs a good waste management system. Here are some things you can do to set up a waste management system in your company:

1. First, do a ‘waste audit’ to understand how much waste your company generates and what kind of waste it is; you can do this at the production level.
2. Use this waste audit to develop a waste management plan that says what your goals are and what you will do to reduce waste and increase recycling.
3. Your employees and producers need to know about your plan, so you need to teach them about your waste management policies.
4. Find ways to reduce waste, for example by reducing packaging and reusing materials.
5. Set up a recycling programme so that you can separate recyclable materials from waste.

Figure 3: Graphic showing the ‘waste hierarchy’