LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SHOW ON iTUNES, STITCHER OR SPOTIFY OR LISTEN RIGHT HERE:
NEW PATREON SUPPORT PAGE – Yay! The Low Tox Club is BACK and here to stay (I had to take it off line 18 months ago when I got sick with the mould stuff), but it’s different: YOU decide how much you want to spend to be a part of it.
You can become a Low Tox Life club member on Patreon for as little as $4USD a month. We have some awesome extras planned for our Patreon supporters, but first up, we’re including a private Low Tox Life chat group – finally! As well as a little bonus chat my son had with last week’s guest, Tim Brooks of LEGO! You’ll be able to unlock these Patreon extras when you sign up HERE to become a Low Tox Life podcast “patron”. I’m really excited to see where this takes us all. We have MEGA plans x
Now onto the show…
I’m interviewing one of the most forward thinking raw material procurement legends in the world… BEST JOB EVER! I do interview people from brands from time to time and I just want to say here, these are NOT sponsored shows. This is simply me bringing you some of the best thought leaders I know to help us truly understand what goes into a business when they’re 100% for people + planet at the core of everything they do.
This is the perfect show to celebrate Fair Trade day coming this Saturday May 12 too!
Very rarely do you find a company so transparent, so vocal about social and environmental injustice and so good at growing a healthy business, as Dr Bronner’s. If you’d like to find out more about Dr Bronner’s story, check out show #2 where I talk to Lisa Bronner, granddaughter of Dr. Emanuel Bronner, founder of Dr. Bronner’s.
A family run business from way back, it’s one of my favourites for many reasons. I wanted to bring on their VP Gero Leson a phd in environmental science, who works to set up incredible partnerships with communities in developing countries to set up their supply chain. Rarely do you get to look under the hood of a procurement and production cycle like this. It will also highlight that nothing is black and white and yes – shock horror – there can be such a thing as sustainable, ethical palm oil. This is for the nerds who just love digging into how business can be a HUGE part of the change towards a better world. Gero doesn’t hold back. SUCH a good chat. I hope you love it and think even more fondly of your humble castile soap the next time you pick it up.
Here’s a little snapshot of the juicy bits in today’s episode…
- Dr Bronner’s is passionate about investing in causes that people can relate to. They’re committed to the economic and social development of the farms and communities they source their raw materials from through a number of fairtrade and regenerative projects.
- Fairtrade for Dr Bronner’s has become the baseline. Everything they do as a company and their entire value chain is designed to support sustainable operations and embrace fairtrade principles and practices.
- When it comes to organic, mainstream certifications mostly focus on making sure no pesticide is used in the production. Regenerative practices go beyond that to support farmers in improving soil quality.
- On top of factory farming and fossil fuels, depletion of soil contributes to one third of the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere. Focusing on agricultural practices that look after the soil has huge potential to help improve the atmosphere.
- Dr Bronner’s has a strict mandate to shift to more and more regenerative practices for all projects they’re involved in in relation to raw materials sourcing.
- Dr Bronner’s company culture is highlighted in the six cosmic principles that put forward values of community, collaboration and contribution. 78% of the revenue of the company is spent on activism and charity contributions.
- Dr Bronner’s uses palm oil in its products as it is a super versatile and useful ingredient to make soaps. The problem with palm oil is the way it is being produced, destroying vegetation and the communities who live on the land. Dr Bronner’s has chosen to source their palm oil from sustainable and responsible sources by not having their own plantation and processing the palm oil in a community based environment.
- Dr Bronner’s work focuses strongly on setting up strong and valuable partnerships with farmers, contributing to preserving their cultures and enriching their communities and as a consequence supporting them to produce the best quality raw materials that will be used in Dr Bronner’s range.
- Through the work they’ve done in these communities, they’ve been able to encourage locals to stay in their farms instead of relocating to nearby cities and give them the means to develop valuable businesses that promote sustainable farming and look after the land.
And here are a few extra important resources:
You can find out more about Dr Bronner’s and their commitment to fairtrade and sustainability HERE. Dr Bronner’s six cosmic principles can be found HERE
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Enjoy the show and thanks again for taking the time to rate and review the show on your app – it’s like tipping the bartender and it means the world.
Low Tox. Happy us. Happy planet
