This post was created in paid partnership with New Hope Network and Daabon
There is something in the media that I’ve started to see in the past year in both the clean beauty space as well as the wellness space. It’s Sustainable. Continuously learning about more and more brands (my favorite thing to do) I started hearing “we’re a sustainable company” or “from start to finish we are sustainable”. So, what does Sustainable MEAN?
What is Sustainability?
I looked it up on this fabulous website called Google and essentially learned that sustainability is something that companies are really getting into. Sustainability refers to the conscious effort to ensure that any products produced have a minimal to zero negative impact on the environment, fair working environments (and ages!) in farms/factories where products are sourced and created, and ultimately cultivating a brand that leaves a responsible, positive impact on the environment.
Palm Oil and Sustainability.
One of the products that has had a lot of heat in sustainability is Palm Oil. Yes, those two wonderful words that you see in tons of packaged foods (both good and junk), beauty products, cleaners and much more. Palm oil is a very inexpensive oil to produce and offers an alternative preservative to cosmetics and foods vs. using a harmful preservative that is chemically induced. Additionally, with the rise in KETO foods, and the desire for shelf stability, Palm Oil is being used a lot more frequently (AKA they don’t melt into a liquid pulp sitting on the shelf at the supermarket). It’s also a good alternative to aid in food preservation that sugar. YES, some companies use high amounts of sugar to preserve the food, but it’s not such a sweet way to do it.
Palm Oil has been under much scrutiny because there has been a lot of land that has been wiped out and replaced by Palm Trees that bare this wonderful vegetable. When sustainably done, the inclusion of Palm Oil Farms help the environment, support wildlife and overall help alleviate the carbon footprint on our planet. When Palm Oil Farms sprout up that are not sustainable, then we have trouble, and often damage to our earth and the wildlife around it, particularly the orangutans.
I know what you’re thinking… so what? Well, it’s a BIG DEAL because this ultimately effects the world we live in. So, when something such as growing this highly-used vegetable can cause either a positive or negative impact on the environment we live in, we want to make the conscious effort to ensure it creates a positive impact.
I recently met this company Daabon through New Hope Network. They are one of the few producers of Palm Oil that are transparent about their business practices, are sustainable, and even are completely verified in sustainability. And when I say verified, I mean that they are certified and verified by numerous third parties that only validate companies that make conscious palm production decisions that offer sustainability.
How can you help?
One of the biggest indicators of what consumers want is our purchasing power. Seek out brands that use sustainable palm oil (it will say it on the packaging), like Daabon, and give them your business. This can help support the brands that are doing it right, and hopefully one day encourage the not-so-sustainable brands to jump on the bandwagon of sustainability. learn more at thefutureofpalm.com