Our Ethical Sourcing Commitments

We have been a member of the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT) since 2011. The Union for Ethical BioTrade is a non-profit association that promotes the “Sourcing with Respect” of ingredients that come from biodiversity.

The ambitious standard for Ethical BioTrade advances sustainable economic growth, local development and the preservation of biodiversity.

Following our vision “Creating a world in which the health and beauty of human beings and nature continually unfold” and our mission “Weleda sustainably develops its business in harmony with nature and the human being” we implemented the UEBT standard as a sustainability management system along all of our natural raw material supply chains.

We are certified for our Ethical Sourcing System

Since 2018, UEBT has offered a certification program for Ethical Sourcing. UEBT certifies company sourcing systems that respect people and biodiversity.

As a UEBT member we are committed to innovation and sourcing practices that contribute to a world in which people and biodiversity thrive. In that sense, and as part of our sustainability strategy, we decided to take our engagement to the next level with the certification of our Ethical Sourcing System (ESS) for all our natural raw materials used in our natural and organic cosmetic products. This step as well contributes to our mission “Weleda products activate the healing forces of human beings and nature.”

The ethical sourcing system enables us to check whether our suppliers and pre-suppliers meet our requirements regarding sustainable economic growth, local development and the preservation of biodiversity. With a subsequent risk analysis needs for sustainable improvements can be identified and according actions taken.

As a next step and as part of the certification program we commit to take more actions along defined, so called prioritized supply chains. With that we reach out to even more actors and areas for cultivation and wild collection to improve BioTrade practices wherever needed.

Certification scope in numbers:

  • We have 657 released supply chains, which means that 100% of the raw materials used have been assessed.
  • In 2017 we have been sourcing 270 natural raw materials from 199 suppliers
  • This number of raw materials had a sourcing volume of  4.625 t in 2017
  • 62 of our supply chains are defined as prioritized for verification. Verification means that we verify the information we received from our suppliers for evaluation through field audits or with a desktop verification if documents are available which will allow us to have evidence of compliance with the Ethical BioTrade Standard (e. g. fair trade & organic certificates etc.)

Target:

  • Verification of all current defined prioritized supply chains until June 2019 completed. This represents 16% of our 2017 sourcing volume for natural and organic cosmetics.
  • Classify all of our supply chains according to UEBT’s 4 levels of compliance (Entry indicators, critical requirements, Threshold requirements and continuous improvement requirements). For each level targets will be set and approved by UEBT. The targets will be public available by end of 2018.
  • Active communication on the certification, on our related activities and through this promoting awareness of consumers for biodiversity

The certification has been valid since June 2018 and is valid for one year. It is then extended by a new audit.