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CSR has been the cornerstone of success from the time of Forest Essentials’ inception. Unlike a fad to follow, it has been inherent in the DNA of the company to give back to nature what we take from it, which is also the very premise of Ayurveda. We have given careful thought to our ingredients and packaging throughout the entire product cycle to reduce our environmental impact and give back to society. We have evaluated every aspect of our product life cycle to make something that consumers would love to use but also feel good about using.
From empowering local women through employment, to sourcing clean drinking water for nearby villages, to manufacturing that ensures we deliver a sophisticated product that is conscientious about the environment, we strive to give back to society in every way possible.
As much as possible, we source our ingredients from local farmers who use environmentally sound farming practices and we also have an organic farm in our factory at Lodsi, where we grow high quality plants and herbs. We are constantly looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint by focusing on using renewable plant sources in our products. Our manufacturing facilities are world-class with pharmaceutical grade production standards and green factories by design.
Our first factory, situated in the remote village of Lodsi, Uttarakhand, manufactures soaps, Ubtans, and cold-pressed oils, all processes that are labour intensive. Being the only factory at the locale, it has provided employment opportunities to the local population and long term self-sustenance. Women have traditionally not been allowed to work in these circumstances, by providing jobs to the local women, we are proud to have contributed to their economic and social empowerment.
We strongly encourage health and hygiene not only within the factory and work premises, but as a part of the lifestyles of our employees. Hence, we provide supplies of products to our factory workers, such that hygiene practices may be inculcated within the daily regime of their families, and in the long term improve the quality of and standards of hygiene in the area.
As an Indian company, we truly believe in the potential and grassroots empowerment of our large youth and rural population. Keeping this in mind, the education of a child is of utmost importance and what we seek to achieve through our support of the Paathshala initiative.
As a partnership with Simple Education Foundation (SEF), a non-governmental organization in New Delhi in July 2016, we started Paathshala, our ‘One School-One Village’ project in rural Uttarakhand. Located in the hills of Tehri Garhwal, we’re currently working in a Hindi medium government high school in the tiny hamlet of Gular.
Our ingredients are sourced from local, small-scale farmers, traditional artisans and rural co-operatives that are experts in their fields who use environmentally sound farming practices and have organic farms at the Lodsi workshop. This has been enabling us to reduce transport costs, generate less waste, and increase efficiency. In exchange, we offer good trading practices and independence-building prices.
Each ingredient in our products comes from a responsible sourcing program which ensures that these ingredients meet high standards in health and safety, social, environmental and business integrity. Our approach aims to secure precious natural ingredients without contributing to the loss of biodiversity and while bolstering the livelihoods of the local partners who produce them.
A globally recognized architectural firm that specializes in projects built on sustainable practices was hired to design our Lodsi workshop resulting in a free-running and off grid facility ensuring ‘Zero Carbon Footprint’. Inspired by the local materials and indigenous techniques of the region, our workshop echoes the design strategies that create a conducive microclimate within the building, with naturally day-lit open-plan spaces that allow flexibility in space function. Electricity is generated through solar panels mounted on the roofs in a flight format which also enables collection of rain water.
Our manufacturing facility has won the Futur Arc Green Leadership Award 2020, Asia Pacific. This award recognizes the impact of architecture that is socially and ecologically responsible in Asia. The workshop was also nominated and longlisted by Dezeen Awards 2020 in the civic building project category.
Forest Essentials has reduced the use of plastic with a significant percentage. We use recyclable PET and Glass in our new packaging. Our outer packaging has always been in biodegradable cartons made of FSC certified paper. We are using recyclable air-filled paper pouches or paper cushions for the products inside the cartons, for orders placed online via our website, instead of plastic bubble wrap. Our stock deliveries across our stores in India, have seen elimination of the shrink wrapping film. At the store level, we are moving towards providing more sustainable choices to our customers by introducing canvas cloth carry bags, which are recyclable and reusable.
We have set up a collection facility in each of our stores across the country, where you can drop off your Forest Essentials empties (jars and bottles of both our earlier and new packaging).
The recyclable PET will then be effectively re-purposed and processed into many secondary applications such as new fibres, bottles and containers, carpet and clothing, industrial strapping, rope, upholstery fabrics, boat sails, automotive parts, fibrefill for winter jackets and sleeping bags, construction materials, and many other items. The idea of this robust initiative is to reduce single-use plastic in circulation and ultimately do our bit to make the world greener, and more sustainable.
