Most of us use multiple personal care products daily. These products nourish our skin, make us feel good and help us get that special glow when we’re getting ready for the day. Many of the ingredients essential for making these products are derived from palm oil. So, whether we realize it or not, this means we are consuming some form of palm oil every day.

Founder of Oh, Oh Organics, Gay Timmons, is very passionate about greening the ingredient supply chain of our personal care products, including palm oil. This has been her mission since she founded her organic ingredient company 21 years ago. According to her, “We are all in agriculture.” She believes that the personal care industry will find more creative ways to innovate once we all realize this.

Need For Change

To date “the industry is complacent,” says Gay, a scientist herself. Many manufacturers stick to the chemical ingredients they know, instead of using more innovative plant-based sources. She believes we need more creativity and explore new solutions. Change is on the horizon though, with more brands demanding green ingredients. Gay has seen the demand for organic palm oil, as well as other organic ingredients growing, especially from mission-driven businesses that want to create positive impact.

New Generation Brands

A push towards green ingredients is coming from a new generation of personal care brands, founded upon a mission to do things right and a strong set of principles. The founders of these brands choose to work with plant-based, vegan and organic ingredients. Many of these businesses also decide to sell their products direct to consumers, to have all options open to tell their full story.

Business owners pushing the shift to plant-based and organic ingredients also demand full traceability to the sources of these ingredients. They want to know the farmers and communities behind their ingredients, to make sure they are creating the positive impact they seek. “The value has to be inherent in the ingredient,” says Gay, who serves a growing number of customers seeking organic, traceable ingredients.

Two leading brands, that understand that connection and have been taking their responsibility seriously are Dr. Bronner’s and Dr.Hauschka. They began growing their own ingredients many years ago.

In the recently launched book Honor Thy Label, Gero Leson describes how Dr. Bronner’s started to develop its own supply to ensure the production of clean, green and ethical ingredients, while at the same time generating positive impact for farming communities. They have gone to great lengths to ensure transparency and fairness to benefit farmers, workers, as well as their families and communities. In the book Leson also recounts the company setting up their organic palm oil operation in Ghana, and how producing palm oil using fair and regenerative organic practices makes it one of the more expensive, yet one of the most impactful palm oils on the planet.

It’s All Agriculture

Manufacturers and brands that make commitments to use more plant-derived ingredients, are basically stepping into the agricultural sector. They are not just a personal care company, they are impacting agriculture and the way crops are grown. It is important to be aware of that. And the chemical industry, producing palm-based ingredients, needs to realize they are in agriculture, too.

There is still much to explore explains Gay: “In order to adapt to the pressure of climate change and what’s going to happen to the chemical industry, the industry needs to innovate, more than it has done so far.”