Ashwagandha meets sustainability – case study

The defining theme of doing business in the 21st century will be sustainability, a word with more than 300 definitions and counting. While the ubiquity of the term threatens to dilute its meaning, the commitment to the ideal that a company should act sustainably in how it treats both the planet and its people in pursuit of profit cannot be understated. 

An increasing number of people are discovering that indeed the planet is in peril and supporting businesses that behave with the same urgency that they feel. A sustainable supply chain is a natural fit for any company belonging to the natural products industry. However, the issue is particularly complex for the supplements sector, with long lines of logistics that sometimes end in black holes due to lack of transparency in sourcing or processing or both. In this report on how a sustainable supply chain has wrapped itself around one highly valued ingredient, we’ll highlight the northwest corner of India where traditions going back 5,000 years still guide healthcare today. It’s a story about a simple, woody shrub— ashwagandha—that helps sustain one of the world’s great cultures.