sustainable sourcing

Ashland’s goal is to ensure all suppliers are engaged in and continuously improving their sustainability profile, both to protect future generations and to help customers meet market needs.

With 85 percent of our products being nature-derived, Ashland understands how to solve the complex challenge of sustainable sourcing, and it starts with trust. As partners in the line of responsibility that begins with the purchase of our raw material and ends with consumer use and end-of-life management, we work with companies and colleagues up and down the value chain. It’s that plant-to-planet philosophy that puts us on the path to a nature-positive company, one committed to responsibly solving for a better world. 

Our sourcing plans start with selecting the right raw materials, understanding their life-cycle impact, and working closely with our suppliers to ensure their success as individuals and as a community, all while delivering on customers’ and consumers’ increasingly planet-minded and performance preferences. That’s why we are scaling our sustainable guar farming pilot from 250 farms to more than 5,000. It’s why we are doing the same with farmers in other corners of the world, and it’s why our sourcing team works side-by-side with Research and Development to ensure the next round of innovations starts with a sustainable and secure supply of responsibly sourced materials. 

*Below are our efforts towards sustainable sourcing, including maintaining and expanding on our certification and disclosure plans, as listed here.

Ashland's suppliers play an integral role in our overall success. Ashland's global operations require that we enter relationships and conduct business with thousands of suppliers who provide services and materials to support our businesses. Our purchasing function collaborates with suppliers around the globe to help our businesses meet their objectives for profitability, growth, innovation and sustainability.

sustainable guar 

In 2023, Ashland continued its collaboration with the Sehgal Foundation to continue to enhance and expand our program for the sustainable farming of guar in Rajasthan, India.

Through educational programs and scientific solutions for more sustainable farming, Ashland continues to help increase the quality and volume of guar harvested annually, while respecting the sourcing relationships and local cultures of these small village farmers in India.

These relationships are important because Ashland uses guar to formulate specialty ingredients for personal care, life sciences, and coatings applications. From the program’s inception in 2021, we’ve been helping expand local economies in and around Rajasthan.

Using science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and modern technologies, farmers are taught sustainable agronomic practices and water conservation. The program’s successful results include helping farmers lower their production cost while increasing their crop yield by approximately 30 percent. In addition, the program has helped increase farmers’ income, thus expanding the economy in the small villages.

Importantly, Ashland’s commitment to gender equality fueled specific training focused on the local female population to empower them, improve their technical knowledge and skills, and help elevate their standard of living.

sustainably sourced guar by the numbers

• number of farmers enrolled in the program increased from 1,850 farmers (in 2022) to 3,450 farmers (2023) and from 25 villages to 38 villages
   
• average productivity yield increase in guar crop since the implementation of the program is 22%
   
• number of women participating in health, sanitation, and community participation awareness program for women increased from 728 in 2022 to 866 in 2023
   
• number of children participating in health, hygiene, sanitation, and nutrition awareness program for children increased from 1600 in 2022 to 2601 in 2023
   

puraloe™

Ashland’s puraloe™ is an excellent example of a reliable field-to-market model that takes into account local community needs and customer and consumer preferences for quality and socially conscious sourcing.

Our purealoe™ products are organic, Fair for Life, kosher, and halal. Our work upgrading farm facilities and infrastructure improved conditions for community harvesters of puraloe™ aloe vera across Jaumave Tamaulipas, Mexico. Investment in school computers and water irrigation systems, classroom modernization, and air conditioning further underscores Ashland’s commitment to communities where our suppliers and their families live, work, and play.

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sustainable guar farming

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