People are more ardent about eating sustainably than ever before, and consider planetary health to be much more crucial to their personal health, according to HealthFocus International’s 2021 Global Sustainability Report. The survey showed 64% of global consumers believe that what is good for the planet is good for themselves; 46% of consumers have become more concerned about the environment and sustainability of the world around them since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overall, 43% of global consumers said their health and the environment are considered equally when making food and beverage decisions. “The old consumer paradigm of ‘I choose to eat what is good for me and also good for the planet’ has shifted to ‘what is good for the planet is also good for me,’” HealthFocus reported.

The number of new product launches that included an ethical environmental positioning grew at 15% CAGR between 2016 and 2020, noted Jamie Mavec, marketing manager at Cargill, indicating that marketing sustainable attributes is still undergoing serious growth. Cargill’s FATitudes survey, conducted in 2020, further noted that 37% of consumers in 2020 were more likely to buy a product with an ethical environmental claim, a full 6% jump from just a year prior.

“The recent pandemic has helped create the demand for brands with a strong sense of purpose, placing society, planetary welfare, and collaboration at the heart of recovery,” said Pål Skogrand, director of sustainability and Antarctic affairs for Aker BioMarine. “COVID-19 has highlighted the huge role that businesses, governments, and individual actions play if we all work toward similar sustainability goals. Many of us recognize that the health of the planet is as important as, and naturally linked to, the health of an individual.”

When it comes to overall responsibility, “consumers are looking to companies and governments to lead on providing sustainable solutions,” said David Wright, senior manager of marketing for The Hartman Group. Citing the company’s “Sustainability: Beyond Business as Usual” report, which is currently being updated, Wright noted, “Unlike previous years, consumers have a sense of the scale of ‘big problems’ like climate change and packaging waste, and are convinced that individual action is not enough, although they acknowledge that individuals must also change their behavior too.”

Innovative businesses are driving sustainable development across the dietary supplement sector, said Damien Stringer, operations manager for Marinova, a marine fucoidan supplier. “The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identified by the United Nations are acting as a global blueprint for change. The SDGs recognize that health, education, inequality, economics, and the environment are inextricably linked and that sustainable development requires innovation and action across all of these sectors.” Marinova’s business practices are modeled after the SDGs, Stringer said.

Given the new and evolving context of sustainability today, it is important that companies and brands be able to articulate their “sustainability story,” which should reflect a strong mission, clear goals, and real timelines.

Cargill, for example, has set out to achieve specific goals by 2030 against a 2017 baseline. The company aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30%, achieve sustainable water management in all priority watersheds, provide training on sustainable agriculture and improve access to markets for 10 million farmers, and ensure that all agricultural supply chains are deforestation-free, Mavec said.

Traceability & Transparency
A steadily-growing number of consumers want the finite details about what brands are doing to contribute to the health of the environment. While some are shopping solely for the best product, others are also looking for the best sustainability mission to support. “I think the depth of questions and the amount of information/proof points consumers want is a lot deeper than before,” said Wilson Lau, vice president of Nuherbs.

As a result, it is important for companies to take extra steps to verify the authenticity and traceability of the ingredients they use for discerning shoppers who are now more conscientious about greenwashing.

Around 15% of consumers, with core sustainable attitudes, beliefs, and practices, are most likely able to discern between what is authentic best practices and what is greenwashing in a company’s communication, Wright said. “A company’s willingness to ‘stand in the sunlight,’ transparently inviting and acting on the scrutiny of credible third parties, underscores the sincerity of its intentions.”

The Hartman Group reported that 56% of “core” sustainability consumers say they look for third-party certification to verify a company’s sustainability claims, compared to just 17% of consumers marginally involved in sustainable lifestyles, Wright added. “Sustainability-engaged consumers believe any sustainable product worth its salt should stand up to independent scrutiny. In addition to seals, certifications, and third-party research, engaged consumers also rely on retailers as trusted partners in the search for sustainable products.” 

As important as transparency is to consumers when it comes to finished product brands, transparency is even more important for ingredient suppliers, Stringer said. “Marinova strongly encourages manufacturers of finished products to verify the provenance, attributes, and identity of their raw materials. Manufacturers should seek assurances over the quality management systems that raw material suppliers operate under, and query relevant certifications that ensure auditing and accountability. For suppliers, organic certification frameworks are a highly relevant example that provide a solid basis for determining baseline sustainability, where sustainable harvest practices, waste minimization, and holistic approaches to natural resource management are ubiquitous across the various global organic standards.”

Industry experts noted it’s still challenging for consumers to compare the environmental impact of one brand over another, but technology will likely make it easier for them in the future, and more competitive for transparent companies.

“While some individual brands have built a loyal audience on the back of their environmental credentials, it remains very challenging for consumers to cross-reference products based on their environmental impact,” Stringer added. “It is likely that growing consumer demand will result in new tools being developed over the course of the next decade to help address this need.”

One example of tech-based access to information is Aker BioMarine’s website-based transparency tool, which maps out where a consumer’s krill oil was harvested. “We know the exact location of every krill batch and we understand the importance of sharing this information with our customers and their customers alike,” said Skogrand. “As the transparency conversation continues to evolve, we are hoping to be at the forefront with our efforts.”

Beyond the tech-enabled transparency tools foreseen by industry experts, maintaining a detail-oriented, consumer-facing information campaign can certainly have impact in the present day. Brands can and should be forthright about internal or third-party sustainability audits including the finite details, said Shaheen Majeed, president worldwide, Sabinsa.

“At OmniActive, we create content to help our customers tell the story of their brands and an important one is around our sustainable practices,” noted Sara Zoet, senior expert, global communications for OmniActive Health Technologies. “We have produced and taken part in blogs, videos, podcasts, and webinars to educate and promote our practices.”

With top-to-bottom, company-specific audit standards, supply chains can be safeguarded against harmful production practices, as well as ethical issues and worker safety matters around the world.

“Every spring, we meet with our growers and review those standards,” said Andrew Ohmes, global product line manager for high intensity sweeteners for Cargill. “Every fall, we assure compliance through an independent audit. That attention to sustainable, ethical practices extends to our manufacturing facilities, which are also audited annually by independent third-party organizations. To help tell this story, earlier this year we launched a new Virtual Stevia Harvest Experience, which walks through each stage of our leaf-based stevia production process, from greenhouse to manufacturing facility.”

Another advantage that comes with transparency is that it fosters a mutual information exchange of best sustainability practices, Zoet said. “Simply put, we have to work together and learn from one another,” she said. “The great thing about transparency is that it provides insight into what works and how we can find better sustainable practices to ensure that we are not only kind to the environment but that we are also able to meet demand.”

Certainly, there is always more work to be done regarding how well a company can measure its own footprint. “I don’t even think big corporations and governments have all the tools, or the right tools, to assess overall environmental impact. I think there are more and better tools becoming available,” Lau said. “There are a lot of eco-friendly technologies and techniques out there, but what I am the most optimistic about is this emphasis on being eco-friendly. We should really focus on how we can maximize the plant materials and resources that we use, versus being the most efficient from a monetary lens.”

A truth that the herbs and botanicals industry will have to reconcile with, pertaining to sustainability, is the fact that the pandemic-related surge in demand for not just immune-boosting herbal ingredients but others as well will put cultivation through a stress test that can last as long as crop cycles.

Even when treated according to best practices, meeting excessive demand alone can be a threat to some wild populations. “With cultivated botanicals, you can always plant more to address increased demands,” Lau said. “It may take time to grow enough to meet demand and sometimes that demand may pass before the plants can be grown, but it’s possible. I am more worried about the wild-collected plants because if they are over-harvested, they may become threatened. Some plants may never grow back because the environment may have been destroyed, or not enough material was left for them to propagate to a sustainable level.”

According to Majeed, “It’s imperative to work with suppliers that are committed to the environment, good agricultural practices, and the well-being of the farmers, not just trading an item or brokering it from various vendors, but actually involved with boots on the ground. In this way we ensured ample raw material supply and the well-being of our agricultural and production allies.”


Human Impact
Concerns about whether companies are engaging in fair and equitable practices with employees has never been more embedded in concerns about a company’s overall sustainability commitment. “Only 12% of the least-engaged sustainability consumers say they wouldn’t pay a premium to support such practices,” said Wright at the Hartman Group. “Thirty six percent of consumers say that how a company treats its employees is the most important thing to know to determine whether a company is a responsible company; and 63% of consumers say that when deciding on a product or service to purchase, it is important that a company provide good wages and benefits to its employees.”

Especially in value chains with ingredients sourced from various regions of the globe, people are concerned about whether harvesters and other employees in other nations are working under decent conditions, Stringer said.

“Consumers are currently reliant on individual brands to communicate their social sustainability practices. Brands that do this well are likely to gain the trust of their consumer base and benefit from the longevity of a loyal following.”

Income inequality is another highly visible issue businesses are increasingly asked about, Majeed said. “So businesses need to have serious sustainability programs they can talk about, and I think that has to include fair trade and paying a living wage. As an example, small farmers often struggle to make a living, but our contract farmer program pays well, protects them from the variabilities of a bad harvest season, and builds infrastructure in their communities such as schools.”

Often, there are deep human implications built into avoiding environmental harms in global farming communities, as well. “Ensuring that a botanical is not over-harvested is important to preserve that material for future generations, and the livelihoods of the people who produce or harvest it,” Majeed said. “Our 10-year reforestation program of Pterocarpus marsupium trees in India has begun to ensure that the source of our traditional Ayurvedic blood sugar management remedy would be sustained.”

Storytelling will always be an important sustainability tool, said Zoet, and showing how purchase decisions can directly impact the health and well-being of the planet and its people. “OmniActive recently launched an awareness campaign surrounding the actions it has taken to uplift farming villages in rural India, as well as to document accounts of farmers and their families who are positively affected by the OmniActive Improving Lives Foundation, the company’s non-profit arm.”

While storytelling can differentiate the best actors, Skogrand said that advocating for tight regulations in fair trade and social sustainability is needed for widespread change. “It’s imperative that companies prioritize sustainability and traceability and having the tools to show the true colors of the companies behind the products we buy is essential,” Skogrand said. “While this is not always easy, we believe in tight regulations on social sustainability and feel that this will push things forward in a positive way and give an edge to the companies who are ahead.”

As a supplier, offering a finished product company an ingredient along with opportunities to support marketable fair trade projects can go a long way, said Kate Clancy, senior sustainability manager, Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate.

“Within our cocoa and chocolate portfolio, we now offer Cargill Promise Solutions, which allow customers to purchase sustainable cocoa sourced directly from our known and trusted farmer organizations,” Clancy said. “Going one step further, customers may choose to invest in a high-impact project linked to a key challenge in the cocoa sector, such as gender inequality, deforestation, or child labor. As a final step, we connect brands to the farming communities that provide their cocoa through our CocoaWise digital customer portal, which provides unprecedented access to data, information, and materials. All of this allows our customers to craft and share a meaningful cocoa sustainability story to their end consumers.”


Sea Change
When it comes to sustainability in marine nutraceuticals, a heavy spotlight is placed on the sourcing of omega-3s. Overfishing in particular is viewed by researchers as the greatest threat to marine life and biodiversity, and is largely driven by a combination of poor management and a lack of transparency.

The Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) has made sustainability a key pillar of its 2025 strategy. “GOED’s new focus on sustainability has two main goals,” said Chris Gearheart, director of member communications and engagement for GOED. “The first goal is measuring the environmental, social, and governance-related impact of the entire EPA and DHA omega-3 sector—from raw material producers to ingredient manufacturers to consumer brands. This process will incorporate input from GOED member companies, sustainability experts in areas that pertain to omega-3 products, and other stakeholders in the EPA and DHA value chain. The second goal is to study how we as an association can encourage sector-wide improvement in those outcomes.”

One way to build greater sustainability into the omega-3 market is to diversify the sources from which oil is extracted; alternative sources can come from marine life such as algae, krill, and more.

Aker BioMarine, which operates krill fisheries in Antarctic waters, uses one of the most abundant biomasses in the ocean for its omega-3 ingredients and protein powders. By limiting krill harvests to less than 1% of the biomass annually (which is outpaced by the natural growth of krill populations) and having complete vertical integration of its supply, the company emphasizes its sustainable operations. “Aker BioMarine controls the whole value chain from the ocean harvesting to the end consumer,” Skogrand said. “This gives us enormous oversight and the ability to tap into the right resources in our value chain to identify where we can do things better.”

The company has also utilized a number of modern tools used in sustainable fishery management, including the use of unmanned surface vehicles (USV) to collect data on carbon footprints and krill harvest mapping. “With this USV, the goal is to reduce our fuel consumption when looking for krill. Data from the USV will help the company’s vessels navigate more efficiently, and thereby help minimize the CO2 footprint. We believe that the new USV is a good example of fishery efficiency, enabling us to produce more with less.”

Marinova’s experience in utilizing organic, sustainable extraction technologies has paid off not just for the company’s green acumen, but for the quality of its fucoidan extracts as well. A shift to developing more gentle, non-solvent extraction technology is paving the way for a more sustainable nutraceuticals industry, Stringer said.

“Manufacturers of fucoidan have traditionally utilized solvents to precipitate the fucoidan polymer from crude extracts. This may lead to contaminants being present in the final extract. Fucoidans manufactured in this way may suffer from many shortfalls,” Stringer noted. “Their quality is inconsistent, their chemical integrity is compromised, and, most importantly, their bioactivity is diminished. Traditional methods used in the industry can be revolutionized in order to not only deliver improved ingredient quality but improved environmental outcomes and sustainability.”

While seaweeds are a rapidly-renewable, nutrient-dense resource, it’s nonetheless important to manage biomasses properly. “Marinova does not, and will not, source seaweeds that have been grown or farmed in those parts of the world prone to industrial or human contamination or where environmentally sustainable harvesting practices cannot be assured.”

One source for measuring a company’s impact on marine sustainability under development is the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures, which can empower companies to manage their sustainability shortfalls, and ensure a positive impact on nature, Skogrand said. “Lowering CO2 emissions from food and health production is a given and we all need to do our part to get where we want to be. Also, the use of water is a very tangible metric.
Generally, we see that nature is getting more in focus. Loss of nature poses material risks to the corporate world too as everyone relies on thriving nature and ecosystem services.”

Best Botanical Practices
Sustainable management of natural botanical resources is defined not simply by preserving biodiversity, but also enriching biomes through regenerative agriculture practices that protect watersheds and prevent depletion of topsoil. Holistically-managed soil also has an extraordinary capacity to capture and sequester carbon, Majeed said.

Key organizations such as the Sustainable Herbs Program (SHP), FairWild, and regionalized collectives are leading the charge on this movement through certification and/or education of agriculture operators and consumers. These organizations are also tuned into the human issues related to the trade of wild-sourced products, which are not endemic in traditional agriculture.

“Soil health and regeneration principles embodied in documentaries like ‘Kiss the Ground’ are critical to scale-up massively within the next few years, let alone the next few decades, if we’re serious about healing our climate and reversing key drivers of the awful environmental turbulence we’re witnessing all around us,” said Greg Cumberford, vice president of science and regulatory, Natures Crops International. “If the nutraceutical companies that rely on plant-based wellness solutions commit to regenerative and/or organic agriculture methods, that is a cause for some hope. But especially if the companies whose resource extraction, wild-harvesting, energy consumption, and labor practice models are clearly unsustainable do not grasp the moral imperative behind sustainability—reinforced by shifting consumer demand—then honestly there is less hope.”

OmniActive has worked regenerative practices into the infrastructure of its supply chains, such as recycling water from the dehydration of its nutrient-rich marigold which can then be used as a natural fertilizer, Zoet said. The company also launched a pilot project to deploy water-saving techniques such as drip irrigation, which saves up to 90% of the water used in traditional farming.

Additionally, the company is engaging in ongoing efforts to replace components of packaging which are difficult to recycle. On climate, the company is reducing the need for energy-intensive processes by replacing them with less artificial ones. For example, OmniActive now uses silage as a first step in marigold dehydration to reduce the energy used for heating, and now uses hot air generators which rely on agricultural waste as an alternative fuel source to fossil fuels.

Plant-based alternatives to typically animal-based nutrients have become mainstream, with more consumers adopting “flexitarian” diets and lifestyles. Coinciding with the success of the plant-based meat, dairy, meal replacement, and sports nutrition categories, consumers and companies are catching onto plant-based alternatives for dietary supplements as well.

Ahiflower, for instance, serves as a sustainable plant-source of omega-3s, with no impact on ocean life. The plant is, in many ways, practically designed for next-gen regenerative farms; it requires little water use to extract its omega-3s, minimizes soil disturbances (making it a key component in regenerative agriculture designs), and enhances pollination leading to increased crop biodiversity.

“In the omega-3 supplement and nutrition marketplace, sustainability is indeed a fairly grave concern,” Cumberford said. “While there are certainly brands and companies that take sustainability seriously, there is widespread agreement that meeting omega-3 daily intake requirements globally from marine-based sources—supplemental EPA/DHA oils and from aquaculture-fed salmon—is not sustainable, and in our view is inefficient. It takes a metric ton of oily forage fish to yield just 10 kg of refined fish oil. Plant-based alternatives like Ahiflower that are grown regeneratively not only improve soil and pollinator health along with rural farmland biodiversity, they are inherently scalable to meet growing global demand. Every acre of Ahiflower contains the equivalent omega-3 oil of 320,000 anchovies.”

The plant-based omegas category will be tasked with confirming evidence that plant-based ALA and SDA fatty acids can convert readily to both EPA and DHA in the human body at meaningful rates.

“Sophisticated research is quantifying omega-3 metabolic pathways and elucidating that preformed DHA, as from marine and algal sources, doesn’t significantly ‘retroconvert’ to EPA,” Cumberford said. “But our bodies are quite capable of getting all the omegas they need from plant-based sources, including DHA, especially when people consciously reduce their high intakes of background industrial agriculture vegetable oils.”

Rethinking Packaging
Within the sustainability discussion, by and large, plastic is out, which demands a significant revolution in the way CPG companies approach packaging, according to HealthFocus International. Microplastic particles build up in the water supply over time and there is no easy means to clean up the chemicals and toxins they leach. Switching to renewable packaging may help make a product stand out in today’s market.  

“It’s not enough for brands to use low-flow faucets and LED lighting; they have to look much deeper,” Majeed said. “Minimize packaging and single-use plastics, find and change to bottles made from post-consumer waste plastic, and get experts to help you make your operation more energy efficient.”

Also notable is the upcycling movement. In order to prevent food waste in some forms, several innovators are using technology to offset the byproducts of food production in order to create new food sources out of what would ordinarily be considered waste material. The concept is now favorable even among mainstream suppliers, such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, which partnered with the company Comet Bio in 2020 to upcycle its fibrous, protein-dense brewer’s grain byproducts into dietary supplement ingredients.

According to HealthFocus International, concerns about food waste are second only to concerns about environmental degradation, according to a survey of global consumers. Upcycling packaging materials which would otherwise take decades if not centuries to decompose in landfills is also becoming popular in mainstream supply chains. France-based startup Carbios, for example, is using an enzymatic process to break down plastic rapidly and render it food-grade to make bottles. Potato chip brand Lay’s recently committed to provide the world’s first five soccer fields made out of potato chip bags in a project known as RePlay.

A Fermented Future
Fermenting nutrients in laboratory settings, instead of through purely harvested natural resources, is an evolving practice. Innovations can have significant implications for how this age-old process brought to contemporary standards can yield ingredients with a reduced eco-footprint. Already, companies are fermenting proteins, peptides, and amino acids, as well as various vitamins, minerals, botanicals, and probiotics.

“Fermentation is known to produce exceptional nutritional ingredients,” Majeed said, noting that beyond probiotics, more technical fermentation can be used to purify natural products, isolate isomers such as the amino acid L-Methionine, and more. However, “the limitations are expensive startup costs, a lengthy process, and that chances of contamination are high, requiring extreme vigilance and a closed system,” Majeed said.

Cargill has realized the potential of fermentation in sweetener production with its EverSweet stevia sweetener, made through the process of fermenting the sweeter components of stevia leaf, Reb M and Reb D, which comprise less than 1% of the leaf itself.

“This enables commercial-scale production with less water, less land, and a smaller carbon footprint,” said Ohmes. “Not surprisingly, leaf-based Reb M was the least sustainable approach. Reb M occurs in extremely low concentrations in stevia leaves, requiring 70 times more stevia leaves than leaf-sourced Reb A. While Reb M produced through bioconversion scored somewhat better, fermentation-sourced EverSweet was the clear winner. The reductions result in meaningful environmental benefits. The greenhouse gas emissions saved by using just 1 ton of EverSweet (enough to sweeten 7.5 million 12-oz cans of soda) is equivalent to 311,000 miles driven by the average passenger car or charging more than 15 million smartphones, when compared to bioconverted Reb M.” 

There may well be a rift in preferences in the botanicals space, where some value the complex, full-spectrum blend of phytochemicals which can’t truly be replicated, Lau said. “We at Nuherbs are exploring fermentation, but what we are greatly concerned about is that what it produces is more akin to drugs and chemicals versus herbal remedies. With fermentation, we can produce a certain marker or item, but we can’t replicate all the chemicals and constituents in a plant part. Can you get to X-percent of a certain constituent? Maybe. Can you replicate the complex chemistry of an entire plant part? I haven’t seen it.” 

---

Mike Montemarano has been the Associate Editor of Nutraceuticals World since February 2020. He can be reached at MMontemarano@RodmanMedia.com.