Regenerative Organic Certification Creates Deeper And More Resilient Supply Chains That Pay Off

Some businesses are realizing new levels of positive social and environmental impact by creating deeper supply chain partnerships — with farmers and others who provide crucial materials or ingredients for their products — and ensuring they also get their fair share of the income while using Earth-friendly practices.?

One great example of this is Gallant International, a Los Angeles-based company that with its factory partners has worked with one of India’s most well-known organic cotton co-ops to transition more than 700 farmers to regenerative organic cotton. More than 3,500 acres of land recently became Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC), making it one of the largest such projects in cotton globally.

With this new certification, Gallant and its partners hope to spark a transformation in how organic cotton is farmed, and bring more scrutiny to the cotton supply chain that’s growing in demand annually yet lacking in transparency. Leading companies in the organic space like Patagonia and Dr. Bronner's were part of the Regenerative Organic Alliance that helped push for development of the ROC program. Patagonia wanted a more holistic certification that covered its supply chain while rebuilding topsoil, reducing pollution, and sequestering carbon.

As part of my research, I’ve talked with several business leaders who have joined the ROC program, including Gallant International Founder Vik Giri. His company has a long history of creating close connections with supplier farmers, but the ROC program takes that to a deeper and more lasting level.?

“This certification is much more than just a checklist. We’re working to create a more holistic supply chain that takes care of everyone involved, not just the buyer,” says Giri, who notes his business has grown since adopting the ROC program. “I’ve found it’s better to get involved directly with your farmers. Support them. It might cost a little more, but it will add 10 times the value to your investment.”

Another company?adopting the ROC Program is Tablas Creek , a California winery that had incorporated organic farming since its start in 1989. General manager and partner Jason Haas says the winery’s thinking and practices have evolved over time as “organic” overcomes some of its negative connotations in the wine industry.?

“Our principal motivation behind this was to help the vines express the character of place as clearly as possible and minimize what we were putting on the vines and land,” Haas says. That eventually led Tablas Creek to pilot the ROC program, which he notes varies by industry.?

“There are ROC protocols that conform to that baseline of soil health, animal welfare, social welfare, but the specifics for what you have to do in a vineyard is going to be different than what you’re going to be doing if you’re growing rice or if you're growing cotton,” he says. “Being a part of the pilot program was this cool opportunity for us to help craft those standards for the wine community. If there’s the opportunity to share practices that we think are going to be good for the community at large, we’re all in.”

One of the biggest impacts of ROC at Tablas Creek is the social benefit component that includes cultivating input and involvement of field workers, says viticulturist Jordan Lonborg. "Around the world, the dark side of agriculture is the way the workers are treated," he says. Now, Lonborg says, the Tablas Creek team has weekly meetings where the dozen or so full-time field workers discuss politics and other current topics, which is a new opportunity for many of them.

Providing a workplace that values all people?is also important at Dr. Bronner’s , the family-owned castile soap brand that recently launched a line of dark chocolate bars. “We’re both a soap company and a socially minded entity. That is the legacy that we have to live up to,” says Michael Bronner, who leads the company with his brother David. “The ideals inspire us as a for-profit business with the soul of a nonprofit to measure how we’re doing and where we can focus on getting better.”

In recent years, he says those improvements have included working with Patagonia and Rodale Institute to develop the ROC program. “It opened up the whole idea of the soil being the living substance that really has created life on this planet, and to use agriculture not as a means to put more and more carbon out there but to actually bring it down to acceptable levels and to really encourage farming techniques,” he says. “We obviously need to connect the consumers’ desire to purchase a product that matches their values with the farmers’ need to know that if they change their farming practices, it will benefit them financially. A lot of the initial work was proving out this concept.”

Now, Dr. Bronner’s, Tablas Creek, and Gallant International are demonstrating for other companies how businesses can enhance the health of their supply chains and the planet while also building a strong bottom line.?