There’s no one way to innovate – it can take on many forms. And just as the consumer packaged goods industry is dedicated to delivering for the consumer, many companies are equally committed to investing in, supporting, and giving back to the communities from which their products are sourced, creating new pathways for opportunity.

Traditional Medicinals is one such organization — a botanical wellness, B Corp Certified company that combines traditional plant knowledge with modern herbal science. 

This mission propels their connection to the supplier and consumers, and in 2023, the company earned a “Fair Trade Partner & Intermediate Trader” designation from the Fair for Life certification program.

According to Traditional Medicinal’s 2023 Impact Report, the brand’s Source Community Projects provide partnership and support to the local communities that grow the plants for Traditional Medicinals’ herbal teas and lozenges, to help “improve sustainability, farming practices, and wellbeing.”

In Egypt, for example — where Traditional Medicinals sources herbs including chamomile, hibiscus, and spearmint — Traditional Medicinals has prioritized health, literacy and entrepreneurship initiatives for women across fair trade farming communities. In 2023, Traditional Medicinals continued to build on its three-year effort with 2,300 women receiving maternal and child health education; 400 women completing their economic empowerment program; 75 participating in literacy and numeracy training; and the company supported 20 Village Savings and Loan Associations, which put the ownership of their own collective funds in communities’ hands.

Overall, in 2023 Traditional Medicinals invested more than $2.2 million “impact dollars” into its Community Sourcing Projects, according to the impact report.

Further, the company expanded the number of herbs sourced with Fair Certifications — from 10 to 19 — between 2022 and 2023, including ingredients like spearmint, rosehip and hibiscus — each of which can be found across the brand’s new line of adaptogen-infused “Stress Ease” teas, which were created with consumers’ stress management in mind.

It’s also important to Traditional Medicinals that the company supports the sustainability of the communities that provide the ingredients for its products through responsible harvesting. Through programs like Point of Harvest, piloted by Appalachian Sustainable Development, a partner organization of Traditional Medicinals, wild harvesters and buyers of woodland roots, barks and herbs like slippery elm, a key ingredient in Traditional Medicinals’ popular Throat Coat tea, can participate in workforce development programs that cover topics ranging across sustainable harvesting practices, processing and safety measures. According to the company, this helps create opportunities for both environmental and economic stability.

By starting at the source and ensuring the viability of their sourcing communities, the company is focusing its innovative efforts on working toward a more sustainable present and future.