SHI Monthly Meeting Series
SHI Monthly Meetings are for SHI members only. We do this to create a container in which participants feel comfortable sharing more openly and honestly about challenging topics. The upcoming Learning Lab is a great way to get involved. Or contact SHI Director, Ann Armbrecht for information about becoming a member.
SHI’s goal is to create resilient sourcing networks from seed to finished product for sourcing botanicals for the herbal products industry. Within that, we are working to shift from transactional to reciprocal relationships. While many companies aspire to these values, it is challenging to implement them in practice.
Certification has emerged as an important tool in addressing these values. Yet a key theme in SHI Working Groups has been that while these certifications can create valuable frameworks and common language, they do not automatically deliver improved outcomes. And often the benefits and impacts they do create are very different for different stakeholders.
This fall the SHI Monthly Meetings will explore these questions in more depth and from a variety of perspectives. Each session will have several presenters and then open for deeper discussion.
Except for several guest speakers, the series will be for SHI members only to facilitate open, more frank conversations about the issues and challenges for different stakeholders, and to discuss collaborative pathways to address these challenges.
Each session will be 11 am-12:30 pm, ET
September 30: Resilient Sourcing in Practice
- What does partnership really look like?
- What are the metrics? What are the gaps?
- What do those gaps mean to different stakeholders?
- How to measure impact? What are the ways to support and the barriers?
- Speaker: Jefferson Shriver, Doselva
October 21: Role of Certifications (guest speakers)
- What tools support/obstruct companies in establishing and maintaining thriving sourcing partnerships?
- What is the role of certifications and how do they help and hinder this vision of partnerships and reciprocity?
- How are benchmarks interpreted? What conversations can be had about working together differently?
- Speakers: Karene Volpato, UEBT on UEBT’s verification/certification process; Krista Pineau, Fair for Life, Ecocert; Deborah Vorhies FairWild
November 18: Case Studies of Sourcing Partnerships
- Honest conversations about what is working, the challenges, where things fall short.
- Cases: Speakers: Pebani and Synergy; Herb Artizan and Traditional Medicinals; Yogi and a supplier TBA