SHI Toolkit 3.0

Best Practices for Sustainable and Ethical Sourcing in the Herbal Products Industry

Preface

This edition of the Sustainable Herbs Initiative Toolkit builds on years of work by SHI partners: farmers, wild harvesters, processors, brands, and advocates who are turning shared values into action. It codifies what we’ve been learning together: the assumptions behind how change happens and the practical steps that make it real.

From the start, SHI’s goal has been to shift the botanical industry from transactional to reciprocal relationships where value and respect flow in all directions. This work runs through every SHI gathering and working group. The work is grounded in the belief that every actor in the herbal value network has intrinsic worth and that healthy trade depends on healthy ecosystems and communities.

To ensure long-term vitality, we must take concrete actions that address climate change, biodiversity loss, and poverty. Each company at every stage of the value network has a role to play. 

This toolkit asks:

• What are concrete tools we can use to implement practices that support and respect stakeholders through the sourcing network?
• How do we make visible the risks borne by different stakeholders and help reduce those risks?
• What can each of us do to build resilience rather than extract it?
• How can our actions become examples for others?

The purpose of this toolkit is to document what’s working, sharing real practices that translate learnings into everyday decisions. Our shared goal is to develop industry-wide best practices that strengthen trust, transparency, and shared prosperity throughout the herbal value network. We recognize that these practices are aspirational and that achieving them is a journey. The Sourcing Self-Assessment can be a good place to begin as it invites you to outline a step-by-step approach to introducing these practices.

Contents 

1. SHI Core Practices
2. SHI 5 Sourcing Principles
3. Self assessment 
4. Sourcing 
   1. Reframing the PPP unit
   2. Importance of Supplier Visits
   3. Building Relationships in Herbal Sourcing
   4. Sourcing Relationship Health Assessment 
5. Mapping Source Risk 
6. Certification
   1. Types 
   2. Quick Reference
   3. What they deliver and what they don’t 
7. Costs
   1. True costs and fair pricing 
   2. Cost Accounting
8. Gates of Quality
9. Marketing 
10. Reference and AI use statement