The American Botanical Council’s Sustainable Herbs Program (SHP) launched the SHP Sustainability and Regenerative Practices Toolkit 2.0, an updated collection of resources for ecologically and socially responsible practices in the herb industry. The toolkit is user-friendly and freely accessible, and includes revisions from the initial toolkit released in 2021.
 
Ensuring long-term supply of herbs is crucial to the success of the tea, dietary supplement, and cosmetics industries, noted ABC, but finding guidance can be overwhelming. The SHP Toolkit 2.0 offers a map to help companies at different stages of their sustainability journey. It brings together resources and case studies from segments of various industries.
 
The updated toolkit includes:
 

• A short self assessment to gauge where a company stands, which can be used for annual sustainability reporting and for certification audits.
• Access to webinars with experts discussing topics explored in the toolkit, such as regenerative farming, wild plant collection, stewardship, living income, and social equity. Insights from these discussions are incorporated into the revised toolkit, as are links to summaries, video highlights, and complete recordings.
• A new design with new infographics.
• Updated resources, especially summaries of certifications, new programs, and other highly relevant information in this rapidly changing field.

 
Retained resources from the original toolkit include:
 

• Videos highlighting stories from the field or case studies about each topic as examples of best practices.
• Discussion questions to reflect on those examples and how they apply to the unique challenges of each company. 
• Action steps in each of the ten sections.
• Curated resources from different sectors organized around topics that are particularly relevant to sourcing medicinal plants.

 
“The botanical industry is uniquely suited to lead the way in doing business that serves health and wellness for all—for people, plants, and planet, not just finished product consumers,” said Ann Armbrecht, PhD, SHP director. “The challenges threatening the long-term supply of medicinal plants—the climate crisis, the precipitous loss of biodiversity, social and economic inequity, and ongoing supply disruptions from the pandemic are too big for any company to tackle on its own. The Sustainable Herbs Program helps you meet these challenges by providing tools, resources, and pre-competitive collaborative opportunities to take action in a meaningful and constructive way.”
 
“Congratulations to Sustainable Herbs Program director Ann Armbrecht on the launch of a beautifully revised and expanded version 2.0 of the SHP Toolkit,” said noted medicinal plant sourcing expert Josef Brinckmann, research fellow for medicinal plants and botanical supply chain at Traditional Medicinals and president of the ABC Board of Trustees. “C-level executives may consider the SHP Toolkit 2.0 a required course for employees responsible for botanical supply chain quality, sustainability, visibility, and assessments of corporate social responsibility in supply chains. Even those with experience in voluntary sustainability standards and responsible supply chains will find fresh ideas and shortcuts to essential information in Version 2.0.”

The SHP Toolkit 2.0 is one of many of SHP’s publications and projects, alongside a video-rich website, a blog, a monthly newsletter, webinars on numerous topics related to sustainability and regenerative practices, ‘brown bag’ seminars, and more,. The educational content is all freely accessible on SHP’s website, with registration required.