FARM UPDATES

TRACEABILITY

This month we caught up with Mother and Son team, Lucy and Marco Brunato, whose family has been sustainably growing, hand-harvesting, and processing our Dried Tea Tree Leaf since the 1980’s.

1. How long have you been involved in growing Tea Tree?

Our family has been growing and harvesting Tea Tree since the late 1980s, initially harvesting it in the bush on our property where Tea Tree natively grows, and later with small-scale plantations. At the time a wood-fired steam still was used to process the oil from Tea Tree, before building a diesel-based steam still later in the early 1990s. Our family began processing dried Tea Tree leaf in the mid-2000s as an alternative to producing oil.

2. Where is your farm/land located?

Northern Rivers region of New South Wales on the east coast of Australia. 

3. What are some of the traditional therapeutic applications of Tea Tree Leaf used by the Australia Aboriginal people?

Anecdotally we know that the crushed leaves of Tea Tree were traditionally used as an antiseptic paste by many Aboriginal communities, particularly among those on the eastern coast of Australia.

4. What kind of products include Milled Tea Tree Leaf in their formulations today?

It’s a popular addition to many eco and natural skincare products such as facial exfoliants, soaps and scrubs.

5. What sustainability practices do you have in place on your land?

We run a very small-scale Tea Tree operation, cycling between areas every few years when harvesting Tea Tree leaf for dried leaf production. It is a very natural and sustainable process, given the area in which it is grown is the native habitat of the plant. No pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals are necessary or used in the harvesting or production. Harvesting is done by hand, so there is very little impact on the surrounding environment. Tea Tree is an incredibly regenerative plant and is easily able to regrow over a period of a couple of years.

EMPLOYEE PROFILE

What is your role at Down Under Enterprises?
Officially my title is Head of Marketing & Operations. In reality, since we are a small, family owned business, the management responsibilities for the company are split between Dee-Ann (our founder and my wife) and me. So as with many small business owners, I also wear other ‘hats’ during the typical day – IT Systems, Quality and Regulatory, R&D, and even Legal - and work with our team members to implement our programs. It can be challenging, but our team is great and handle much of the day to day responsibilities. Still, every day is a different challenge.

What did you do before joining the team at Down Under?
Believe it or not, I held various management positions with global Medical Devices companies. On the surface, it seems a long way from essential oils, certainly the farming activities. But in fact everything I’ve learned from 25 years of global responsibilities in the Medical Device industry is now being applied to Down Under. One of the most important prior learnings now applied at Down Under is the review of scientific publications and how to translate these data into clear product benefits. There are hundreds of papers on the therapeutic and functional properties of essential oils being published every month – we are at an exciting time in the world where modern science and medicine are recognizing the benefits of naturally active compounds. If/when the Regulatory environment adapts, we will see some very interesting opportunities for naturals.

What led you to want to work in the natural products industry?
I never thought I would be here. My wife founded Down Under in 2001 and in the early years she was a one-person wunderkind. I did help her with the marketing and certainly managing the tradeshows and other events – but it was all her. I really enjoyed these touchpoints – but the Medical Devices industry was my passion. As the company grew, the demands outstripped her capacity. At the same time, I found myself working crazy hours and constantly travelling for work. At one point, Dee-Ann and I discussed that, IF we could somehow handle working together (big IF) we could do some amazing things with Down Under. So, I took the leap and have been loving it ever since.

What do you love most about what you do?
I don’t know if there is any one thing. Honestly, it’s great to work on so many exciting new areas. Whether it is a new Marketing campaign, developing new plantings at our farm, and even working on new research initiatives like our patent-pending Zero Carbon Distillery technology. There is just so much to love about what I do each day.

What is your favorite way to spend the weekend?
What’s a weekend?

SUSTAINABILITY

As part of their Business Sustainability Risk and Performance Index, EcoVadis has produced a tool that allows people to benchmark their country against others, and even the global standard for sustainability performance.

Australia continues to do well in this regard. While we definitely are not resting on our laurels, so we continue to challenge ourselves to improve our EcoVadis ranking each year. Stay tuned for more on this in the new year with our new audit results.

Interestingly, in their research, they found that small and medium-sized companies typically perform better than large ones. Click HERE to see how your country compares in sustainability globally.