Trade not aid: Absolute Essential wins the 2026 Global Impact Award by Clean + Conscious Australia

Many large companies make bold claims about their environmental initiatives, but the level of greenwash often reveals more hot air than genuine action.

Absolute Essential has been named winner of the 2026 Global Impact Award by Clean + Conscious Australia, part of its Sustainability + Social Impact Awards. We did not enter. The Clean + Conscious team chose us after seeing our work during this year's product awards, where our Chakra Set won Gold and Editor's Choice. What caught their eye was a story and a simple box.

The box. Handmade lokta paper from Jiri, Nepal.

A box that keeps a village working

The Chakra Set and some of our other Collections come in a box of handmade lokta paper from Jiri, Nepal. A village paper cooperative makes it. The villagers part own the cooperative, about 80 per cent of the people who work there are women, and the work supports 126 families, more than 1,300 people, in a region damaged by the 2015 earthquakes. Dr Bo has been instrumental in rebuilding this traditional, sustainable paper-making cooperative. Every box ordered keeps the paper mill running. That is trade not aid in one object.

Where trade not aid began

In 1982 our founder, Dr Bo Hendgen DO ND AM, was travelling through Africa. She saw what frankincense earned in the West and what it left behind for the people who harvested it. It was not fair, and it changed her direction in life. After studying aromatic medicine in France, she arrived in Aotearoa 40 years ago with two children in her sole care and $500 in her pocket. When she could not find medicinal quality plant extracts for her clinical natural health practice, she took matters into her own hands. When she founded Absolute Essential in 1988, trade not aid became the motto: build the business so the grower earns well, and the customer receives a better product for it.

Dr Bo Hendgen in 2015 after a day of field work in Nepal.

How it works

We work directly with small-hold growers through nine cooperative collection points, sourcing globally from over 30 countries. Essential oils are distilled and carrier oils are extracted at or near the harvest site, so the skill and the income stay in the growing community. We supply seedlings of the correct botanical species if required, education in organic growing, and help with certification, harvesting and distillation or extraction equipment, and the knowledge to extract low and slow. Careful extraction earns a better price for a better oil without an industrial harvest.

Low and slow. Distillation at the harvest site, Nepal. The still is fired with the spent plant material from the last run.

Lemongrass harvest, southern Nepal.

Nepal

Since 2012 we have worked with village communities in Nepal to help establish and grow a small wintergreen industry. It gives the women and elderly who remain in the villages, while many of the younger men migrate for work to South Korea or the Middle East, an income they would not otherwise have. We supplied seedlings, taught sustainable harvesting and shared a portable still that is now owned by the producers. More than ten of the 109 raw ingredients we use come from Nepal.

After the 2015 earthquakes we raised funds, delivered supplies, volunteered at health camps and helped rebuild production facilities so people could get back to work. We have also donated product to schools and orphanages in Nepal and the Philippines.

Carrying the wintergreen harvest home.

At the village school, and with a mother and her baby, Nepal.

The same thinking, everywhere

The award recognises impact beyond one country, and the same thinking runs through everything we make. Our labels are made from demolition concrete, no plastic labels here. Our shippers are 100 per cent recycled cardboard, tape free and fully compostable. The design won the Natural Health Products NZ Innovation Award in 2020, and we give the design to any business that asks in return for a donation to the orphanages we support.

Our facility at Muriwai Beach in Aotearoa New Zealand is solar powered and runs on 100 per cent rainwater. We have planted at least 100 native trees on the site every year since 2002, and one more for every 200 miles flown.

Planting at Muriwai Beach, 13 November 2023. Careful preparation and diligent care. The weeds get the better of us in spring because we do not spray.

Wintergreen harvest, Nepal.

Quality is the point

None of this comes at the expense of the product. Absolute Essential has been certified organic by BioGro since 2012, with 96 per cent of the whole catalogue certified. Every formulation is the work of a clinician with 35 years in practice. A grower who is paid well, trained well and equipped well distils well.

Better working conditions make a better product, and a better product creates better health for people.

A grower who is paid well, trained well and equipped well distils well.

Dr Bo says peddling low-quality products has no room in her world. "At Absolute Essential, you can be sure that we cross the t's and dot the i's while we are not selling false dreams but efficacious and ethical products that we unequivocally stand behind."

"This recognition came without an entry from us, and that makes it mean more," says Dr Hendgen. "It is acknowledgement of work done quietly for a long time. When the people at the start of the supply chain thrive, everyone along it benefits."

Human health and caring for the environment have always been at the foundation of Absolute Essential, since day one. "If a small business like Absolute Essential can make these slow and steady commitments, it's an excellent example for larger companies. And they should sit up and take notice. Businesses must lead consumers and simplify making the right choice when spending money. Of course, it's not always easy doing the right thing and putting people and the planet before profit, but it's crucial, now more than ever."

Our thanks to the Clean + Conscious team, to our growers, to the Jiri cooperative and the communities, and to every customer who has chosen one of our products.

You are all part of this story.

Read the official announcement from Clean + Conscious: Celebrating the Winners of the 2026 Sustainability + Social Impact Awards

Ngā mihi
Dr Bo Hendgen DO ND AM