Creating Community and Environmental Impact through Partnership: Henkel and Solidaridad

Henkel and Solidaridad: 10 Years of Partnership

Henkel has a firm belief in delivering value for customers, partners, consumers, and the communities that we serve. Our partnership with Solidaridad, celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year, is just one way that we’ve worked to establish programs that accomplish this. The partnership, which aims to help smallholder farmers in Columbia earn a living wage while connecting them to the supply chain that supports Dial® soap products in North America, plans to reach 520 farmers and establish an additional 35,000 acres of RSPO certified farmland for sustainable palm oil production by the end of 2024.

Bridging the Gap

Palm oil is a vegetable oil that comes from the fresh fruit bunches of oil palm trees, and is used in Dial® soap to help the skin feel moisturized and remove oil and dirt. It is the highest yielding vegetable oil crop, meaning that it would take more land to produce the same output using other oils such as soybean, rapeseed, and sunflower. The challenges with palm oil sourcing have historically included poor land usage practices and potential gaps in worker conditions, which Henkel and Solidaridad, through their partnership, are helping to address.

Achieving Partnership Goals with Farm2Bar

Farm2Bar, the program created through this partnership, aims to build a traceable and sustainable supply chain for soap production, but the impact it has created in communities in Columbia has more wide-reaching impacts to economic stability and integration of palm-growing families that improves their quality of life, helping to break the cycle of poverty. With the training and additional information regarding financial support that the program provides, they have the opportunity to improve their agricultural practice and become more socially and environmentally responsible. The partnership enables participants to improve their working conditions and produce in better balance with nature, while reinforcing one of Henkel and the Dial® brand’s core values of bolstering thriving communities.

Upholding Global Standards

To ensure that global standards are being upheld, the monitoring process collects quarterly data from production sites to track progress, organizes third-party annual auditor visits, and takes reoccurring satellite photos of the land where the project is occurring to monitor for any potential deforestation.

Collaboration for the Good of Generations

Henkel and Solidaridad consider that the collaboration’s value to local communities is greater than the sum of its parts, since all the actors along the value chain are united under a single objective to build a traceable chain for sustainable soap that goes directly from producer to consumer. Farm2Bar reaffirms Henkel’s belief that it’s crucial to support current and future generations with the tools to excel. Younger generations are driven, seeing a difference in their ability to not only have a successful and sustainable farm-based business, but to be innovative entrepreneurs and ensure that their children will have the opportunity to continue cultivating their land for years to come, passing their passion and legacy on for the good of future generations.