Translations

MOUNT ROMANCE : protecting the planet’s people and resources through sustainable business

1. Organizational Governance

Strategy and organization

Sector Health and cosmetics

Year 2010

Country Australia

Transmitter

Context

Mt Romance has been the leading producer of Australian Sandalwood and Sandalwood beauty products for over 10 years. Western Australia is home to over 161-million hectares of the native Sandalwood species Santalum spicatum, making this the largest natural Sandalwood resource in the world.

Australian Sandalwood has a long history of sustainability. Since the 1920's the harvests of Sandalwood have been regulated by the Western Australian government. Today this commitment is just as strong, with the Forest Products Commission (a government instrumentality) managing the fragrant species in accordance with a 150 year resource management plan and the ISO 14,001.

Objectives

- To have sustainable resource extraction as well as sustainable business partnerships with local indigenous communities

- To look for efficient and renewable solutions with a lower carbon footprint.

APPROACH

The Resource and the People:

Mt Romance founder Steve Birkbeck joined indigenous leaders to create the Songman Circle of Wisdom. This program aims to create sustainable business partnerships between companies and communities to share the benefits of producing fragrance ingredients. As part of this program Mount Romance help indigenous harvesters to get government licenses to collect Sandalwood. The wood collected by these groups is then distilled separate to the standard wood supply. Indigenous harvesters are then paid an additional royalty for the oil sold from their wood.

With global partners, a capital fund has been established to assist indigenous communities to finance their involvement in this program. Funds can be advanced to indigenous groups for anything from accommodation to equipment and training. This helps the harvesters to improve their business, offering benefits like more efficient and environmentally-responsible harvesting. This loan can then be paid back interest free from the royalty paid to the indigenous harvesters, allowing funds to be advanced to another applicant.

The Process:

Their Sandalwood oil is produced using renewable energy. Waste wood products are collected from nearby plantations to fuel our biomass boiler. This is computer controlled to maximize the use of the fuel and minimise the smoke generation, creating a clean burn. Distillation also uses thousands of litres of water. They have introduced a water catchment and recycling facility at their Sandalwood Factory in Albany. By collecting some of the region’s high rainfall and recycling the water after distillation we’re saving 75% on our previous water usage.