NEW In-stores! Seed & Sprout Amazing Shampoo + Conditioner Bars

For Plastic Free July, we are featuring Seed & Sprout’s shampoo and conditioner bars. 

Seed & Sprout is one of our favourite local suppliers - they are committed to creating innovative and ethical products specifically designed to reduce our impact on the planet. Over the years, their product range has expanded from sustainable containers and homewares to personal products, hair and skincare. 

Their products are designed locally in Billinudgel (Northern New South Wales) and ethically manufactured in Australia, Taiwan, China and India. They have carefully selected and formed long term relationships with their manufacturers, after meeting with them and thoroughly checking their working conditions and environmental practices.  

We have many of their products in-store and online and have included their popular CrunchBox and pantry jars in our Plastic Free July hamper prize (in our Stores).

This month we are featuring their amazing shampoo and conditioner bars - we have been receiving wonderful feedback on these and they can also be purchased with tins for storage, retailing at $5.95. With beautiful fragrances of Citrus and Mint, Rose Geranium for the shampoos, Pink Grapefruit and Sweet Orange for the conditioners, the shampoo bars retail for $18.95 and the conditioner bars, $28.95.  According to Seed & Sprout, 600,900 plastic bottles have been eliminated and 153,230 litres of water have been saved by their bars (includes body, face, dish, stain remover, veggie, shampoo and conditioner bars).

One of the most commendable and inspiring actions taken by Seed and Sprout as a business was their investigation into their products and the honest and transparent communication that followed upon realising that some of their products contained palm derived ingredients. 

In February 2021, it was brought to their attention that the coconut derived ingredients in their products that they had believed to be palm oil free, did in fact contain palm oil. As we also discovered in our palm oil audit across our Stores, when palm derived ingredients are mixed with an uncertified supply they cannot be traced back to the plantation, which makes it impossible to know where the palm oil comes from and whether it is contributing to deforestation.

For many years, Seed & Sprout had believed and made claims that their products were palm free based on information provided to them by their manufacturer. When they realised that this was not the case, they issued a public statement to the community and reformulated all their products. For their official statement, see this LINK.

The shampoo and conditioner bars were created following this beautiful process and we are very excited to be featuring them this month!

Some other interesting and fun facts about Seed & Sprout:

• $50,000 was donated to Orangutan Alliance when reformulating their products to remove palm derived ingredients.
• 10% of all their profits are donated to International Animal Rescue Indonesia. 
• They are 100% emissions free - at their HQ and Warehouse in Billinudgel, they use renewable energy in the form of solar panels. In 2020, they generated 3x the amount of solar energy than they needed and fed it back into the grid for someone else to use. 
• They reuse cardboard boxes and shred them for protective filling in their packaging. Their packaging is made with recycled cardboard and shipped plastic free so they can be recycled or composted at home.
• They have installed a Subpod in their office garden to compost all their team's food waste, created garden beds to grow food and flowers and also have a Flow Hive producing honey with minimal interruption to the bees and supporting the bees to pollinate local plants and positively impact the environment. 
• Employees are encouraged to use reusable containers when getting takeaway coffee or lunch and each team hosts a monthly plastic free lunch supporting local businesses, by taking large pots to a restaurant and bringing back lunch for everyone. How awesome is that!