Shea Butter Cottage
Changes in our circumstances can bring about some of the most wonderful opportunities in our lives. This was the case with Akua Wood, the founder of the Shea Butter Cottage company who we are proud to name among our clients at Ian Wallace Craft Insurance. Shea Butter Cottage is an organisation that devotes itself to ensuring that its products are ethically sourced and created to strict, environmentally safe practices. For Akua and her company, whilst profit is an important consideration, it should never take precedence over the main aims of the organisation’s stated philanthropic work. Shea Butter Cottage’s way of approaching business is dictated by a set of firmly held ethical beliefs which Akua has held from the very origins of Shea Butter Cottage and were what originally drove her to undertake it.
Being of Ghanaian heritage, Britain’s cold and wet winters were a shock to Akua Wood, who first came here in 2002. Before coming to the UK, Akua spent a year studying in Italy, where the climate is milder and more welcoming. However, on arrival in the UK, Akua found the moisturiser she had brought with her was inadequate when it came to dealing with the harsh winters.
Akua wasn’t satisfied with any of the products that were available on the market at the time and did not feel that women were being given the protection they needed. She was also unsatisfied with how the skin care was being produced and tested. Convinced there was a better way, Akua first created Cioccolatina, a toiletry brand, in the late autumn of 2002 to address the need for natural skin care products on the market and start to address the lack of ethical practice in creating these kinds of products. Using her knowledge, she began to craft moisturisers that contained one of the most used in Ghana, the famous shea butter.
Shea butter is a natural ingredient and an excellent moisturising agent as well, so when Akua Wood founded the Shea Butter Cottage company in 2004, it was a natural decision to use this as the main ingredient. Time proved her decision to be a wise one, as the company would go on to win many awards for its products.
Apart from Shea Butter Cottage’s products’ excellent properties, perhaps the most interesting facets of the company are the ethics at the core of the company’s operational model. Akua was determined, and still is, that the Shea Butter Cottage company should remain steadfast in its ethical beliefs. All the materials are sourced and produced environmentally and ethically, and not only that, the company ensures that the producers of the ingredients are paid fairly for the raw materials they farm. The view is that everyone should share in the company’s success regardless of where they sit in it and the farmers who supply them are all part of community projects. That’s just a brief overview of the central ethics, but to understand the strength of the basis under which the company operates, a deeper dive yields some very interesting results.
Firstly, the company is sworn to only use ethically sourced products and ingredients to put in the moisturiser. Shea is the main component, and it is vitally important that this only comes from sources that do not damage the environment in which they are produced. Good ingredients should never cost the earth, and sustainability is paramount.
Secondly, these good products must also be natural. Akua was concerned about how many additives and chemicals were in regular moisturisers and was determined that this would not be the case with the products of the Shea Butter Cottage company. In addition, there would be no testing on animals at any stage of the development process.
Thirdly, Akua was determined to ensure that child labour would not be involved anywhere in the production process. Although other companies were allowing it in certain areas such as storage and packaging, Akua was set on prohibiting this practice in her company. This diligence shown by the Shea Butter Cottage company is remarkable and has become a benchmark for others.
Fourthly, Shea Butter Cottage would also have the highest standards of labelling, and this is a significant factor in its presentation. They are determined to show the whole of the ingredients to the customer so that they can make a completely informed choice.
Lastly, and above all else, the main ethical consideration driving Shea Butter Cottage is that everyone should earn a fair wage from the product and its production. This means empowerment for the men and women in Europe and Africa, where the products’ main components are grown. This kind of commitment to ethical trading supports the growth of local communities in Africa. For Akua Wood, philanthropy rather than profit is the key pillar of what Shea Butter Cottage company does. As they make abundantly clear on their website, the company exists to make poverty history.
To show how serious they are about making this their reason for existing, the Shea Butter Cottage Foundation was created to help and assist those in Ghana who need it the most. The foundation is an NGO and it’s Akua’s way of giving something back to the country that taught and gave her so much. Its primary goal is to assist autistic children in Ghana and to bring together artisan farmers under a collective so that they can work as one to produce the shea seed and the butter produced from it. The foundation represents a beacon of hope for everyone involved in the products that make up the Shea Butter Cottage range.
The approach that Akua Wood and the Shea Butter Cottage company take should be applauded. It is the ideal that we as crafters should all look to try and emulate. The idea of a business taking such a socially responsible note is one of great promise for the future, and it can only be hoped that others, including those in large industries and commercial concerns, start to follow suit. We have learnt a lot from our association with Shea Butter Cottage and are proud to have Ian Wallace Craft Insurance associated with such a fabulous company whose range of products achieves so much good.