Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils Case Study
Sector: Manufacturer of essential oils Member since: 2018 Country: Australia
Responsible and ethical sourcing is important to our business. Sedex enables us to network and develop new relationships and better links us with our buyers and suppliers. As a supplier in a very remote location, managing relationships is very important to us, and we really value the connectivity the Sedex platform provides for our supply chain.
About Dutjahn
Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils manufactures Australian sandalwood oil for export to various global markets, including international perfume brands. The company is based in Kalgoorlie in the Australian outback and is unique as it brings together a 50:50 partnership between the local Indigenous Australian community – Central Deserts native land title holders Dutjahn Custodians and Kutkabbuba Aboriginal Corporation with WA Sandalwood Plantations, a sandalwood tree farmer. Together, the partners have made sustainable development the core of their business model, sustainably sourcing the oil from an ancient Indigenous desert sandalwood and younger plantation timber.
Dutjahn strives to promote cultural identity in Australia and support local livelihoods through the sustainable harvest of sandalwood oil for the global luxury perfume market to offer a unique ethical point of difference.
Katina Law, Chair & Director at Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils explains how Dutjahn work with Sedex
When we were first introduced to Sedex we were an emerging company still in its early stages with only a few key customers. As the company and our buyers grew, we experienced increased demand from customers to demonstrate our sustainability and had to repeatedly complete many different questionnaires, providing the same information about our labour, health and safety and business practices. Using Sedex has enabled us to cover all of these elements comprehensively in one Sedex Self-Assessment Questionnaire and reduce duplication.
Sedex provides the perfect platform to create transparency in our supply chain, enabling us to link local Indigenous communities and the recognition of their rights of Indigenous natural resources, with our buyers and suppliers in the modern commercial world. We are able to build global awareness about our unique selling point of using sustainably sourced natural ingredients.
We highly recommend Sedex, as it enables members to collaborate and partner with their customers, facilitating long-term relationships where the stakeholders can work together to identify and overcome challenges within the supply chain.
Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils was the winner of “Best Collaborative Effort” at the 2019 Sedex Responsible Business Awards, and a key note speaker at the Sedex Conference 2019, about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, by empowering Indigenous communities through business and making sustainability part of business ethos.
