Traceback your Product
and explore your
impact on people
& the environment
Creating a
FAIR ECONOMY
$ 12,326
are invested in supporting the small farmers of EoL in carbon sequestration and avoidance practices.
Creating a
FAIR SOCIETY
100%
of full-time employees in Sekem who worked to produce this product receive health insurance and safe working conditions.
Life Long Learning &
WELLBEING
24%
of the workforce in all SEKEM is women as a part of supporting gender equality and the target is supporting more potential women
Protecting the
ENVIRONMENT
60,000
new trees were planted to the west of the Wahat farm, a “forest strip” was created to serve as protection against pesticide drift and wind.
Farming
Silver lime tree(tilo), fennel, guava leaves, and anise are the mix of herbs in Sekem’s Relief tea. The herbs comes to you from several locations in Egypt: Wahat, Fayoum, Minia, Qena, and Aswan, check out the map to see where each individual herb is grown. They are cultivated using the highest form of organic agriculture called biodynamic. The farms are Demeter and Economy of Love certified, ensuring the sustainable practices and the protection of the environment, human and animal welfare.
The silver lime tree plant (tilo) is sourced from France and is the only component that is not Demeter certified, however it makes up only 5% of the Sekem flu tea.
Economy of Love builds the capacity and expertise of the small farmer in biodynamic agriculture by linking them to associations that provide the guidance of agricultural engineers specialized in biodynamic agricultural methods.
With the EoL Carbon Credits adding an additional income to the farmer, EoL is aiming to make biodynamic agriculture the mainstream method in Egypt, by reducing the price of biodynamic products.
Meet The Farmers
get to the source of production
Waleed
Farmer in Wahat Oasis, Egypt
Waleed is an agriculture engineer in Wahat SEKEM. His children study at SEKEM school, also his wife teaches Arabic there. They are living a wonderful new experience surrounded by calming beautiful places. He’s a hard worker farmer trying to cover all the herbs needed in the market.
Salama
Farmer in Behera, Egypt
Salama the owner of Marouf farm has been growing biodynamic crop since 1995. Since he stopped using chemicals and started using compost and biodynamic preparations he noticed a positive change where the land produces better quality crops.
Essam
Farmer in Fayoum, Egypt
Essam El-Deen is the owner of the Demeter-certified farm called Somosta Farm. Together with his family Essam has a small piece of land where they implement crop rotation and grow numerous different crops, using biodynamic methods of agriculture.
Saber
Farmer in Aswan, Egypt
Saber Mahrous has a Demeter-certified farmland called Basateen Aswan in Wadi El-Nokra, close to the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt.
Processing
The herbs first arrive at Lotus factory where tests are conducted to ensure the organic and Demeter quality first. Then the herbs are cleaned, sifted and cut to the required size, ready to be sent to iSiS factory to be packed.
Lotus strives to create fair long-term relationships with the supplying farmers, thus round-table meetings are conducted annually where many farmers gather with the companies to discuss prices, challenges, and draft solutions.
Leftovers from the herbs will appear after the sifting process are used as compost. Lotus applies the circular economy model by repurposing 90% of its waste into compost.
Lotus has improved the efficiency of the machinery equipment at their factories and managed to reduce their energy consumption by 8.6%.
Packaging
25kg bags of different herbs arrive at the iSiS factory located a few meters away from the lotus factory. The herbs are mixed together in the mixer, once they’re ready the flu tea is uploaded in the packaging machine to be packed in the tea bags and envelops. Demeter quality is ensured throughout the mixing and packing process.
Since its foundation, the iSiS factory has implemented the Core Program which enables all factory employees to engage in courses of art, acting, music, geography, and many more to promote happiness at work.
Factory workers work in safe conditions and receive health consultancies (in topics such as nutrition, mental health, and physiotherapy) to promote well-being in the workplace.
iSiS was able to reduce 77% of its no-organic waste as well as reducing 25% of its organic waste. iSiS tries to reduce as much waste as possible, the rest of the recyclable non-organic waste is sold to external recycling entities.
Packaging Material
The packaging material plays a significant role in the product quality and impact on the environment, for that SEKEM always seeks to be responsible in choosing the best material for better lifetime for the product and the environment.
The tea bags of the flu tea have no whiteners or bleach added to them, making them a healthier option for tea bags where there is no chemicals to react with hot water.
Sekem took the direction of glue and thread in their filter bags instead of metal pins which reduces the usage of metal resources and it’s emissions.
Some packages require plastic wrap to meet customer’s requirements. However, the company is committed to finding more eco-friendly alternatives.
Distribution
The flu tea packages are now ready to be delivered to you whether to your home, at your local shop or abroad.
Distribution process is under the supervision of iSiS to ensure the selection of the shipping cars to be cleaned and qualified for the process.
The emissions produced during the distribution process are calculated and offset by Sekem holding.
During overseas shipments the first choice is always sea freight to reduce emissions, however air fright is needed sometimes for smaller orders.
Meet The Employees
have a look, who processed, packaged and distributed your product
Marwa
Quality Manager in iSiS
Marwa has been working in the tea department of iSiS factory for more than 8 years. Together with her husband and two children, she lives on the SEKEM farm.
Ahmed
Factory Engineer at SEKEM
Ahmed has been working in SEKEM for four years, and lives right next to the SEKEM farm with his family.
Ahmed
Factory Engineer in Lotus
Hassan is in charge of the cleaning and packing machine in the processing facility of Lotus. He has been working in Lotus for 17 years and enjoys that work is combined with cultural programs.
Abd El Magid
Distributor in SEKEM
Abd El Magid has been an employee in SEKEM for over 15 years. He is responsible for distributing the finished products to stores all over Cairo.
What is the True Price?
Are there hidden costs that the price doesn't reflect?
True Price Comparision
Sustainably & ethically produced products add value to society. However, when comparing prices, we don’t take into account the long-term impact of the product. For example, since the sustainable agricultural practices of cultivating the herbs in this flu tea is sequestering Co2e it is actually saving up future damage cost that you’ll eventually pay for. This means that it is cheaper than products that emit Co2e, but so often the price tag doesn’t reflect that.
We encourage you to compare products based on their true price; the price that reflects the hidden costs that you and future generations eventually pay for.
Indirect Costs include:
WATER
REPROCESSING COST
Society is paying taxes to clean water sources from agriculture’s chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, as well as the irresponsible disposal of wastewater from factories, in order to make it usable/drinkable water.
HEALTH COSTS
The use of pesticides in agriculture eventually affects the human body and therefore increases medical treatment costs.
ENVIRONMENTAL
DAMAGE
Society has to bear the long-term cost caused by disruptive agriculture e.g. soil erosion, desertification, and loss of biodiversity.
Locations
Check out the locations of all the farms, companies who were involved in making this product!
discover the origin of your product
We hope this information helped you Choose Your Impact!
And make mindful purchasing decisions that leave a positive impact on people and the environment
Interested to know more about the companies above? Click here to download the SEKEM Sustainability Report
