Located
in Gabane, Botswana and incorporated in 2014, DLG-BW is a producer of fairly
traded, high quality, cold-pressed marula oil for the international cosmetic
industry. Its sister company in the United States, DLG Naturals, Inc.,
sources natural, indigenous, and sustainable oils from the best producers in
Southern African and supplies cosmetic manufacturers throughout the world.
DLG BW
was co-founded, launched, and operated by company directors Alexander Lahti
and Brianna McClurg during 2016. The company is presently managed by company
directors Georgia Duerst-Lahti and Tris Lahti. DLG BW maintains a
country-wide wild-harvesting network. It then produces natural cosmetic oils
from botanicals sourced through that system. These oils are distributed
internationally.
The results are threefold:
•
Capturing the profit from the
untapped potential of Southern Africa’s indigenous botanicals in an
exploding market.
• Developing a vast rural harvesting network that provides income for rural women and offers countless corollary entrepreneurial opportunities.
• Building the foundation of a natural products industry based upon the wild harvesting, plantations and agroforestry, and processing of indigenous fruit.
Sustainability
Good business practices are the foundation of this company and
sustainability is the frame:
• Economic Stability: This beautiful country has countless
marketable natural resources, yet minimal access to them on an
industrial scale. Our vision is to create that accessibility and
stimulate an entirely new industry.
• Business Sustainability: Botswana has a disheartening history
for wild-harvesting. Far too frequently, entrepreneurs have offered the
rural poor wild-harvesting opportunities only to never return. We have
pledged to avoid such a fate, by contracting with harvesters, forging
expense-reducing systems, maintaining internal controls, and employing
exceptional training.
• Environmental Sustainability: Our production focus is on oil from marula, a plant we in part chose for its prolific nature. The marula fruit offers an incredible oil as well as pulp for food, beverages, and pectin; renewable shells for landscaping, fuel, activated charcoal, and to replace wood; seed cake as animal food or vegan protein; and other potentially marketable products.
Other products and services will focus on Botswana’s food security priorities, including the effect of climate change on the country’s agriculture and addressing the challenges of logistics, crop harvesting and cold storage, and food processing. Solutions will emphasize alternative energy sources, primarily solar.
• Social responsibility: Botswana is a party of the Nagoya
Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing
of Benefits Arising from their Utilization. By helping to ensure
benefit-sharing, the Nagoya Protocol creates incentives to conserve and
sustainably use genetic resources, and therefore enhances the contribution
of biodiversity to development and human well-being..
From this perspective, most marula harvesters are women. DLG’s harvest network gives
them more economic freedom in the household as they earn income.
DLG supports programs and efforts to promote opportunities for women,
youth, and entrepreneurs.
Do well... to do good: Why Profits Are Important
Our business goals: Growth--across Botswana, through more botanical lines,
and inside the fast-growing natural products sector. As a first-mover, DLG’s
nonprofit-mission, for-profit model is challenging, but economic growth with
conscious profitability is the best way to fight poverty.
Our Story... begins with a moment of clarity:
When working on women's empowerment for the US State Department in Albania,
lightning struck. Dr. Georgia Duerst-Lahti, now our CEO, saw how little
local widows earned from stoop labor wild-harvesting, and a vision for a
better world began.
The vision evolved into our
mission-driven, market-driven company, Duerst Lahti Global, LLC., with the
motto of "Do More Good."
Established in 2008, Duerst Lahti
Global, LLC. quickly evolved into a holding company with five companies,
including DLG Naturals BW (Pty) Ltd. as subsidiaries.
Duerst Lahti
Global, LLC. and its companies uphold the highest of industry standards
as we create jobs for the rural poor. With a focus in Southern African
botanical ingredients, we offer new and innovative cosmetic oils to the
US and global market, and with continued growth, provide income to
thousands of harvesters.
To ensure quality products, Duerst
Lahti Global, LLC invests in the supply chain: Our own African production
facilities, a well-developed cadre of specialists and experts, and an
extensive network of wild-harvesters. Years of development allows us to
deliver world-class botanical oils and butters to cosmetic manufacturers.
Our Philosophy... drives us:
Individuals can achieve improved health and well-being through the use
of natural and organic products. Better lives happen by using nontoxic
products. For workers and harvesters, income opens doors, providing
security and the means to take the next steps in life.
We best accomplish our goals through
small farming communities and cooperatives in developing countries and by
attending to our workers.
We use fair trade practices, sustainable
agriculture that optimizes existing resources, and production based upon
strong, “Africa-proof” manufacturing.
Our Mission....
"Prosper, to create a vibrant, rural middle class and healthy lives for all."
Co-founders Brianna McClurg and Alexander Lahti celebrating the Botswana 50th anniversary of Botswana independence.
Consistent. Reliable. Sustainable.
