Sebastian Sieben, CEO of Martin Bauer Group Europe
What is the strategic importance to the Martin Bauer Group of your sustainability work, and more specifically, of your sourcing of botanicals with respect for people and nature?
Accepting responsibility is nothing new to our fourth generation family business. Sustainability is an intrinsic component of our corporate responsibility and we perceive it as the foundation for our long-term, value-adding growth. Nature is providing our partners and ourselves with the most amazing products – and it is our responsibility to make this viable for many more generations all over the world. The relationship between Martin Bauer Group and its partners along the supply chain is built on long-term collaboration, based on mutual respect and trust. As part of our responsibility, we comply with international standards and company-own requirements in relation to human rights and the protection of nature. Above that, we leverage our influence to improve social and ecological conditions in the countries we source from with specific projects. We see the promotion of social and ecological sustainability as mandatory for leading a successful business in global agricultural supply chains. It is our way of doing business.
What do you see as the biggest challenges today for global companies in managing ethical supply chains?
The biggest challenge is the implementation of local programmes and projects considering the extreme complexity. Every supply chain faces different challenges that are all interconnected: climate change, migration, deforestation, soil degradation, poverty, access to drinking water, electricity or health care systems. We as Martin Bauer need to understand the local conditions in the regions we source from and weigh risks and opportunities in complex and fast changing environments. Our goal is to supply high-quality botanical raw materials and solutions at costs our customers are able to pay, and at the same time we have to make sure that communities thrive and that we treat nature’s resources carefully. This is a huge responsibility towards farmers, wild collectors, our customers and the environment.
And how do you tackle these challenges?
We are always taking a practical approach, firstly assessing product related aspects such as product quality, food safety, etc. and then, look deeply into social and environmental implications. Our own sourcing standard mabagrown®, verified by UEBT, combines product quality with social and ecological sustainability aspects and serves us as a clear orientation towards a goal. In addition to mabagrown®, we assess the situation jointly with the local communities and look for ways to improve their living conditions. In order to do all that, we have a team of auditors, supply chain managers and sustainability experts. Wherever we can, we partner with customers and governments. We set strategic priority on those, since we know that we are not able to overcome many of the challenges on our own. Just recently, we started a long term cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to support our efforts in African countries.
Passionate, committed leaders are crucial for companies to successfully adopt more ethical sourcing practices. How are you personally ensuring that commitment?
Ethical sourcing and sustainability are cornerstones of our strategy and the management board stands firmly behind our targets goals and measures. We try to take along every single colleague and thus there is a lot of internal communication and involvement. It is part of our value system. I visit countries of origin myself on a regular basis to make sure to understand the challenges and possible solutions on the ground. I consider it as very important to discuss those challenges intensively with our customers in order to raise awareness for the situation in sourcing regions and to create partnerships that support the environment and communities. We are all one value chain with a great impact, sourcing from more than 80 countries and affecting more than 300,000 people around the globe.
What in nature inspires you?
I could not imagine being without nature as a personal retreat – its smells, tastes, sounds and colours. I absolutely love working with the amazing products we are provided with - which are growing in so many fascinatingly different regions of the world. We are a part of nature and every single day we get a lot of choices to do a little better than yesterday.
*Sebastian Sieben is CEO of Martin Bauer Group Europe, a globally active German company supplying teas, extracts and botanicals to tea, beverage, food and phytopharmaceutical industries. Martin Bauer Group was the first company to join the UEBT/Rainforest Alliance (formely UTZ) Herbal Tea Program and is a UEBT member since 2014.
Sebastian held various positions within Martin Bauer Group, such as Managing Director responsible for the Fruit and Herbal Infusion Business as well as Head of Product Management or Head of Sales. Prior to joining Martin Bauer Group in 2002 he worked as a Senior Consultant at Roland Berger strategy consultants.
He holds degrees in European Business Administration, studying in London and Germany.
Sebastian Sieben*
About Martin Bauer Group Martin Bauer Group is a global company with more than 2,500 employees passionate about botanicals. The group provides bespoke botanical solutions for the global tea, beverage, food and animal nutrition industries. Headquartered in Germany, Martin Bauer Group procures more than 200 botanicals from more than 80 countries and five continents.