Our values and process
“I spent my early years on a farm in rural Nigeria and tended to animals while planting and growing our own crops organically. Influenced by my grandparents who were local herbal practitioners, I had always known the importance of nature in our existence. At 15, I became the president of the Conservation Club in secondary school where I would work towards the preservation of trees and nature in general. I am a nature lover, which is why at Ene Naturals, we are committed to incorporating environmental sustainability into our organization’s culture. I am Ene Adasen, founder of Ene Naturals limited.”
Ene Naturals is a small business based in Lagos, Nigeria and we create all natural skincare and hair care products for the African skin. As enshrined in our vision, we are committed to creating products that are completely chemical-free and toxin-free. Which is the reason why as a responsible company, we will never make bleaching products or incorporate any chemical that is harmful to the skin or body in any of our products. And because we love the environment so much, we are always looking for ways to improve our processes to facilitate waste reduction, especially industrial waste which is the reason why we created our product refill station.
By creating a product refill station, customers are able to walk into our store to refill their products or we ship the refill products to them directly to their homes. By doing this, we are encouraging our customers to reuse their product containers and to dislodge the idea of a single use container mentality. By choosing to reuse product containers and to refill their products with us, our customers are benefitting by saving 500 Naira because they are getting the products cheaper. We are able to accomplish this because by choosing to refill our products in paper packaging and pouches, we as a company, is saving such production costs as water, soap and sterilization, which is common with plastic packaging usage. By choosing to refill and use paper packaging, we are reducing water waste and manufacturing waste, which is a big deal for us. We are also saving on man hours employed in the actual production and packaging of products, which makes paper packaging and refills a better option.
Packaging
Very recently, we changed all our packaging to recyclable plastics and rebranded our products by using very simple labels that use less link and less paper, which can be recycled. We continue to sell products in refill pouches to encourage our customers to reuse their product tubs and jars.
And we are not just stopping there. When we decided to wrap our handmade soaps in cute paper wrappings with paper twine bows, we realized how much love we had put into creating our very cute soaps and saw another opportunity to reduce waste and save cost by recycling the paper trimmings into confetti papers for our gift baskets and gift boxes. We try as much as possible to reuse and recycle materials so we also recycle the printing paper on our labels into confetti papers for our gift boxes as well. Here is a video to show you how we reuse the paper trimmings and paper labels as confetti for our gift boxes and gift baskets.
We also pay our customers 200 Naira for returning our glass containers after use because by doing this, we are able to reuse our containers thereby reducing waste and reducing production cost. So both the company and the customers benefit from choosing to reuse and refill product containers.
We try as much as we can to reduce waste within the company and to recycle or reuse materials as much as possible. This is why when we receive raw materials from our suppliers in carton boxes, we do not discard those boxes but reuse them in packaging products to our clients. Our retail space is made principally of reused display shelves and decorative items rather than opt for a flashy, contemporary retail space. Our goal is to show to our customers that by adopting simple principles, we can all contribute to keeping the environment safe.
Shipping
To reduce waste, we reuse all shipping boxes and materials used by suppliers in delivering raw materials to us because we do not believe in waste. We even use new shoe boxes as shipping boxes so it is become normal for clients to receive products in brand new shoe boxes! We simply will not throw useful items away. By so doing, we are also reducing cost associated with shipping, allowing the customer to buy our products at competitive prices.
Renewal energy
Our office is now fully powered by solar panels, allowing us to reduce our carbon footprint while reducing our overhead.