Ethos & Co: Empowering Cambodian Communities Through Coconut Oil

Meet Gerard and Hana, the co-founders of Ethos & Co, a company deeply rooted in purpose. We’re big fans of their work at fair&good and wanted to share their story to inspire others. We’ve done a deep-dive interview with them after their recent trip to Cambodia to learn more about their journey and the ‘why’ behind their business. 

You started Ethos & Co to help communities in Cambodia, discovering a unique coconut oil along the way. Can you share the initial spark for this mission and how that discovery shaped your path?

Prior to starting Ethos & Co we’d set up our own organic chicken microfarm to increase incomes in rural Cambodia, but found it had limited scalability and impact. While looking for new opportunities to support Khmer social enterprise we connected with a local entrepreneur who’d spent years perfecting coconut oil production using traditional fermentation techniques, to sustainably develop his community. We teamed up to grow his impact and connect customers here with the people who make the oil back in Cambodia. We’ve developed a range of products that support skin microbiome health, using this unique oil which contains regenerative bio-ferment actives from the coconut oil’s fermentation process. The other part of our role where we add value is scientifically validating the oil’s therapeutic benefits which is a work in progress we started back in 2020. The team on the ground in Cambodia is like family to us and it’s a huge privilege to be making a difference together.

Your recent trip to Cambodia highlighted the direct impact of your work, from supporting children's lunches to environmental projects. What was the most impactful story or moment from that trip that really brought your mission to life?

One of the most impactful moments of the trip was the kōrero we had with Sovann, a17-year-old boy in humble surrounds amongst the rice paddies where he lived with extended family. Impoverished because he’d lost both his parents as a young child, he was putting himself through school and using the income from selling coconuts to us, to help pay for his education costs. Because he’d managed to stay in school and had got good grades, his dream of going to university to become a teacher was within reach. Aside from that, a pinch me moment was snorkelling in the crystal-clear warm waters of Koh Rong Island taking part in GPS mapping of seagrass habitat. Seagrass is the only flowering plant in the oceans, a vital ally in climate regulation and important habitat for endangered species. It was amazing seeing & experiencing this environmental initiative that we support first hand in this astonishingly beautiful tropical island, located in Cambodia’s first national marine park.

How does Ethos & Co ensure fair practices and positive outcomes for the Cambodian communities involved in its production?

As a purpose-driven business, we’re committed to enriching communities & regenerating nature in the locations we operate in, so every decision we make is values-oriented in terms of how we can create positive impact. As founders, our relationships and connections in Cambodia go back fifteen years and our Ethos & Co key partnership is with a Khmer social entrepreneur whose small-scale coconut oil business is embedded in the community, creating fair-wage employment and giving back though educational and sporting programmes for young people. As a team we pay twice the price villagers would normally get for their coconuts (sourced from small-holder families not plantations).

We’re hands on partners and have had a regular presence on the ground in Cambodia since we set up our skincare business in 2019, ensuring ethical employment practices at the coconut oil plant and community benefit outcomes remain core values.

We can see when we visit what it means to villagers to have employment making the oil, or income coming in from selling the coconuts.

On our last visit we met 60 year old Sokhanya – she both sells coconuts to us and works at the coconut oil plant. She is totally reliant on this income to buy food and pay for healthcare etc, as her husband is chronically ill and cannot work at all. Knowing that Sokhanya would have few other opportunities to earn income elsewhere to cover basic living costs helps us stay motivated. Every jar of our coconut oil contains coconuts that Sokhanya and her co-workers have grown and hand-squeezed, providing them with a sustainable living and people here with a healthier skin microbiome.

For our readers, what's the most important thing you want them to know about Ethos & Co and the impact their support has?

That impact is at the heart of our story, it’s why we started and it’s the thing that’s kept us going through personal adversity and the challenges we’ve faced as a business through the pandemic and recession. Back in 2009, we volunteered in remote rural areas at a time when Cambodia was still recovering from three decades of civil war. The hardship we saw first-hand hit us hard - malnourishment, lack of basic sanitation/clean water, suffering from preventable disease and emotional trauma. We also saw how foreign aid initiatives were ineffective or even further harmed people, which led us on a journey to try and enable locally-led sustainable development.

Supporting small ethical businesses like ours has
a direct and tangible impact on the lives of impoverished small-holders we buy from.

For example, we buy from families who have between 10-15 coconut trees each, and we’ve expanded our reach in the last year to more remote locations away from roads. These families have very limited means to earn income elsewhere, and selling coconuts to our team contributes around 40% of their income, providing important funds that support education, food security and family wellbeing.

Looking ahead, what's one key goal or aspiration you have for Ethos & Co in terms of growing your positive impact in both Cambodia and New Zealand?

In terms of here at home, we want to partner with community health organisations supporting disadvantaged people with skin infections to scientifically trial our probiotic coconut oil, which inhibits two types of harmful bacteria that cause skin infections. These infections disproportionately impact Māori and Pasifika people with higher hospitalisation rates and significant harm, and we’re looking at ways of intervening at an early stage by improving the skin’s microbiome health.

In Cambodia, our goal is to double the number of coconuts we buy from families to over 6,200 coconuts per year, so incomes and living standards can continue to improve in the communities we work in. Cambodia has developed significantly since 2009, but half of Cambodians still live on less than US $4.15 per day, one third don't have access to clean water and 22% of children aged under five are chronically under-nourished, so the need is great still.