Ethical Sourcing

When you partner with Chakra Wholesale, you are choosing more than just beautiful and energetically resonant stones. You are choosing a commitment to ethical practices that uplift communities, protect the environment, and promote responsible business conduct.

Some people will tell you there's no such thing as ethically sourced crystals, and there's no question there's a LOT of bad stuff goes on out there in the industry. There's no real definition of what ethical sourcing is - yet the term gets thrown around a lot, often with little to no explanation. We believe it's our role to do whatever we can to do better, and we'll always put good business practice ahead of profits. It's an endless endeavour and we are constantly learning, and evolving the way we do business. We believe in the importance of fostering a positive impact on both the environment and the communities from which these precious stones originate.

When it comes to sourcing any of our products, we prioritize partnerships with suppliers who share our values. Almost all of them we've met in person, and mostly we've travelled to the source to ensure everything meets our standards. When we can't, you can be sure we ask the questions and make sure they're forthcoming with answers and evidence.

People are at the core of everything we do. We work exclusively with suppliers who provide safe working conditions with access to PPE, fair wages, and opportunities for local communities to thrive. We can't, in good conscience, source anything without ensuring the wellness of everyone involved in the process. We pay a fair market rate and where possible we send an additional koha to be distributed to the artisans who work for us.

Knowing the provenance of your stone has cultural significance here in Aotearoa, and we believe that should apply to any stone or crystal we are buying, from anywhere. Wherever possible, we learn the specific origins of the stone we are buying and get a sense of the place and the people, ensuring the collection of the stones and the processing is conducted with kindness. Our preference is to have the stone worked at source - keeping the profits local to the stone, rather than shipping those profits off shore which exacerbates local poverty.

We can't reiterate the importance of knowing the provenance of your stones. If someone is busy trying to balance thier chakras with crystals hauled out of mines by kids living in extreme poverty - honestly, they have bigger issues than unbalaned chakras to deal with. You can't believe everything you see or hear, we get that. But it's happening. There are rich dudes exploiting people around the world, shipping hundreds of containers of rock to India and China, then exploiting more people there to produce painfully cheap products that flood social media around the world. Of course, alongside that, there are good people doing good things, and these are the people we support on your behalf.

There are some troubled places the world over. We've met some amazing people that come from places of turmoil - they often can't choose to leave, and most can't choose their government. But they need our support to go on - they've asked us to look past the corruption and any geopolitical troubles and to keep supporting the communities caught up in all the turmoil, by continuing to buy their beautiful artisan products.

When it comes to extracting the stone, we fully appreciate that no mining is perfect, so for us to get these items out it's a best practice scenario - we work with suppliers who employ safe and low impact mining techniques, prioritise reforestation or rehabilitation of land, and actively contribute to the preservation of ecosystems.

We insist that staff are kept safe, happy, and paid fairly, while the land is looked after in the long term, and all material extracted is used such that there is minimal waste - we can't just extract the very best and leave the rest. One of the most important take home messages of any ethical sourcing conversation should be that not everything will look like the pictures in the crystal books. Lighter coloured or damaged crystals may not always be the prettiest, but energetically they're on point; they have a lot to offer. We all have our bumps and bruises but this needn't reduce our potential to love and help others, and we see crystals and stones in the same way.

It's also worth noting that we choose ocean freight over airfreight to minimise the impact of bringing our treasures to you. Similarly, with our domestic freight, we opt for a two day service by truck as a preference over airfreighted overnight services. We reuse the packaging that comes to us, we carpool or bike to work, and a hundred other small things...

Here's where it's at; we buy from people we trust, and we want you to feel the same way about us. We're always here to answer any questions you have about specific products, or our process in general. We'll be as transparent as we can in providing you with requested information. We love what we do and we can't express our appreciation enough when our customers tautoko our mahi. Your support and ongoing business means everything to us.

Thank you, from all of us.