It is no coincidence Weleda New Zealand is in Havelock North, a main centre for Steiner-based Anthroposophy. Weleda was clean and sustainably-green well before it was fashionable.
General secretary of the Anthroposophical Society of New Zealand Sue Simpson said Weleda came to New Zealand at a time when chemicals became a farming mainstay "and now we know it destroyed so much of the earth".
Weleda pioneers had "a capacity to break boundaries, a capacity to step out of the familiar, a capacity to be different".
Weleda NZ hosted an open day on Sunday at its Havelock North site, the only Weleda site in the Asia-Pacific region that both grows and manufactures products.
"What matters to us here is having soil that is natural and organic that is able to nourish and make healthy plants, that will give us plants that we can use in our products not only this year but next year and for many years to come," Weleda New Zealand managing director Fred Dryburgh said.
"What mattered to those people 90 years ago still matters to us today. The ideas of the pioneers are the ideas of staff in their daily lives. If we stay true, it will take us forward for many years to come."