07/13/2021
Want great bath, body and cosmetic products while supporting an amazing company? Check out The Body Shop. As an Activist Ambassador, I'm trying to educate people about the many incredible efforts taken by TBSAH to better our worlds.
Social activism
The Body Shop has long-held aims of social activism as part of its business practices, first evidenced in 1986 when proposing an alliance with Greenpeace to save the whales.
Over time, Roddick, the founder, herself took on gradually more critical views of both wider business and the cosmetics industry in particular, criticising the environmental insensitivity of the industry.Roddick stated that "For me, campaigning and good business is also about putting forward solutions, not just opposing destructive practices or human rights abuses".
In 1997, Roddick launched a global campaign to raise self-esteem in women and against the media stereotyping of women. It focused on unreasonably thin models in the context of rising numbers in bulimia and anorexia.
Community Trade (formerly Trade not Aid)
Launched in 1987, The Body Shop’s Community Trade programme based on the practice of trading with communities in need and giving them a fair price for natural ingredients or handcrafts, including brazil nut oil, sesame seed oil, honey, and shea butter. The first Community Trade product was a wooden footsie roller which was supplied by a small community in Southern India, Teddy Exports, which is still a key Community Trade supplier.
The Body Shop now works with 31 suppliers in over 23 different countries, benefiting 25,000 people directly each year.
As part of the Community Trade programme, The Body Shop undertakes periodic social audits of its sourcing activities through Ecocert.
Policy on animal testing
The Body Shop has campaigned to end animal testing in cosmetics alongside animal cruelty NGO Cruelty-Free International since 1989. The company's products are non-animal tested and are certified cruelty-free by Cruelty Free International’s Leaping Bunny.
The Body Shop’s campaigning has led to many changes in the law. The company’s campaign, Ban Animal Testing, launched in 1996 and led to a UK wide ban 8 years later. In 2013, the campaign launched as Against Animal Testing and made history when the EU banned animal testing in cosmetics, and marketing of any animal tested products.
In June 2017, The Body Shop and Cruelty-Free International launched Forever Against Animal Testing, its largest ever campaign, aimed at banning animal testing in cosmetics everywhere and forever. The campaign aims to receive 8 million signatures to present to the United Nations, to call for a global ban on animal testing in cosmetics. By the end of 2018, the petition had reached 8.3 million signatures and was taken to the United Nations.
In October 2009, The Body Shop was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the RSPCA in Britain, in recognition of its uncompromised policy which ensures ingredients are not tested by its suppliers.
For the company's national and international experience in sustainable development, and eco-friendly products, the Environment Possibility Award conferred the "Award of Earth Defender" to The Body Shop in 2020.
In 2021, The Body Shop announced that all their products would be certified vegan by The Vegan Society as of the end of 2023. Currently, around 60% of the retailer's products are vegan.
The Body Shop Foundation
The Roddicks founded The Body Shop Foundation in 1990, which supports innovative global projects working in the areas of human and civil rights and environmental and animal protection. It is The Body Shop International's charitable trust funded by annual donations from the company and through various fundraising initiatives. To date, The Body Shop Foundation has donated over £24 million sterling in grants. The Foundation regularly gives gift-in-kind support to various projects and organisations such as Children On The Edge (COTE). Approximately 65% of the grants that the company funds come to nominations from the staff, consultants or franchisers attached to the company from all over the world.
In 2017, The Body Shop announced its new approach to corporate philanthropy, the World Bio-Bridges Mission (Re-Wilding the World). The purpose of the World Bio-Bridges Mission is to enrich biodiversity around the world while creating truly sustainable supply chains where possible.
The Body Shop was created in 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick, based on her revolutionary belief that business could be a force for good. In 1994, Anita created a fun and flexible earning opportunity for women and The Body Shop At Home™ began.
