Ethical beauty giant launches host of targets to "enrich, not exploit" the world's resources
Ethical beauty pioneer The Body Shop has today revealed a radical overhaul of its corporate social responsibility strategy ahead of the brand's 40th birthday next month.
The new CSR strategy - dubbed Enrich Not Exploit - sets the company the ambitious goal of becoming the world's "most ethical and sustainable global business" through a series of new environmental targets.
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The 14 targets, which are gathered under the three pillars of people, products and environment, commit the company to a range of goals by 2020 including powering all its stores with 100 per cent renewable energy, overhauling product packaging by slashing the use of fossil fuel-based wrapping and designing new sustainable innovations, and publishing the water footprint and biodegradability of every product in the company's range.
Director of international corporate social responsibility Chris Davis told BusinessGreen the new strategy was developed so The Body Shop could fulfil its potential as a "change-maker" in the retail and beauty industry.
"This commitment is kind of a statement that The Body Shop is back and that this is the kind of company that we want to be, and that we can be," he said.
The new commitments will replace the firm's five guiding values which have underpinned its ethical stance since its creation by Anita Roddick, who sold the company to L'Oreal in 2006. The firm has in the past been a pioneer of ethical retail practices, leading the way on issues such as Fairtrade practices and animal testing.
Davis said he wants to recapture some of that trailblazing spirit with the new strategy, which he said goes further than sustainability commitments made by parent company L'Oreal.
"Our goal is to be different and to be what The Body Shop always has been, which is the agitator, the experimenter," he said, adding that the commitment is designed to make the company the "innovative troublemaker" within the L'Oreal group.
Work has already started on the 2020 targets, the company said. Last week The Body Shop unveiled "Aircarbon" - a thermoplastic made from methane - as part of its target to eliminate 70 per cent of oil-based plastic packaging from its lineup.
Jeremy Schwartz, the company's chief executive, said the move would broaden The Body Shop's appeal to the next generation of customers.
"Forty years ago Anita Roddick set out a challenge for The Body Shop to tackle the big issues of her time - we're now tackling the big issues of today," he said in a statement. "We want our Enrich not Exploit Commitment to inspire a new generation of customers, supporters and especially millennials who truly care about how a company operates."
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