In 1976, Dame Anita Roddick founded a little store inBrighton specialised in feminine beauty cosmetics. At first, the range ofchoice was poor, but it soon grew into a massive retailer thanks to itsrevolutionary attitude, mingling ethics and sustainability. One reason for thisrapid growth could be that it is one of the first beauty brands to praisecruelty-free products, meaning that they are not tested on animals.
Indeed,this novelty offered the consumers change as well as awareness. To promote her business, Roddick decided to go furtherby releasing social and environmental campaigns. In their ethical charter1,there are two main parts, which are first, their values, and then, their newcommitments. The first part, which enumerates The Body Shop’s six causes,basically conveys to their public to what extent they can be consideredethical.
Therefore, The Body Shop: 1. Supports community fair trade2. Activates self-esteem3. Defends human rights4. Is Against animal testing5.
Protects the planet6. Created The Body Shop Foundation (charity)The second part of the charter is all about theirrecent motto ‘Enrich Not Exploit’, which expresses their commitment toenriching their products as well as their employees and the planet. This partof the charter probably aims at making the public understand that The Body Shopdoes not rest on their laurels, has objectives for the near future, and knowshow to reach them. From this charter, I have extracted The Body Shop’sethics codes: 1. The BodyShop is committed to acting in an ethical way to protect human rights2. The BodyShop ensures that all their outlets actively follow human rights 3. The BodyShop benchmarks their employee policies to make sure they provide good workingconditions which obey the International Human Rights Standards4. The BodyShop constantly checks that all franchises abide by this code and create a goodbusiness image5.
Allsuppliers must comply with the “Ethical Trading” initiatives Base Code6. They monitorimpacts by reporting on their performance to ensure improvement7. Ethicaltrade improves conditions of workers in the supply chain8. The BodyShop ensures that they are proactive in Human rights by raising money to stopsex trafficking, animal testing, raise HIV awareness and reduce their energy footprintThus, The Body Shop, through their ethics codes, notonly show how ethical they are but also how ambitious they wish to be.
1 The Body Shop, “Building forfuture”, Our values performance 2014/2015 & our new commitment
