Cosmetics giant to be reinvented as sustainability champion

At 40-years-old, The Body Shop has had a rethink on the way it conducts its business.The Body Shop has had somewhat of a mid-life epiphany and is reinventing its business model with sustainability at its core.

 

The new sustainability strategy will revolve around three core pillars – people, products and the environment. According to Chris Davis, who is playing a key role in the reinvention of the brand, the new approach does not indicate a shift in direction. Rather, it is a return back to the philosophy of the company’s founder.

 

Five key commitment form the foundation of the approach - against animal testing, support community fair trade, activate self-esteem, defend human rights and protect the planet. The approach taken by The Body Shop is unique, with a number of consultants drafted in to develop a pioneering plan. This option was preferred to simply copying what other companies were already doing. One key philosophy adopted in this strategy was the planetary boundaries concept, developed at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. This is based on a key set of limits to ensure businesses are acting within an environmentally “safe zone”.

 

The Body Shop are not only interested in adopting these guideline within the structure of their own company, but have also established a set of principles for other to follow their lead. This results in a number of key targets, with 2020 set as the deadline for the achievement of the majority of these. Thorough analysis and regular reports will help to ensure that the strategy is working and the company is on track to realising its established goals. Despite the lofty ambitions, it is accepted by those behind the approach that it may well take many years to achieve all of its goals.