Enrich Not Exploit: Why It’s Important To Support The Body Shop’s New Commitment

The Body Shop has turned forty years old and with its new birthday, the brand also unveiled a pioneering new global CSR strategy. The new Commitment by The Body Shop will help the brand place and secure itself the position as a leader in ethical business. The Commitment that’s supporting the brand’s aim to be the world’s most ethical and sustainable global business.

This extensive program of global activity and measurable targets, which touches all areas of the business is expected to be delivered by 2020. It’s within The Body Shop’s DNA to believe that business can be a force of good and change. Their new Commitment, which is entitled Enrich Not Exploit ™ practices the principles that The Body Shop’s foundation was built on.

Enrich Not Exploit ™ will be a way of protecting and nurturing the environment as well as society across all part of its business, which includes: ingredients, packaging, products, employees, stores, campaigns and suppliers.

Under each of The Commitment’s three pillars: enrich our people, enrich our products and enrich our planet, The Body Shop has specific, measurable targets by 2020 that make the business accountable for delivery.

In total there are 14 targets within the new Commitment and these are:

Enrich our People

1. Double their Community Trade programme from 19 to 40 ingredients and help enrich communities that produce them
2. Help 40,000 economically vulnerable people access work around the world
3. Engage 8 million people in their Enrich Not Exploit™ Commitment mission, creating their biggest campaign ever
4. Invest 250,000 hours of their skills and know-how to enrich the biodiversity of their local communities

Enrich our Products

1. Ensure 100% of their natural ingredients are traceable and sustainably sourced, protecting 10,000 hectares of forest and other habitat
2. Reduce year on year the environmental footprint of all their product categories
3. Publish their use of ingredients of natural origin, ingredients from green chemistry, and the biodegradability and water footprint of our products
4. Develop an innovation pipeline that delivers pioneering cosmetic ingredients from biodiversity hotspots and which helps to enrich these areas

Enrich our Planet

1. Build Bio-Bridges, protecting and regenerating 75 million square metres of habitat helping communities to live more sustainably
2. Reduce the environmental footprint of their stores every time they refurbish or redesign them
3. Develop and deliver three new sustainable packaging innovations
4. Ensure that 70% of their total product packaging does not contain fossil fuels
5. Power 100% of their stores with renewable or carbon balanced energy
6. Reduce by 10% the energy use of all their stores every year

With The Body Shop being a company that takes action to care for the Earth as much as they can and in any way that they can, it’s important for us to also jump on this train. Because we only have one Earth, and the saving needs to start now.