The beauty products seller, which turns 40 next month, has established a new sustainability framework entitled ‘Enrich Not Exploit, incorporating 14 specific, measurable CSR targets for 2020.

New targets include ensuring 100% of The Body Shop’s natural ingredients are traceable and sustainably sourced; reducing the energy consumption of The Body Shop stores by 10% every year; and guaranteeing that that 70% of The Body Shop’s product packaging does not contain fossil fuels.

“We have set ourselves a significant goal to be the world’s most ethical and truly sustainable global business,” said The Body Shop chief executive Jeremy Schwartz. “For us, being truly sustainable means shaping our business to work in line with the planet’s natural systems so they can replenish and restore themselves.

“With our commitment, we’re challenging ourselves to go further than we’ve ever gone before to make a real, sustainable and positive difference. 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.”

The 14 CSR targets fall under three pillars: enrich our people, enrich our products and enrich our planet. They include: –

Enrich our People

1. Double our 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 our Enrich Not Exploit™ Commitment mission, creating our biggest campaign ever

4. Invest 250,000 hours of our skills and know-how to enrich the biodiversity of our local communities

Enrich our Products

5. Ensure 100% of our natural ingredients are traceable and sustainably sourced, protecting 10,000 hectares of forest and other habitat

6. Reduce year on year the environmental footprint of all our product categories

7. Publish our use of ingredients of natural origin, ingredients from green chemistry, and the biodegradability and water footprint of our products

8. Develop an innovation pipeline that delivers pioneering cosmetic ingredients from biodiversity hotspots and which helps to enrich these areas

Enrich our Planet

9. Build Bio-Bridges, protecting and regenerating 75 million square metres of habitat helping communities to live more sustainably

10. Reduce the environmental footprint of our stores every time we refurbish or redesign them

11. Develop and deliver three new sustainable packaging innovations

12. Ensure that 70% of our total product packaging does not contain fossil fuels

13. Power 100% of our stores with renewable or carbon balanced energy

14. Reduce by 10% the energy use of all our stores every year

As L’Oréal’s largest retail brand, The Body Shop says this new commitment contributes to and enhances L’Oréal’s existing sustainability framework – Sharing Beauty with All.

The Body Shop’s international CSR and campaigns director Chris Davis said: “Our new Commitment combines all the experience and knowledge of our expert people with new advances in science and technology.

“It means understanding how our business is contributing to our existence on the planet, understanding what we need to change to contribute to a sustainable future by working backwards from a visionary end point to the here and now and asking ourselves what comes next. 

“We’ll continue to work in partnership with suppliers, NGOs, academics, governments and other businesses to deliver the innovation and changes needed to make our ambitions a reality.”

Last week, edie reported that some of The Body Shop’s packaging could soon be made from greenhouse gases that would otherwise pollute the atmosphere, thanks to a new research partnership between the retailer and cleantech firm Newlight Technologies. This forms one of the three packaging innovations The Body Shop has committed to deliver by 2020 under this new sustainability plan.

Stay tuned to edie for an in-depth feature on the Body Shop’s new sustainability strategy, including an exclusive interview with CSR director Chris Davis.

Luke Nicholls

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