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The Body Shop Progresses on Renewables, Traceability, Fossil-Fuel-Free Packaging

A year after launching its ambitious Enrich, Not Exploit CSR strategy, The Body Shop has released its 2016 sustainability report, highlighting the progress it has made on its packaging, renewable energy and supply chain footprint goals.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 7 years ago | About a 4 minute read

A year after launching its ambitious Enrich, Not Exploit CSR strategy, The Body Shop has released its 2016 sustainability report, highlighting the progress it has made on its packaging, renewable energy and supply chain footprint goals. In lieu of a traditional report, the Enrich, Not Exploit update has been released as a series of 16 YouTube videos, which are easily accessible to suppliers, shareholders and consumers alike.

The report highlights significant achievements on the company’s goal of ensuring that 70 percent of its total product packaging does not contain fossil fuels, with 58 percent of The Body Shop’s packaging now being sourced from non-fossil fuel derived materials. Additionally, all of the company’s clear plastic bottles are now made with 25 percent recycled materials.

The retailer is also taking strides to ensure that 100 percent of its ingredients are traceable, sustainably sourced and help protect more than 10,000 hectares of forest and habitats as part of its sustainable sourcing charter.

According to the report, recent supply chain assessments showed that 62 percent of The Body Shop’s ingredients were fully traceable and that only 11.3 percent were sustainably sourced, despite demonstrating improvements in green chemistry, biodegradability, water footprint and natural origin benchmarks.

The report follows the launch of The Body Shop’s new World Bio-Bridges Mission fund late last week, which seeks to raise more than £2 million to finance the building of ten regenerative Bio-Bridges around the world by 2020.

The fund is an offshoot of the brand’s Bio-Bridges program, which aims to protect and regenerate habitats threatened by poaching, exploitation and unsustainable harvesting.

“Our new approach to corporate philanthropy embraces the philosophy that we leverage The Body Shop’s core skills, knowledge and experience,” said Davis. “These drivers will multiply our impact and help address the loss of habitat and biodiversity. Through protecting and regenerating land, working with local communities and seeking partnerships with civil and state organizations around the world, the World Bio-Bridges Mission can make a substantial difference to some of the planet’s richest and most diverse areas.”

The program is a key component of The Body Shop’s Enrich, Not Exploit strategy, which aims to build 75 square meters of Bio-Bridges by 2020. In partnership with the World Land Trust, The Body Shop endeavors to link the bridges to nearby communities to bolster local biodiversity through sustainable sourcing practices and carbon balancing and raising awareness about the issue.

The ten new bio-bridges will build on the beauty brand’s previous projects in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Funding for each project will largely depend on location, habitat and conservation partner.

In addition to protecting critical habitats, The Body Shop’s Bio-Bridge program also allows the retailer to identify new natural ingredients from biodiversity hotspots.