2007 Archives: The Body Shop Eco-Friendly Beauty Soap
The Body Shop has always been ahead of the curve, and we love how they’ve maintained their ethics while growing exponentially since the days when we were jonesing for our White Musk eau de toilette but couldn’t afford a ticket to London.
In July, the Body Shop became the first cosmetics and toiletries retailer to introduce sustainable palm oil to the global beauty industry. Why is this important? Palm oil is one of the world’s most versatile oils and is used in everything from cosmetics to household products to foods. A six-fold increase in demand in the last 20 years has led to vast clearances of South East Asian rainforests—for example, in Borneo approximately six football fields of rainforest is cleared every minute. This type of vast deforestation not only impacts global warming, it also creates dangerous working conditions for indigenous populations (especially women) and dramatically affects endangered species like the Sumatran rhino and Asian elephant, which are headed for extinction due to loss of natural habitat.
In contrast, sustainable palm oil production utilizes far less destructive planting methods and protects rainforest biodiversity. Through the Body Shop Foundation, the company has supported small-scale farming projects committed to sustainable production methods in many countries where they source their products.
Can buying a bar of soap make a difference? We’re not sure, but the Body Shop alone sells 14.5 million bars of soap a year. Sounds like a few football fields to us.
