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September 11, 2007

Queen Of Green Passes Away

By the time I was a teenager, it was the late 1980's and early 1990's. Amongst the public service messages drilled into my generation, like "Just Say No" and "Stop, Drop and Roll", there was another without a cutesy tag line.

It basically went something like this: Don't buy makeup tested on animals. Those poor bunnies were often used for their sensitivity to such products. Ok, I also went on a one-girl boycott of Burger King because of their past support of Japanese whaling, but that's not what I want to talk about today.

Throughout high school, there were two things I always had in my backpack: a waterbottle and a little jar of lip balm from The Body Shop.

Satsuma, Pink Grapefruit, Coconut, Passion Fruit, Grapeseed... I've tried them all. I still use them. At the time, they seemed to be one of the only animal-testing free brands readily available and affordable. You could go in and get refills of their perfume scents, and everything came in delightful little jars.

Without the guilt. I knew for sure that no bunnies were harmed for my shiny lips.

This past week, Anita Roddick, the founder of Body Shop, passed away. During her too-short lifetime, she proved that business could be environmentally and culturally conscious AND successful - these values did not have to compete amongst themselves.

The Body Shop has had a set of corporate values that few, regardless of political or ideological viewpoints, can argue with:

• Against Animal Testing
  
• Support Community Trade
  
• Activate Self-Esteem
  
• Defend Human Rights
  
• Protect Our Planet
  

Roddick, known as the “Queen of Green,” was lauded around the world for trailblazing business practices that promoted environmentalism and other causes dear to her heart, from human rights to Third World debt relief.

“Businesses have the power to do good,” Roddick wrote on the Web site of the company, which was bought by the French company L’Oreal Group last year for $1.14 billion.

The Body Shop opposed animal testing and tried to encourage Third World development by purchasing materials from small communities in poorer countries.

...

[Roddick] drew inspiration from women’s beauty rituals that she discovered while traveling in developing countries, and lessons that her mother passed on from life during World War II.

“Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as she did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could,” Roddick wrote.

More At: MSNBC: Body Shop founder Anita Roddick dies at 64

According to WorldWatch (and National Geographic), the cosmetics industry is more than a $18 billion dollar market worldwide. Let's hope it continues to become more environmentally sound, cruelty-free and sustainable with each passing year and let's not forget Anita Roddick's role in making that happen.

Posted by sorsha at September 11, 2007 7:33 AM