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Community Trade: Fair Trade and the Spa Wisdom Line
The Body Shop is a company founded on what we like to refer to as our Five Core Values; values that were important to our founder, Anita Roddick. We proudly carry on the business principles that she established, to take care of the people who provide us with ingredients, the environment, and ourselves.
One of our Core Values is Community Trade, or supporting fair trade products, as they are often called. Community Trade is the principle of paying a fair price for products farmed and produced by workers that are paid a living wage in disadvantaged countries. It allows them, and us, by proxy, to invest in their communities in a tangible way. But Community Trade isn’t just about products. It’s about creating relationships that transcend the boundaries of countries.
Our Spa Wisdom line is one that incorporates many of our fairly traded products. Below are a few of the stories about the people who make the ingredients that make our products so great for your body.
Cocoa butter is a traditional moisturizer, and the women of Ghana have been using it for centuries to protect their skin from harsh African traditions. The Body Shop purchases our cocoa beans from the Kuapa Kokoo company in Ghana, which boasts over 30,000 small-scale farmers. The money the company makes is reinvested in their community to build village wells and send their children to school.
Women are at the center of the story about our Babassu nuts. After a 30-year fight against large landowners, the women babassu breakers of the Coppalj co-operative in Brazil won legal rights to go onto the land and extract the nuts. By doing this, they simultaneously earn a living and prevent the forest from being chopped down for cattle to graze. The women of these communities are integral in the trade of babassu oil, which continues to improve their status and their own self-esteem.
Ghanaian women have been in on the secret of shea butter for centuries. One of nature’s great moisturizers, we buy ours from the Tungteiya Shea Butter Association in Northern Ghana. Comprised of about 400 women from 10 different villages, we lock in a fair price for their products. Since beginning their trade with The Body Shop, the women have worked to drastically change the conditions in their lives with better housing, food, and medical care, as well as being able to give their children, especially their daughters, an education.
As you can see, it’s important to us that we get quality ingredients. They are what help us maintain the superiority of our products and something we feel proud to sell. But beyond that, supporting our Community Trade value means that the relationships we create across the globe allow people to live better lives. And that’s what we call well-rounded beauty.
Tags: Community Trade, Core Values, Spa Wisdom