Earth Day Special – The Body Shop & VAHDAM India

About The Body Shop

Founded in 1976 in Brighton, England, by Dame Anita Roddick, The Body Shop is a global beauty brand and a certified B Corp™. The Body Shop seeks to make positive change in the world by offering high-quality, naturally-inspired skincare, body care, hair care and make-up produced ethically and sustainably. Having pioneered the philosophy that business can be a force for good, this ethos is still the brand’s driving force. The Body Shop operates about 3,000 retail locations in more than 70 countries. Along with Aesop, Avon and Natura, The Body Shop is part of Natura &Co, a global, multi-channel and multi-brand cosmetics group that is committed to generating positive economic, social and environmental impact. The four companies that form the group are committed to generating positive economic, social and environmental impact. The Body Shop India is managed by Quest Retail Pvt Ltd and is operational in India since 2006. The Body Shop operates 200 stores across the country.

The Body Shop Plastic for change initiative

In 2019, The Body Shop has launched world’s first Community Fair Trade Plastic packaging by sourcing recyclable plastic waste from waste picker communities in Bengaluru, India.They have applied a 4 decades of Community Fair Trade expertise to create sustainable packaging. At the heart of this project, is the belief that simply reducing the plastic we use is not enough – we must look at plastic waste that already exists as a valuable resource that can and does form the livelihood of some of the poorest people in the world. By working with our Community Fair Trade partner Plastics For Change (PFC), The Body Shop is sourcing recyclable plastic waste from waste pickers and recycling this plastic to create product packaging. In 2019 alone, they have purchased 250 tonnes of Community Trade recycled plastic from this initiative and used it in nearly three million 250ml haircare bottles. In 2019, they have sourced 250 tonnes of recyclable plastic and by the end of 2021 aiming to purchase over 900 tonnes of Community Trade Recycled Plastic.

The Body Shop Return,Recycle,Repeat Initiative 

The Body Shop India has pledged its efforts towards ambitious sustainability goals through their new Return Recycle Repeat (RRR) in-store plastic recycling program.

Marking a renewed promise towards reducing plastic waste from ending up in oceans and landfills, The Body Shop launched its new Return Recycle Repeat program with a goal of launchingthe RRR program to all of its India stores by June 2022. Additionally, all new India stores would feature the RRR program from the point of launch itself. Under theRRR pilot launch in select stores during the pandemic, The Body Shop has already recycled 30,000+ plastic bottles. As such, the brand also pledged to recycle at least 1 million plastic bottles by 2024.

This commitment is a natural next step for the brand after its launch of the world’s first Community Fair Trade (CFT) recycled plastic packaging made from plastic waste collected by Bengaluru waste pickers in 2019. Currently, all product lines of The Body Shop globally contain 75% post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) including CFT plastic from India.The Body Shop also supported female wastepickers in South India through the Covid crisis via Project NARI in 2020-21. Both the initiatives were created with the brand’s global CFT partner, Plastics for Change, in Bengaluru India.

About VAHDAM India

VAHDAM® India is a digitally native, global wellness brand taking India’s finest teas and superfoods to consumers across 130 countries, under a home-grown label. It has raised over 290 crores in Venture Funding from India’s Top Consumer Investors. Founded in 2015 by the then 23-year-old Bala Sarda, VAHDAM® has been endorsed by global icons like Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Mariah Carey, and Martha Stewart amongst others. It is also a certified Climate Neutral & Plastic Neutral Brand and directs 1% of its revenue towards the education of the tea growers’ children under their social initiative,‘TEAch MeFirst Indian wellness brand to be a part of the Oscars Goodie bag in 2022.

Initiative

Climate/Plastic Neutrality

· In 2020, VAHDM® became one of the first tea brands in Asia to get a Climate Neutral & Plastic Neutral Certification. This was in line with the brand’s long-term goal of aligning to UN SDGs by 2030.

· With this they went ahead to offset the carbon footprint by purchasing credits in projects that work at reducing, removing or avoiding emissions or carbon from traditional fossil fuels, and thus help control climate.

· In 2021, VAHDAM® India have continued with their commitment towards Climate Neutrality by measuring and offsetting their carbon footprint for the year 2020 and will continue to do so in the coming years.

· Offsetting – VAHDAM® India has purchased an equivalent amount of carbon credits to ‘neutralize’ their emissions. They have purchased credits from the following projects that are underway in India.

20MW Biomass Power Project at Godawari Power and IspatLimited, Chhattisgarh

100.5 MW Wind Power Project in Madhya Pradesh, India

Improved Wood Stoves in Udaipur – Helping Women and Environment

Reducing – As part of the long-term commitment to climate change, VADHAM® India is focused on reducing its carbon footprint by progressively looking at doing more with less energy consumption. While a growing business does result in a direct increase in the carbon footprint, they endeavour to reduce energy consumption through a planned roadmap. Eg. Monitor usage of Air-conditioners, Lights and Fans at office headquarters, Use reusable glassware in canteens.

Renewing – Responsible businesses are increasingly focusing on measuring and reducing the use of plastic. In 2020, VAHDAM® worked with rePurpose Global, to measure and offset its plastic usage, and become one of the first tea brands in India to get the Plastic Neutral certification. rePurpose Global is the World’s First Plastic Credit Platform dedicated to reducing waste, reviving lives, and restoring nature’s balance. VAHDAM® regularly measures its plastic footprint by carefully calculating the total amount of plastic that is used in its operations. This footprint is then neutralized by investments in various projects.