The Body Shop India opens first Sustainability-Focused Activist Workshop Store in Mumbai
Mumbai, March 2022: The British-born, ethical cosmetics company The Body Shop, launched its first flagship sustainable ACTIVIST WORKSHOP store on Ground Floor, Palladium Phoenix Mall, Mumbai, Maharashtra. Famous for its high-quality naturally-inspired cosmetic and toiletry products, The Body Shop is known all over the world for pioneering the philosophy that business can be a force for good, for launching new standards of ethics in business and for its change making business for the last 45+ years. In keeping with its Activist DNA, the brand strives for long term, systemic change and on the occasion of this new store launch, The Body Shop India pledges its efforts towards ambitious sustainability goals through their Return Recycle Repeat (RRR) in-store plastic recycling program.
Continuing with its commitment towards reducing plastic waste from ending up in landfills and oceans, The Body Shop piloted its RRR program during the pandemic in select stores. Through this pilot, The Body Shop has already recycled 50,000+ plastic bottles. Under its renewed sustainability goals, the brand pledges to drive up its recycling goals to at least 1 million plastic bottles by 2024.
The Body Shop RRR 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. Through this initiative, The Body Shop sourced over 400 tons of recycled plastic 2021, doubling this from 200+ tons in 2020. Currently, all product lines of The Body Shop globally contain 75% post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) including CFT plastic from India. In 2021, the brand launched its most sustainable haircare yet – all haircare bottles and tubs are 100% recyclable and are made from 100% recycled plastic. The Body Shop also supported female wastepickers in South India through the Covid pandemic via Project NARI in 2020-21. Both the initiatives were created with the brand’s global CFT partner, Plastics for Change, in Bengaluru India. Aside from being The Body Shop India’s first sustainability store, the new Activist Workshop store is an interactive and experiential space that encourages people to explore products, and campaigns and how the brand and consumers can together create positive impact for the planet and its communities.
RETURN RECYCLE REPEAT The Body Shop is on a mission to make returning and recycling your plastic bottles an essential part of life. The Activist Workshop store will help customers to easily recycle their beauty product packaging. Tell the workshop store staff if you want to return and recycle any of The Body Shop’s empty plastic bottles, tubs, tubes and pots. Next, put your empty packaging in the bin so our local partners can recycle and repurpose it. Next time you visit, recycle again! The Body Shop is calling upon all store visitors to pledge to be a Changemaker by advocating for and taking personal action towards Plastic recycling. Recycling your packaging really is that simple. Seemingly small acts that can lead to big change.
SUSTAINABLE STORE FIXTURES
The Body Shop is strengthening its commitment to being forward thinking and environmentally progressive. The store has been outfitted with sustainable fixtures made from reclaimed wood and recycled plastics to help minimize its environmental footprint. Examples include usage of aluminium, which requires less energy production than other materials and is infinitely recyclable. The store also boasts worktop surfaces that are manufactured from 100% recycled material, otherwise destined for landfills. A TRIBUTE TO THE CITY OF MUMBAI & MUMBAIKARS! Inspired by the life, culture, creativity, hustle and resilience unique to Mumbai, The Body Shop salutes Mumbai city within this first Activist Workshop store. A large part of the store displays an evocative wall mural by artist Mamta Singh, depicting the ever present fight against marine plastic waste and the battle of Mumbaikars to reclaim the city from plastic pollution. In keeping with the brand mission to celebrate local communities, the Activist Workshop store features gift cards featuring artwork by the children of Dharavi Art Room – a non-profit community project which helps children and women from Dharavi with safe spaces to express themselves through the arts. Locally made handmade Terracotta clayware is also used throughout the store as a sustainable visual merchandising element – all Terracotta clayware is sourced from Project Rivaayat, a youth driven social entrepreneurship venture aiming to revive disappearing Indian artisan forms. ACTIVISM HUB The new store also features an Activism hub where people can discover the brand’s activist roots as well as campaign for social change around issues ranging from gender equality to fighting cosmetic animal testing. Customers can also find out how they can get involved and work with The Body Shop’s global and local collective of fearless activists. MOST LOVED PRODUCTS Pick up The Body Shop’s most-love
A TRIBUTE TO THE CITY OF MUMBAI & MUMBAIKARS! Inspired by the life, culture, creativity, hustle and resilience unique to Mumbai, The Body Shop salutes Mumbai city within this first Activist Workshop store. A large part of the store displays an evocative wall mural by artist Mamta Singh, depicting the ever present fight against marine plastic waste and the battle of Mumbaikars to reclaim the city from plastic pollution. In keeping with the brand mission to celebrate local communities, the Activist Workshop store features gift cards featuring artwork by the children of Dharavi Art Room – a non-profit community project which helps children and women from Dharavi with safe spaces to express themselves through the arts. Locally made handmade Terracotta clayware is also used throughout the store as a sustainable visual merchandising element – all Terracotta clayware is sourced from Project Rivaayat, a youth driven social entrepreneurship venture aiming to revive disappearing Indian artisan forms. ACTIVISM HUB The new store also features an Activism hub where people can discover the brand’s activist roots as well as campaign for social change around issues ranging from gender equality to fighting cosmetic animal testing. Customers can also find out how they can get involved and work with The Body Shop’s global and local collective of fearless activists.
MOST LOVED PRODUCTS Pick up The Body Shop’s most-loved products from the bestsellers’ bays, featuring an edit of headto-toe heroes loved by customers around the world. Led by single ingredients – many of them sourced through the brand’s Community Fair Trade programme – ranges like Tea Tree, Charcoal and Hemp have become favourites for their hardworking formulas. The Body Shop’s friendly staff is on-hand to offer demonstrations, tailored tips and new ways to experience these iconic products. GIFTING STATION Thanks to the gifting station, there are endless ways to make the perfect present as special as your special someone. Get creative and personalise gifts with stickers, ribbons and recyclable paper to treat your loved ones to something truly unique. A TEAM OF ACTIVISTS As always, The Body Shop’s friendly, knowledgeable Activist Workshop store teams will be on-hand to help shoppers experience and play with products like never before. They will be happy to offer expert advice, personalised makeovers and body care, skincare and haircare experiential demonstrations. And, if you want to, they’ll also be excited to share and engage in activity around The Body Shop’s recent campaigns, the environment, and social justice and how we can create and fight for a fairer and more beautiful world.
Vishal Chaturvedi, Vice President, The Body Shop India says, “We are excited to bring our first flagship Activist Workshop store to India and Mumbai is the perfect home for this new store, as well as a massive inspiration for our renewed commitment to counter plastic pollution through Return Recycle Repeat. Since 2019, we have championed the cause of looking at plastic recycling afresh, treating plastic waste as a resource that can be reused and repurposed to benefit marginalized local communities like our waste collectors. In the face of rising climate change and social inequity, we have a vital role in driving public conversations and advocating for change. We believe our Activist Workshop Store and Return Recycle Repeat initiatives are the right steps in this direction and we would encourage all our consumers to become part of a collective of social & environmental justice.”