The Body Shop

Social responsibility relates to a company's obligation to "maximize positive impact and minimizes negative impact on society" (Pride & Ferrell 2000, p.81). By working with Malaysian Nature Society, Malaysian Aids Foundation and Women's Aid Organization, The Body Shop managed to maximize its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on environment, women's rights and HIV/AIDS and minimize the impact of their wastages on the environment. Most companies adopt the practice of social responsibility with expectations for indirect long-term benefits (Pride & Ferrell 2000, p.81). For instance, The Body Shop's socially responsible efforts have not only left a positive impact on local communities, but also indirectly attracted goodwill and potential customers and employees.

Body Shop also extends supports for many social environmental and human rights issues across the globe. The Body Shop foundation is the charitable arm of the company and is funded by the company as well as other fundraising measures. It was established in 1990 with the purpose of consolidating donations made by the company to different charities. The Body Shop was the first community to be bestowed with the Humane Cosmetics Standard for their testing policy that was against cruelty to animals. The company was one of the pioneers in bringing to an end the practice of testing cosmetics products on animals. In 1986 Body Shop allied with Greenpeace to campaign for "save the wheels". However owing to differences with the organizations, the Body Shop left Greenpeace to form an alliance with Friends of the Earth.

Body Shop claims that all its products are free of animal cruelty and are composed of natural ingredients. The company has a fair trade program that is known as Community trade. This is the lone cosmetic company that has such a program and which shows the commitment of the company to trade in a fair manner. This program is spread across 24 countries and does business with 31 suppliers. This program gives employment to more than 15,000 people in the world. The community trade shows the company's interest to trade with communities that are in need and compensating them adequately for the natural ingredients that the company purchased from these communities. The objective of the community trade is to engage in business with people who are in third world countries.