Anita Roddick, founder of the London-based Body Shop International, will give the annual Nathan Lecture in Corporate Environmental Management at 4:30 p.m. today (Sept. 26) at the Power Center for the Performing Arts.
She also will receive the School of Business Administration’s Business Leadership Award.
The Nathan Lectures, which feature speakers who are leaders in the field of corporate environmental management, are co-sponsored by the Business School and School of Natural Resources and Environment. The lectures capture the essence of the schools’ new joint initiative, the Corporate Environmental Management Program (CEMP).
“CEMP’s goal is to develop leaders with the knowledge and skills required to create economically and environmentally sustainable organizations,” said Stuart L. Hart, director of CEMP. “Anita Roddick’s concern for the environment and social responsibility, her vision and her willingness to encounter risks as she strives for those difficult, often elusive, goals, are an important dimension of CEMP.”
Roddick opened the first branch of the Body Shop, which sells cosmetics, soaps and other environmentally friendly beauty products, in Brighton, Eng-land, in 1976. Today, the Body Shop has more than 1,050 shops and trades in 45 countries with worldwide retail sales of more than $657 million. More than 7,000 people work for the company and its franchisees.
The Body Shop’s first Environmental Department was established in the United Kingdom in 1987. In the United States, the in-store product refill service reuses about 24,000 bottles a year and recycles 300,000. Some of the recovered materials are recycled in plastic lumber, which is purchased by the Body Shop for reception furniture, picnic tables and benches. Through its “Trade Not Aid” program, the Body Shop also strives to purchase supplies from developing nations.
Roddick has received awards from both environmental and economic organizations. In 1993, she received the Environmental Achiever Award from Unidos Para La Conservacio, Mexico; the International Banksia Environmental Award from Banksia Environmental Foundation, Australia; and the Global 500 Environmental Award from the United Nations. Her economic development awards include the Queens’ Award for Export and the Order to the British Empire for Services to Industry. She was named Communicator of the Year by the British Association of Industrial Editors in 1988.
