What is veganism?

Why are we passionate about veganism?

Where are we now?

Customer talking points

Find out more

Vegan Society Certification

By the end of 2023, all of our product formulas will be certified as vegan by

The Vegan Society.

Not only are we reformulating the remaining vegetarian products that we sell, we are also getting an independent charity

to certify our products as vegan!

Read on to find out more about what this means for our brand and our products.

Here at The Body Shop we are passionate about looking after our planet and the creatures

that live on it.

Not only are all our products cruelty-free, they are also 100% vegetarian. We also have a huge

range of vegan products to make sure we can meet as

many of our customers’needs as possible.

But we are The Body Shop, and we always strive to do more, and

to take it one step further.

What’s the next step in our vegan journey?

The Vegan Society defines veganism as:

It’s likely that there have always been vegan societies and individuals living in the world, but the term “vegan” was coined in 1944 by Donald Watson – co-founder of The Vegan Society (more on this later!).

The number of people converting to veganism around the world has been steadily increasing since then and it is estimated that roughly 80 million people globally live a fully vegan lifestyle.

Hundreds of thousands more believe that adopting aspects of veganism, even for short periods (like Veganuary – the trend of going vegan for January) is the right thing to do in order to protect our planet and the animals that inhabit it with us.

For cosmetics, that means that the finished products and ingredients must all be completely free from ingredients or by-products derived from animals.

The vegan society defines animals as “the entire Animal Kingdom, that is all vertebrates and all multi-cellular invertebrates”, so it really covers everything!

Looking after our planet and the animals that live on it is part of The Body Shop DNA.

We were the first cosmetics company to campaign against animal testing in cosmetics in 1989, with a fundamental belief that animals should not be harmed in the pursuit of beauty. Our fight continues for a worldwide ban on animal testing in cosmetics. We were also the first major global beauty brand to use cruelty-free musk in our fragrances.

Our decision to go vegan is the natural next step in continuing of fight against animal cruelty.

We want all our products feel as good for the soul as they are for the body.

Cruelty-free and 100% vegan certified (by the end of 2023), we will never compromise our belief that animals must not be harmed in the pursuit of beauty.

Instead, we work hard to source vegan ingredients that work.

To find out more about our fight against animal testing check out LA Read: XYZ

Our products uplift, empower and boost self-esteem, all while staying true to our sustainable and ethical principles, and that’s why our customers trust in us and our products, and continue to buy from us.

We also want to make products that meet our customers’ needs.

More and more young, ethically engaged people are passionate about veganism, with the global number of vegans reaching an all time high in 2021, and the steepest increase in younger age groups.

Our customers care, and so do we. Bring on 100% vegan certification by the end of 2023!

At the start of 2021, roughly 60% of our product formulas were vegan, and the remaining 40% were vegetarian.

The difference between vegan and vegetarian is that people following a vegetarian lifestyle consume and use animal by-products, like dairy, eggs, honey, or beeswax.

The non-vegan products we have in our portfolio contain one or more of the following ingredients:• Honey• Beeswax• Lanolin (a thick greasy oil taken from

sheep’s wool and used in moisturisers)• Ambrettolide (a resin excreted by the

seedlac beetle used in perfumes to increase their longevity on skin)

As we get ready to be 100% vegan certified by the end of December 2023, we are slowly and steadily reformulating our vegetarian products in line with the guidelines from The Vegan Society (more on them on the next page!)

Regardless of whether our products are currently vegan or vegetarian, you and your customers can rest assured that 100% of our products are cruelty-free.

This means that we never test our products or our ingredients on animals, and the animal derived by-products that we currently use are extracted in a humane way.

For example, the beekeepers who collect the beeswax and honey for us don’t use any chemicals, and only use traditional beekeeping methods to keep the bees calm – they don’t even need to wear protective beekeeping outfits!

Want to know which of our products are vegan so far? Check out your Consultant Website and of course The Body Shop Website for a full list of ingredients of products.

The Vegan Trademark is renewed on an annual basis to ensure they have the most up to date information on all the products they certify.

Over 90% of vegans and vegetarians look for vegan certification logos when choosing vegan products for the first time on cosmetics, so it’s important for us to ensure all our products are independently verified so we can be confident that we are truthfully and authentically communicating with our customers.

• By the end of 2023, 100% of our product formulas will be ‘vegan certified’ by The Vegan Society*

• We are certifying each individual ingredient in every product formulation, which is a first in the beauty industry

• The vegan trademark itself will appear on the back of pack for certified products, and on Product Fact Sheets

• The word “vegan” will also be shown on the front of all our products**

The Vegan Society is a registered educational charity that provides information and guidance on various aspects of veganism, for existing and potential vegans, caterers, healthcare professionals, educators and the media. The Vegan Society’s product registration scheme, the Vegan Trademark, is widely recognised as the global standard for vegan products, ensuring that products are free from animal ingredients and by-products.

The Vegan Trademark has been helping users identify that a product is free from animal ingredients since 1990. Registration with the trademark gives brands the confidence to shout about their vegan credentials. Look out for the Vegan Trademark on over 50,000 products worldwide, including cosmetics, clothing, food, drink, household items, and many more.

The Vegan Society's dedicated and experienced team check each product application against strict criteria, working with manufacturers and raw material suppliers to ensure that each product formula meets their high standards.

*Some stores will still be selling through old non-vegan-registered stock**Some small products will not have a ‘vegan’ callout or logo on them, due to space issues on packaging design, however by December 2023 these will all be vegan

While we work towards an entirely vegan certified offer by 31 December 2023, it’s important to remember that we sell some products which are still vegetarian.

If your customer wants to know if a product is vegan, these are the simple steps you can take to check!

1. Check the label! Can you see the vegan callout, or The Vegan Society logo? If you can, it’s certified vegan!

2. If you can’t see these logos on the label, check out the Vegan Safe List on Retail Park. If the product is on the list, it’s vegan!

3. If the product doesn’t have a vegan logo, and doesn’t appear on the Vegan Safe List, it’s possible that either this version of the product, or a previous version was vegetarian rather than vegan

4. Be sure to help your customer find their perfect vegan alternative

When we started this process, over 60% of our products were already vegan – and still are!

We’re now working with an external company to certify them. The certification process is rigorous and lengthy, so it’s going to take a while for all of our vegan products to make it onto the list of certified products, but we’re aiming to have completed this work with The Vegan Society by the end of 2023.

The Vegan Society has a very strict approach to certifying products – they like to make sure they have all the right information, that they’ve gathered it for themselves, and that they’ve double- and triple-checked it – talk about thorough!

Not only do they certify the end products, they also certify each individual ingredient and raw material, showing the level of investigation they undertake to provide authentic communication to their customers.

Although The Vegan Society is a UK based charity, their thoroughness and depth of investigation is appreciated by vegans all over the world, and in our opinion, it makes them the best possible option for certification of our product formulas.

It just takes a bit of time to check over all of our 650+ products!

Now all that’s left is to share our vegan message with our customers! Need some help getting started? No problem, here are some really simple talking points to get the conversation going.

Our products are inspired by powerful, hard-working, natural ingredients, and contain lots of wonderful vegan ingredients, many of natural origin!

Living a vegan lifestyle is believed to be a great way to help look after the environment and our planet. If your customer is passionate about looking after our world, why not share some stories about what we are doing to help, like the recyclability of our packaging*.

Our world-renowned CFT programme is full of amazing vegan ingredients, all with amazing unique stories. So share them!

Looking after our planet and the animals that live in it is part of The Body Shop DNA. We have always and will always work hard to ensure all our products feel as good for the soul as they are for the body!

*Where local facilities allow

For those customers passionate about animal welfare, you could share stories of our brand’s history and our fight to end animal testing, as well as our mission to remove all animal by-products from our product formulas by December 2023.

Our products are independently certified by The Vegan Society - the most recognised and trusted Vegan trademark in the world, meaning our vegan and vegetarian customers can rest assured that our products have been specially made to meet their needs.

While there will be many customers who are open to conversations about veganism and who will want to know more, there will always be those who aren’t interested.

Veganism can even be a contentious topic. Some customers may even question why The Body Shop is talking about the topic or reformulating some of their favourite products, and could become angry or frustrated.

them out – really listen, and don’t

interrupt.

– this is the most important step. Acknowledge what they’ve said and make sure they feel understood.

– explain the action you’re going to take, and make sure you follow through.

– to diffuse the

tension, change the subject back to the reason they’ve come to see you today.

And last but not least, just 2 more, then it’s over to you…

Want to learn more about veganism, or even tempted to give it a go?

Vegan living is a growing trend, and there’s so much information out there to help you learn more.

Here are a few of our favourite suggestions to get you started. If you learn something you particularly enjoy, why not share your thoughts with your next passionate customer?

Useful websites❖ www.vegansociety.com❖ www.onegreenplanet.org❖ www.vegnews.com

Films & TV❖ Cowspiracy❖ Seaspiracy❖ Okja❖ Vegan: Everyday Stories

Podcasts❖ Breaking Beauty❖ The Chickpeeps podcast❖ Our Hen House❖ The Switch4Good Podcast❖ The Bearded Vegans