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Community Fair Trade

OUR PIONEERING PROGRAMME HAS BEEN GOING STRONG SINCE 1987.

We source ethical, high-quality ingredients and accessories from thousands of producers, farmers and artisans across the world. Discover how this programme drives real change and helps us be a force for good

What is Community Fair Trade?

Community Fair Trade is our bespoke fair trade programme. It helps our suppliers gain market access and invest in social and environmental projects that benefit their communities, and it helps us fill our products with the good stuff.

We launched Community Fair Trade in 1987, but back then it was known as Trade Not Aid. Over 30 years later, this ethos is still going strong. From handcrafted shea butter in Ghana to recycled paper gift bags in Nepal, we source ingredients and accessories from across the planet, which provides vital financial independence for our partners. Many of them are women living in rural areas, with limited economic opportunities. This helps drive our goal of business as a force for good, and we’re incredibly proud of it.

How is it different to Fair Trade?

Fair trade helps producers in developing countries secure good standards of trading when working with companies in developed countries. Community Fair Trade is our own bespoke programme, founded and run solely by The Body Shop.

Having our own programme makes a difference because it gives us an authentic connection to our producers and suppliers. We know them, personally. We know their families and communities. This makes the programme all the more important to us.

Our Community Fair Trade programme

We strive to develop long-term trade partnerships, and have worked with many of our suppliers for decades. We offer favourable trade terms, targeted producer support and access to an international trade market. Some suppliers also receive an additional fund to invest in community projects such as education, healthcare and sanitation. Hundreds of thousands of people have benefited from these projects, including the families and neighbours of producers.

We’re incredibly proud of what we and our suppliers have achieved, and we aim to continue creating positive social and environmental impact in communities where our trade can be most beneficial in the future.

Community Fair Trade is every bit as relevant and important today as it was in 1987. All over the world, people still don’t have access to decent working conditions and fair trading practices. Community Fair Trade is our heritage and it will always be the heart of The Body Shop.

What Community Fair Trade means for you

Community Fair Trade is more than just how we get our ingredients. It benefits all of us. We get direct access to high-quality ingredients and accessories from around the world, which means your purchase benefits people and communities in so many ways.

We want you to know the full story behind the products you love. Read our success stories to find out how the products you buy are having a positive social impact around the world.

Success Stories

We’re really proud to have achieved wide-reaching economic and social impact over the years through this programme. We choose to work with suppliers who share our pioneering spirit. Income and investment from our trade has enabled communities to invest in some truly innovative and impactful outreach projects.

Swipe through to read more below...

Shea Butter from Ghana

PROVIDING FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE FOR GHANAIAN WOMEN

We’ve sourced Community Fair Trade shea butter from Tungteiya Women’s Association in northern Ghana since 1994. 650 shea butter artisans from 11 villages handcraft shea butter using an 18-stage process of traditional techniques, passed from mother to daughter for generations.

Our partnership helps fund community projects across the wider community, provides an independent income, and helps empower women through increased confidence and respect. It also helps to provide access to safe water, improved sanitation and healthcare facilities.

Gift Paper and Boxes from Nepal

PIONEERING EDUCATION AND OUTREACH INITIATIVES

Our Community Fair Trade handcrafted paper and gift packaging is sustainably sourced from Get Paper Industry in Kathmandu, Nepal. We’re really proud to have worked with GPI since 1989. These pro artisans use waste and recycled materials (like cotton off-cuts and banana tree stems) to create the paper.

GPI employ more women than men and pay them an equal wage, ensuring they receive equal benefits. They’ve also pioneered social projects to benefit the whole community around Bansbari. They helped send children from the poorest families to school, and raised education levels for girls through their ‘Send Your Daughters to School’ campaign and scholarships.

In recent years, GPI have pioneered initiatives to raise awareness of human trafficking through facilitating girls’ groups in local villages. They’re now also using their voice on a wider scale, by organising nationwide school essay competitions on the topic of human trafficking.

Recycled plastic from India

TACKLING THE PLASTIC CRISIS DIFFERENTLY

An estimated 3 billion people around the world live in countries without formal waste management – that’s almost half the planet’s population. This has led to an estimated 1.5 million ‘waste collectors’ - unsung heroes who work tirelessly to clean up their city’s streets in this informal sector. Waste pickers are mostly made up of ‘dalits’ (formally known as ‘untouchables’), the lowest social group in India’s caste system. This means that they are vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation and poor working conditions.

In 2019, we launched our Community Fair Trade partnership with Plastics for Change to buy recycled plastic from waste pickers in India, to use in our plastic packaging. The initiative won Ethical Corporation’s 2019 ‘Plastics Innovation Award’ and has been recognised in the industry for its unique approach to addressing both the environmental and human side of the plastic crisis.

Our commitment with suppliers

Our Community Fair Trade programme is independently checked and verified by ECOCERT (a fair trade assessment agency), which involves regular auditing of suppliers and of our own business operations. Our commitment to suppliers is outlined in our Sustainable Sourcing Charter, which states how we envision sustainable supply chains and confirms the core principles of our Community Fair Trade programme.

Our core principles

Expand each section to find out more

Community projects

Where appropriate, we will support community projects through price premiums or in some instances, direct investment.

Favourable trading terms

Producer groups will receive favourable terms of trade. For example, early payment if needed.

Targeted supplier support

We aim to provide support or training if needed. This could be direct support from The Body Shop staff or through external stakeholders such as local NGOs.

Trading commitment

CFT intermediaries provide forecasts to enable Producer Groups to make informed decisions about production levels and business planning.

Management of ingredient supply shortages

The development and maintenance of supply chains in marginalised communities is a complex, long term activity. From time to time, we experience unavoidable supply chain issues with our Community Fair Trade suppliers that lead to raw material shortages.

This means that in order to fulfil customer demand for certain products, we sometimes have to blend our Community Fair Trade ingredients with those from other sources to account for shortages. As our Community Fair Trade partners and relationships are very important to us, we always aim to protect the on-going demand for the Community Fair Trade supplier’s ingredient while we resolve the issue.

In doing so, we work to our internal standard operating procedures (governed by our Sustainable Sourcing Charter and its principles) to ensure rapid resolution with minimal impact on the community.