“The body shop is committed to being an environmentally responsible retailer. They strive to ensure that the business activities will always contribute to the well being and aspirations of current stakeholders without compromising the needs of future generations. They will apply best practice throughout the business activities and take on a leadership role in areas where they can make a difference and set examples to the industry.
They will focus our efforts on issues where their activities have direct environmental impacts and strive to minimise or offset these impacts through appropriate management systems, stakeholder engagement and industry collaboration.
” (The Body Shop International, 2006) The business strategy of The body shop is to provide customers with a retail experience that delivers new and innovative product. They have values which governs everything that they do.
Their values are to protect the planet, support community trade, against animal testing, defend human rights, and activate self esteem. These values are Body Shop’s business strategy and core competencies.
The body shop lay out clearly what their environmental policy is and how they commit themselves to achieving this. The policy is all about being committed to the environment and this is done through minimizing waste by using minimal packaging on their products, recycling materials, setting out clear policies to customers and suppliers.
Efficient use of energy in order to offset against carbon emissions. These environmental policies link to Body shops business strategy for example one of Body Shop’s business strategies is to protect the planet and this is being done through their environmental policy in which Body Shop are having efficient use of energy in order to cut carbon emissions.
There policy also states that their products are “100 percent pure” and “natural”. The body shop state that they do not test their products or ingredients on animals.
In order for this to be met The body shop’s strategy is that they request cancellation of animal testing to their suppliers and that supplier have to hand in confirmations twice a year to ensure that all ingredients in the products supplied are not tested on animals. The principle micro operations of The body shop denotes those elements over which The body shop has control or which it can use in order to gain information that will help it in the overall running of The body shop. It influences The body shop directly and it includes suppliers that eal directly or indirectly, consumers and customers and other local stakeholders. “Identify and discuss the issues posed by the policy decisions mentioned in the case for the company’s operations managers” The policy decisions discussed in the case talk about their socially responsible purchasing, using renewable sources, social location, re-using (refilling bottles) and recycling waste. Looking at the first policy posed “Socially responsible purchasing” The body shop sources wooden foot rollers from a workshop in India.
They are pulling in cheap labour for there production but are also investing money back into the country. They provide employment for the older children in an orphanage, revenue raised helps towards improving education, health and nutritional standards. The second policy posed “using renewable sources” states that The body shop encouraged a Nepalese paper factory to switch from clearing a local forest to reusing banana skins for raw materials. This is promoting a good image as they are caring about the environment and they are sticking to their environmental policy.
They want to encourage this company in the right manner by using natural raw materials with out the damage that it could cause by using raw material that involves affect wildlife that have habituated to that local forest. Destruction of trees reduces the ability of the land to absorb rain causing flooding. (Walker Derek 121) But there is the point of how the banana skins are transported. The transport that is used can be polluting the environment so this needs to be taken into consideration. Even so it is not affecting the environment as much as it would if the local forest was being cleared.
The third policy “Social location” is that The body shop invested in an abandoned factory in Glasgow which in turn invested in employment as well as this a quarter of the profit is returned for community projects. That is good for employment rates for Glasgow but the factory is also producing pollution into the local area. This goes against their policy relating to climate change. The fourth policy “re-using” The body shop provides a refill service in shops where empty plastic bottles can be refilled in return for a reduction on the purchase.
This is an incentive for the customers as they are being encouraged to recycle their bottles instead of throwing them away. This helps towards the environment as if the bottles are not being recycled via the route of recycling bins they are just being distributed to local waste sites that do not sort waste but just burn the waste. The final policy “recycling waste” which similarly relates to the last policy, states that The body shop uses a labelling scheme which identifies the type of plastic used on each of its packages. This makes the sorting process and recycling a lot easier.
The ways in which Body Shop could further pursue its sustainability agenda whilst still running an effective supply chain is by green logistics/greening the supply chain. “Greening the supply chain” refers to buyer companies requiring a certain level of environmental responsibility in core business practices of their suppliers and vendors. Many businesses have internal standards, policies, and/or environmental management systems that govern their own environmental performance and efficiency. If suppliers do not abide by these same standards, the buyer company may be buying and using products that do not meet their own standards. pprc, 2006) If Body Shop implement the green supply chain approach it will save them money and improve the way they operate. Pepsi-cola uses the green supply chain management principles and have saved $44million by switching from corrugated to reusable plastic shipping containers for one litre and 20 ounce bottles, conserving 196 million pounds of corrugated material. (supply-chain, 2006) This is just one of the few companies that have advantaged from the green supply chain approach. The green supply chain analysis provides an opportunity to review processes, materials and operational concepts.
It also states that in general, pollution and waste represent incomplete, ineffective, or inefficient use of raw materials. (supply-chain, 2006) Overall The body shop has set out clear environmental policy and a business strategy which incorporates to the overall running with the operation of The body shop. The body shop is within the health and beauty market and has close competition from companies such as Boots, Superdrug, Virgin Vie and Protor and Gamble. If they incorporate the green supply chain approach to their operation this will in turn improve the overall running of their logistics
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