WSPA Act Beautiful Week 2.0

By Adam Valvasori - Values Man

The Body Shop Geelong - Acting Beautifully

Click on the above to check out a photo album of The Body Shop Geelong running amok!


No, the WSPA crew aren't giving you the arse. They're showing you their Ink blot T-shirts in support of the campaign! Remember best ink portrait to hit my inbox wins one of these t-shirts!


Now I have some exciting results to report on from week one of the campaign! Not only do Geelong look like they're having the most fun they are also the first store in the country to finish their book! A massive congratulations to them and good luck with your second book!

	Week 1 Signatures	% of Book Complete
All States	21,106	ave= 22%
ACT	541
Woden	121	10%
Canberra Civic	420	35%
NSW	3884
Chatswood West	144	12%
Castle Towers	144	12%
Tuggerah	72	6%
Wollongong	116	10%
Parramatta	144	12%
Miranda	323	27%
Burwood	134	11%
Charlestown Sq.	124	10%
Macquarie	187	16%
Penrith	184	15%
Warringah	208	17%
Kotara	141	12%
Hornsby	160	13%
Erina	212	18%
Eastgardens	194	16%
Bondi Westfield	96	8%
Macarthur Square	165	14%
QVB	564	47%
Liverpool	70	6%
Greenwood Plaza	58	5%
Hurstville	88	7%
Galeries Victoria	272	23%
George Street	84	7%
NT	143
Darwin	143	12%
QLD	4430
Myer Centre	417	35%
Pacific Fair	520	43%
Mt Gravatt	39	3%
Indooroopilly	418	35%
Townsville	240	20%
Maroochydore	844	70%
Loganholme	209	17%
Cairns	150	13%
Carindale	112	9%
Chermside	368	31%
Helensvale	200	17%
Toombul	146	12%
Queen St Mall	472	39%
Toowoomba	178	15%
Northlakes	117	10%
SA	824
Marion	128	11%
Adelaide Central	220	18%
Westlakes	56	5%
Hyde Park	124	10%
Elizabeth	144	12%
Tea Tree Plaza	152	13%
TAS	441
Hobart	96	8%
Launceston	345	29%
VIC	7585
Geelong	1216	101%
Bourke Street	658	55%
Knox City	84	7%
Frankston	256	21%
Northland	624	52%
Highpoint	696	58%
Melb Airport	253	21%
Southland	628	52%
Eastland	244	20%
Greensborough	248	21%
The Glen	277	23%
Melb Central	636	53%
Bendigo	400	33%
Camberwell	210	18%
Collins St	295	25%
Fountain Gate	215	18%
Werribee	88	7%
Epping Plaza	180	15%
Forest Hill	164	14%
Bridge Rd	213	18%
WA	3258
Karrinyup	262	22%
Booragoon	320	27%
Carousel	313	26%
Claremont	112	9%
Morley	475	40%
Murray St	584	49%
Whitford City	200	17%
Hay St	360	30%
Joondalup	280	23%
Rockingham	352	29%

WSPA Act Beautiful Days 4 & 5

By Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

The above image needs a little explaining. See I'm Italian and the guy from WSPA, Michel, is Spanish (don't be fooled by the French name).

Well of course we had to have a friendly bet when Spain played Italy in the Euro cup quarter finals. It wasn't 5 - nil though... I still owe him a tapas dinner - lucky he lives in Sydney - hahahahaha! Nice try Spagnolo!

Anyway back to the campaign. (I hope you haven't fallen asleep yet.)

Here's a very encouraging web report on www.makeyourselfbeautiful.org.au from the lovely Louise from Clemenger Blue (WSPA's ad agency). I think it's going brilliantly!

In total, 11,295 people have visited the microsite, 5,798 people have signed, and 1,783 have drawn and sent a picture!!

There is traffic coming from The Australian, Act Now, MySpace, NineMSN, Stir's Blender Forum, Adspace-Pioneers Blog, Let’s Shop, Melbourne Beats, SPCA NZ, Yen Mag, Facebook… and lot’s more! Looking forward to seeing the impact from MySpace next week.

When he hasn't been drawing insulting pictures of yours truly, Michel has been working hard at getting some more Declaration books for those stores that are probably going to finish their 1st book before the campaign ends. There's also quite a few stores that would love to take their activism outside the store and so need an extra book... Hats off to Carousel in WA for hooking up an entire highschool to potentially sign the declaration. Also great thinking Amber and crew @ Melbourne Central who want to invade the Zoo!

My favourite animal is the wolf. I like the way it howls. Just thought I'd share. What's your favourite? Write it in the comments.

WSPA Act Beautiful Day 3

By Adam Valvasori - Values Man

The Body Shop Geelong's Jilly pushed children out of the way to get these shots... such dedication!

The Body Shop's Geelong store has hi-jacked one of those annoying shopping centre shows for kids on school holidays to get signatures. This one, fittingly, Kung Fu Panda. I'm not 100% but I think Geelong is leading the ink race with 924 signatures.












Hot on the heals of Geelong, is Maroochydore with 720 signatures. Helping to lead the charge is Emma Hunt. It must be an Inspiration Scheme thing (both Emma and Geelong's manager Mel went on the Solomon Islands Inspiration Scheme). Oh and also a shout out to Hay Street Perth Store leading in the west on 155.

We got a great plug in today's The Australian newspaper, have a read: Campaign's drop of ink promotes animal welfare.

My latest enemy, Deborah Vukic from the People team has drawn me (below). I don't really look like that muppet Agro do I? That's not good people skills Deb! I had a shot drawing Michel from WSPA but I think I had Pandas on the brain.

Send me your portrait! www.makeyourselfbeautiful.org.au

WSPA Act Beautiful Day 2

By Adam Valvasori - Values Man

Below: Karen Arkey from Customer Service penned a beautiful portrait of me. (Another relationship lays in ruins, "Blah" indeed!).

Polly Caldow (CEO) and I visited the three Melbourne city stores yesterday afternoon and were really impressed with the gusto everyone is putting into this important animal rights campaign. A special mention goes to the really fun vibe and awesome ink bottle merchandising in the Melbourne Central store as well as to the Bourke St store for already getting 400 signatures!

Other stand out stores around Australia include QVB in Sydney, Southland in Melbourne and Pacific Fair in the Gold Coast. Yay! It's going really well!

WSPA campaign starts: The Body Shop acts beautiful

By Adam Valvasori - Values Man

Below is a portrait of yours truly by Steph Maule in PR (who I used to like) and one of Polly Caldow, our CEO by Valentina Zuban our future ex-marketing manager. Hilarious!

There are also pictures of our Forest Hill and The Glen stores on day one and a photo of Assistant Manager Emma Hunt in a t-shirt she made to support the campaign. If you're a The Body Shop staffer email me pics of your team acting beautiful for the blog... if it's published you'll win a prize! Don't forget to visit the website and give your friends a beautiful "makeover".

Chocolate leaves a bitter taste

"It is enjoyed by millions of connoisseurs around the world, but in recent years chocolate has started to leave an unpleasant aftertaste.

Canadian author Carol Off, whose book alerted readers to the ethical quagmire of chocolate consumption when it was released two years ago, is currently in Australia to talk up the topic.

Her book, Bitter Chocolate, lifted the lid on the use of child slavery in the cocoa plantations of West Africa."

ACTION!

Read the full article at The Age website.
(thanks to Cassie for the heads up!)

Join World Vision Australia's Don't Trade Lives campaign which is asking the chocolate industry to stop using child labour in cocoa production.

Superfriends

By Adam Valvasori - Values Man

I just had a really great couple of Body Shop days. Where I felt like my Superfriends plan finally came together.

Our store managers have been here for their national conference and we had some great opportunities to celebrate all our values activities with them.

Day one: we talked about our Community Projects scheme. Which by the way we completed 5,957 volunteer hours in 2007/08 (about 98% of the total possible). We also invited managers who had been on one of our international volunteer programs to share their experiences. This included the Children on the Edge Playscheme in East Timor and the Inspiration Schemes in Solomon Islands and Fiji run in partnership with the UNDP.

We also surprised everyone with a motivational speech by special guest star, Angela Barker, a young survivor of domestic violence. Angela's story is featured on the Governement's 'Violence Against Women; Australia Says No!' campaign DVD. Angela was also part of the panel of experts that helped us allocate over $120,000 in small grants to grass-roots Domestic Violence organisations. Angela is such a hero to us, an inspiring young woman and activist who overcomes so many hurdles... and never gives up.

Day two: I actually wrote a speech (very rare for me) to give to the managers about all we had achieved in values this year. The most exciting part of this was that all four of our Values Partners (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, Australian Conservation Foundation, World Society for the Protection of Animals and Amnesty International) had travelled all the way to Mulgrave (some from Sydney) to present on their past or upcoming campaign with us.

Everyone seemed really excited about learning more first-hand from these organisations. They shared their vision, campaigns and enthusiasm about working with The Body Shop. We are also privileged to be working with these NGOs... it's a mark of trust they have in our company and our shared values... this from Amnesty:

Thank you so much for the opportunity yesterday. You have such a great and inspiring corp of staff that gives us confidence in our defence of human rights.

As mentioned, Amnesty International does not accept corporate donations, except in exceptional circumstances like with The Body Shop, or engage in cause related marketing or sponsorship so that we may maintain our independence, impartiality and neutrality. We are delighted that we can partner with The Body Shop who shares our values.

Please pass on our appreciation to your staff who are our partners in freedom.

- Mohamed Duar - National Donor Liaison Manager - Amnesty International

Afterwards, we had a drink together in the city and it was amazing how well everyone got on. I watched a lot of cartoons as a kids... one of my favourites was Superfriends where all the heros team up together. This felt like a real life - Superfriends.

It's interesting how well our Values Partners' diverse goals of animal welfare, human rights and the environment compliment each other. I guess we all just want to be better humans and improve the way we treat each other and every living thing on the planet. Of course their goals and The Body Shop's core values fit like a glove too.

Its really personally and professionally satisfying to have brought these NGOs together and had this great opportunity to work together and help their important social and environmental campaigns through The Body Shop.

The great news is we've got the green light to do it all again in 2009! Yay!

Solomon Islands Inspiration Scheme

By Melinda O'Brien - The Body Shop Geelong Manager


Participants brainstorm elements of good customer service and business signage.

When asked to put pen to paper, in this case fingers to keyboard, and tell of my recent experiences in the Solomon Islands, I am at a loss for words. Now I can hear those who know me, sneer and scoff, however I do find it difficult to emotionally and descriptively connect you, the reader.

Applying for the manager’s inspiration scheme for the second time, I did not think I would be lucky enough to be chosen to represent The Body Shop and my store yet again. My last inspiration scheme was in the Solomon Islands in 2005, a rich and rewarding experience in many ways humble, transparent and perspicuity.

Arriving in Solomon Islands in 2008 with yet another fantastic Body Shop team, had mixed emotions running through my mind. The landscape was the same, yet it was different to be here again. What would I experience, would I know anyone, would it be as great as last time, would I do a good job, would I have to eat rice again for 7 days? Well I can tell you the experience was amazing, getting to know 48 Solomon Islanders, 4 Body Shop representatives, and numerous CYP, UNDP, and other officals, all in one day was like my family xmas parties. Exhausting!

The Body Shop team worked in partnership with the CYP (Commonwealth Youth Program) and the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) for the week in various degrees of climate, inspiring, facilitating, and befriending our fellow islanders to dream bigger, learn more, expand their minds, and let them know it was ok to allow self esteem to flow as freely as the cooling bush lime drink.

Each day we worked to a flexible agenda, allowing time for ideas to be grown, shared, and expanded upon. The participants walked in barefoot, kayaked across rough waters, opened businesses and took piccaninny’s to school each day and arrived before class, just to believe in what we, The Body Shop team had to offer was going to change their way of life. Not knowing they were changing our way of life. Going through many elements and strategies of business planning, we encountered all types of people within our class, the clown, the operator, the strategist, the idealist, the talker, and the friend, mostly we encountered gratitude.

Solomon Islands have close to 87 different languages spoken on over 900 tropical islands, 6 of those being major islands, which have been around for 5000 years, named after King Solomon, having discovered gold believed to belong to the king himself.

The only language we discovered was one of friendship. The Solomon Islanders have a saying, "we are not very good at saying hello, but we are great at saying goodbye". The Islanders are very shy, reserved, and quiet, but don't let that fool you, once they get to know you, you will have a friend for life. All of the Body Shop team have been in constant contact with the participants from our workshop, helping to continue the solid foundation of work we helped lay.

I would like to shout out to those who have not yet grabbed hold of this unique opportunity our company has to offer, and say do all that you can to get yourself there, but hey I want a hat trick, so game on!!

Bio-fuels: a crime against humanity (and orangutans)

By Adam Valvasori - Values Man

Image: Assembly of Upper Baram headmen in 2006 (top left corner: the late Kelesa Naan, former headman of Long Kerong; top right corner: Bilong Oyoi, the deposed headman of Long Sait). Photo: The Bruno Manser Fund


I just read a very interesting blog post over at TreeHugger about the worsening situation in Borneo. For those not up-to-speed, basically:

• The increase demand for bio-fuels has meant the destruction of unique eco-systems in Borneo to make way for palm oil plantations.
• Borneo is about two-thirds Indonesian and one-third Malaysian
  
• Indonesian Borneo is losing an area of forest the size of a soccer field every 10 seconds (ABC 2007)
• Deforestation is killing 50 orangutans a week (ABC 2007)
• The carbon emissions saved by using palm-oil bio fuels instead of petroleum oil is actually cancelled out by the destruction of forests and peat lands
• The Body Shop only uses sustainable palm oil in our soaps and is on the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil - where we try to convince other manufacturers to do the same.
• We also support the Australian Palm Oil Action Group
• Oh and we sponsor about 15 orangutans from sanctuaries in Borneo
  

Now we discover according to the TreeHugger article: 'Logging, Palm Oil and Human Rights in Borneo: Malaysian Government Pushes Ahead By Ousting Indigenous Leaders' by Kimberley D. Mok:

The Malaysian government is contravening the Universal Declaration of human rights by seizing control of land belonging to indigenous peoples who oppose logging. Now, the government plans to install puppet representatives who will support the cutting of the rainforest. The Declaration, which has been adopted by Malaysia, upholds in its Article 18 the right of indigenous communities 'to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures'.

Though the connection may not be immediate to some, it is becoming more and more evident that there is an emergent link between the globalization of natural resources, human and animal rights abuses and environmental degradation. The mad rush for biofuels globally is inevitably driving up food prices, overtaking arable land and forests – and even prompting some observers to describe biofuels as a “crime against humanity.”

Action!

• Please read the entire TreeHugger article here. In fact I suggest subscribing to TreeHugger - it's great!
  
• Look behind the label and try not to buy things without certified, sustainable, palm oil.
• Bruno-Manser Fonds is a Society for the peoples of the rainforest. Check out their website for the latest developments

Sharks:12 Humans:100 million

By Adam Valvasori - Values Man

Via telegraph.co.uk: Alice Newstead's shark fin protest in the window of Lush's Regent Street (UK) store and Lush's new shark fin soap


I'd like to congratulate Lush and the Sea Shepard Conservation Society on their powerful anti-shark finning campaign.

I always knew sharks were wrongly demonised because of the small number of humans they kill but I had no idea the tally was so unjustly in human's favour.

According to Sea Shepard no more than 12 people a year are killed by sharks worldwide. Yet every year humans slaughter over 100 million sharks!

We kill sharks for:

• their teeth and jaws,
  
• shark leather for shoes and belts.
  
• shark liver oil and for shark cartilage for pseudo cancer cures.
  
• cosmetics, skin care products and in medicines.
• our fear of them,
  
• food,
  
• sport,
  

and perhaps most disturbing of all for Shark Fin Soup.

This soup has no flavor and absolutely no nutritional value. It is a dish served only for prestige purposes, selling for anywhere from US$50.00 to US$400.00 per bowl.

According to wildlife conservationists, much of the trade in sharks' fins is derived from fins cut from living sharks; this process is called finning.


Because shark meat is worth much less, the finless and often still-living sharks are thrown back into the sea to make room on board the ship for more of the valuable fins. When returned to the ocean, the finless sharks, unable to move, either die from suffocation or are consumed by other sharks or animals.

I have to also say how impressed I am with Lush's striking and unusual media launch, which if you watch the video below, was obviously very successful. They're real hooks in that fish-girl in the window! Good luck with the sale of your 'shark fin' soaps that are raising money for the Sea Shepards.

Lost Boys of Sudan Film Night

By Adam Valvasori - Values Man


To coincide with Anti Poverty Week, the Brotherhood of St Laurence will be showcasing an extraordinary film called Lost Boys of Sudan. There is an African inspired theme to the evening, with pre movie drinks, delicious African food and live African music to enjoy before we adjourn to the theatre.

I'm definitely going.

Ever since Deb gave me What is the What By Dave Eggers, I'm trying to learn and do more about the humanitarian emergency that's taking place in Sudan. Quite a few Sudanese refugees live in Melbourne. So you don't have to be pulling a George Clooney to make a difference. We can help and support Sudanese refugees in our own community. The book is a great bio-epic of Lost Boy, Valentino Achak Deng. I'm half way through it but happy to play librarian to any The Body Shop people interested in reading it after me.


More:

Save Dafur - news, campaigns and blogs
Darfur Australia Network
Human Rights Watch video documents ongoing crimes in Darfur
BBC Q&A on the Darfur conflict

Homeless World Cup

By Deb Baxter-The Body Shop

The Homeless World Cup is a world-class, annual, international football tournament that uses football as a catalyst to help people who are homeless to change their lives; and to change the attitudes of governments, media, public and key influencers to create better solutions to homelessness around the world.

The global event unites teams of people who are homeless and excluded from society to take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent their country in an unique street soccer tournament.

At the sixth Homeless World Cup in Melbourne on December 1-7, 2008, 56 nations will be united for the biggest Homeless World Cup ever, including the first women’s cup.

The Homeless World Cup has triggered and supports grass-roots football programs in over 60 nations engaging 30,000 homeless players each year.

The event’s legacy will be the roll out of 30 street soccer programs across Australia.

To find out more about the Homeless World Cup go to http://www.homelessworldcup.org/