Take the lead on Climate Change campaign

By Adam Valvasori - Values Manager






















Today The Body Shop is proud to announce the launch of our 3rd annual climate change campaign "Take the Lead on Climate Change" in partnership with the Australian Conservation Foundation.

For three weeks you can go in-store and pledge your interest in becoming a Climate Change leader. Whether that means just learning more or taking action. Our staff aim to start important conversations with customers about the critical topic of climate change and Australia's lack of leadership on the issue.

When we can’t rely on our Government or our parliament to do the right thing (ie: debate critical climate change legislation instead of Utegate)! We need to step up! Every week we fall behind other countries (like the USA) who are already taking advantage of the green economy revolution. We need to step up!


Why do we need a 'Strong Global Agreement'?

The climate crisis is ultimately a global problem, requiring a global solution. The nations of the world have previously come together to solve problems like the hole in the ozone layer, and to rebuild after devastating disasters and wars. Now we need to come together under the United Nations umbrella to help solve our greatest challenge – the climate crisis.

"The crucial December 2009 Copenhagen* negotiations for a new global climate agreement are probably the world's best and last chance to avoid dangerous climate change."

- Don Henry
Executive Director, ACF

* The nations of the world will meet in December, in Copenhagen to agree on a new global climate treaty – basically a new and improved ‘Kyoto Protocol’.

We understand Climate Change is a complicated issue, that's why this campaign is designed to help our customers connect with ACF, who will (via a regular email) help them to simply learn more and do more about Climate Change. What's more it's totally free for The Body Shop customers.


More Action:

ACF will be intensifying their pressure on our Government to increase our leadership on Climate Change on the road to Copenhagen. You can help by donating to their campaign.

Follow ACF on Twitter or Facebook

Send a message to our PM or the Leader of the Opposition about your views on our Climate Change Leadership (or lack thereof)

The USA's fight against Human Trafficking

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently launched the Trafficking in Persons Report 2009

Here's the video:


Human trafficking is modern slavery.
If you're new to the issue of read this very interesting extract from her speech:

"Around the world, millions of people are living in bondage. They labor in fields and factories under brutal employers who threaten them with violence if they try to escape. They work in homes for families that keep them virtually imprisoned. They are forced to work as prostitutes or to beg in the streets, fearful of the consequences if they fail to earn their daily quota. They are women, men, and children of all ages, and they are often held far from home with no money, no connections, and no way to ask for help.

This is modern slavery, a crime that spans the globe, providing ruthless employers with an endless supply of people to abuse for financial gain. Human trafficking is a crime with many victims: not only those who are trafficked, but also the families they leave behind, some of whom never see their loved ones again.

Trafficking has a broad global impact as well. It weakens legitimate economies, fuels violence, threatens public health and safety, shatters families, and shreds the social fabric that is necessary for progress. And it is an affront to our basic values and our fundamental belief that all people everywhere deserve to live and work in safety and dignity."

The Body Shop will be launching our campaign with Child Wise to Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People (an especially heinous form of human trafficking) in September 2009.

Respect for Indooroopilly

Jodi Meyers - Assistant Manager, The Body Shop Indooroopilly (Qld)


Hey there Values Team!

Just wanted to share some photos of the fabulous Indooroopilly team supporting the ANTaR Respect campaign and tell you about some of our thoughts and experiences along the way.

From the beginning the girls really got behind the campaign, with the whole team purchasing T-shirts and badge sets before the launch date.

The campaign launch pack was very informative and really got the team talking about what we did/did not know about Indigenous issues in Australia, as well as what some possible reactions might be.

Initially the team experienced some nerves when introducing the campaign to customers. The team were well aware that discussing racial issues can be quite confronting, so while learning the best way to introduce the campaign there was a bit of fumbling and butterflies in the tummy!

We discovered that more confident and positive we were about customers signing the pledge the more success we had. After all, pledging to improve the lives of indigenous Australians through respect is a wonderful thing to do! Why wouldn't they want to join us? The key was to keep it simple - describe the campaign aim, request their valued support with passion, then allow them to make their choice.

The Indooroopilly team experienced a range of responses from customers. Everything from negativity, to indifference, to enthusiasm for the cause.

What I noticed was that the negative reactions were usually due to a lack of knowledge about Indigenous issues.

Some customers thought that we were asking them to treat Indigenous Australians differently to Non-Indigenous Australians, rather than the mutual respect and equality we were truly promoting. On a few occasions this took a bit of explaining.

I could hardly believe my ears when a customer asked me if "they" made us put up the acknowledgment of country sign or if someone on our team was Aboriginal. Once the steam stopped coming out of my ears I managed to explain the campaign objectives, and point out the many respect shirts, signs and badges being worn by the team. I am proud to say that this customer listened and learned, then offered to sign the pledge book - what a turn around!

Throughout the campaign I also had some great conversations with customers interested in indigenous issues, several of which not only signed the book, but were excited to hear about purchasing the Kev Carmody CD and supporting ANTaR in other ways.

I am so proud of the 474 signatures our store collected. This took lots of hard work, but I think the team were also rewarded with the feel good factor of sharing a value close to our hearts.

Thanks for igniting our passion guys!

Join The Humane Train: End The Intolerable Cruelty of Live Sheep Export

By Deb Baxter - The Body Shop

WSPA has launched a new online campaign to mobilise Australians around the country to approach their local MP about the extreme cruelty of Australia’s live sheep trade to the Middle East.
Dubbed the Humane Chain, the campaign will see concerned Australians writing or talking directly to their local MP about live export cruelty and then sending a special chain letter to friends and family urging them to do the same.
A dedicated website - the humane chain - has all the information people need about the appalling cruelty of live export, letter writing tools and contact details of their local MP. Once a person has made contact with their MP they can add their name to a visual chain on an online map of Australia showing exactly where people have taken action in every corner of the country.
It’s all part of an exciting new phase of the Handle with Care global campaign to end the long distance transport of animals for slaughter, with emphasis in Australia on the live export of sheep to the Middle East.
“The online map will be a great visual representation of the sheer number of people in every part of Australia who’ve had enough of live export cruelty and want it to end, once and for all,” said Handle with Care spokesperson Emily Reeves. “Australians expressing their concerns about live export cruelty to their local MP is a major step on the path to the Australian government ending the trade, so I urge everyone who cares about animals and their wellbeing to get involved.”
Australia is the largest exporter of animals for slaughter in the world, with the sheep trade to the Middle East involving around 4 million animals annually. During the journey from Australia to the Middle East, heat stress and diseases such as scabby mouth, pink eye and salmonellosis are common. Tens of thousands of sheep die on the journey every year.
For sheep that survive the trip, a terrible fate awaits them in the hands of countries that have no or unenforced animal welfare laws. It is common for sheep to be horrendously handled and slaughtered in ways that would neither be legal nor tolerated within Australia.

Join the campaign.

The other global crisis

By Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

Two videos today to remind us about the other global crisis...

I'm lucky to be born into a country where even if I lose my job I am not going to starve. We are so fortunate, even in the midst of a global recession and we shouldn't forget this. The Body Shop cares about this issue because one of our core values is to Defend Human Rights. And Freedom from hunger is the most basic of human rights.

How much time do you have to spare to learn more about this?

One minute? Cool. Check out "REMEMBER ME" It's emotive and personal. Impacting.




Eleven minutes? Great! Then watch and absorb "SILENT TSUNAMI". It's scientific and comprehensive. Brilliant.




So what can we do about it?

You can make a difference. No matter how small. If you can try supporting an Overseas Aid Agency (eg: World Vision, Save The Children, Care or Oxfam.) Coming up in August is World Vision's 40 Hour Famine. Experience what it's is like to go without for 40 hours (or at least buy the t-shirt).

Shell Oil Finally Coughs up for Nigerian Human Rights Abuse

The Ogoni people are one of the many indigenous peoples in the Niger Delta region of southeast Nigeria.

They number about a half million people and live in a 404-square-mile (1,050 km2) homeland which they also refer to as Ogoni, or Ogoniland.

The Ogoni rose to international attention after a massive public protest campaign against Shell Oil, led by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP).

A few days ago on 9 June, Royal Dutch Shell agreed a $15.5m out-of-court settlement in a lawsuit accusing it of complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria brought by the Ogoni campaign.

This is good news for the campaign and for The Body Shop who supported the Ogoni cause. The lawsuit was initiated 13 years ago by relatives of nine anti-oil campaigners, including the family of author Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were hanged in 1995 by Nigeria's then military rulers.

Those executed were members of the Ogoni ethnic group from the Niger Delta who had been campaigning for the rights of the local people and protesting at pollution caused by the oil industry. It was alleged that Shell was complicit in abuses by Nigeria's former military government against campaigners in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The oil giant strongly denies any wrongdoing and says the payment is part of a "process of reconciliation". US$5m will go into a trust to benefit the people of Ogoniland. The rest will go to the plaintiffs and to pay the costs of litigation. The Ogoni cause was an important human rights and environmental campaign for The Body Shop from 1993 when Anita Roddick met several Ogoni people attending a human rights conference in Vienna and became passionate about their cause.

The Body Shop "Someone's Making A Killing in Nigeria" Window Poster (1995)

The Body Shop ran a global lobbying, PR and advertising campaign on behalf of Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni people for three years, supporting a network of Ogoni’s indigenous people’s, green, human rights and free speech organizations. With 500,000 Ogoni people living in the Niger delta, the campaign raised awareness of the repression and environmental damaged which benefited Nigeria’s elite - especially under military dictatorships - and oil firms, particularly Shell.

The objective of The Body Shop campaign was to generate global outcry and seek justice for Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni people, persuade Shell to clean up the environment and ensure greater local economic benefits. The result of the ruling between Shell and the relatives of the campaigners killed is a significant step for the campaign for justice to the Ogoni people.

Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1993. Photograph: Greenpeace/AFP

Ken Wiwa, 40, son of Ken Saro-Wiwa, said his father would have been happy with the result. We join the families in celebrating this ruling. Ken Saro-Wiwa proudly defended the Ogoni people and paid the ultimate sacrifice and he remains deeply admired for the strong leadership and integrity he displayed. For more about Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni campaign, click here www.remembersarowiwa.com.

***

More:

• Shell pays out $15.5m over Saro-Wiwa killing (Via The Guardian)
• Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
  
• http://remembersarowiwa.com/
  
• Watch the videos below:
  

14,376 The Body Shop Customers Take the Pledge of Respect

By Deb Baxter - The Body Shop

The Body Shop are proud to have partnered with ANTaR again this year, a three week window of opportunity to educate and create awareness of issues effecting our Indigenous Australians. The RESPECT campaign; aiming for 20,000 of The Body Shop customers to sign the pledge for a new partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, resulted in a final total of 14, 376 signatures. Short of what we had hoped for, but there were so many more wonderful conversations between our staff and our customers. Conversations that opened peoples hearts and minds as to the simple steps they as individuals could take towards a more respectful Australia. I have every confidence that while we may not have reached our goal in signatures, the number of conversations exceeded our goal and we should never understimate the power of a conversation. The following feedback came from The Body Shop Launceston and summarises beautifully what this campaign was all about.

An Indigenous Australian man entered the store and said he needed to talk to someone about our Respect Campaign. He was very emotional about the effort we were making to educate our customers about RACISM – of which he has been a victim of. He shared some of his experiences with us, shed some tears and could not thank us enough for taking the time to listen. His parting words were “together we can make a difference”. We had inspired each other, what a powerful conversation.

A word from Jessica.

Dear Values Team

My name is Jessica and I work for The Body Shop Geelong. I arrived in Australia on the 27th of December 2007, from New Zealand.

I come from a country, like Australia, where we have been scarred with racial differences which resulted in the Moari name of Pakeha which translates to "white pig".

In February of 2008 I saw Kevin Rudd give his sorry speech but was not clued as to what it was all about. With the Respect campaign I have learnt a lot more about the situation and what happened here in Australia with your own Indigenous people.

I find it so hard to believe it has taken this long to resolve and more importantly apologise and raise awareness of the situation. In New Zealand it took a long time but we are united and proud of our heritage. We use the Haka as one of our national songs and I don't understand why Australian's haven't embraced this side of the Aboriginal culture. Learn their language, their ways, about their tribes (communities). In New Zealand it is compulsory for for students to learn the Moari language at school from the age of 5 - 16, whatever nationality you are.

I think it's great what we are doing and if I can help more, please let me know.
Stokesy.

Click here if you would like to sign the pledge to see a new partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, based on mutual Respect.