International conservation charity and the global beauty brand win a prestigious award for their World Bio-Bridges Mission
“Bio-Bridges are an innovative way to create protected corridors of biodiversity that allow the wider forest to flourish and its inhabitants to breed and thrive”
World Land Trust, the international conservation charity that protects the world’s most biologically significant habitats, has been celebrating a win for The Body Shop in the recent Marie Claire Prix d’Excellence Beauty Awards. The global beauty brand was announced as the winner of the sustainability category for its World Bio-Bridges Mission, a project that aims to enrich biodiversity around the world by protecting and regenerating 75 million square metres of habitat and building 10 bio-bridges by 2020.
Partners in conservation
Bio-bridges are corridors of protected land that allow animals to pass safely between developed regions to reach large protected areas and are vital for the conservation of endangered species whose natural habitats are being destroyed by clearance, agriculture and animal poaching.
For a number of its Bio-Bridges, The Body Shop have partnered with World Land Trust. One of their first was in the Khe Nuoc Trong forest of North Central Vietnam, creating a bridge to protect tropical forests for threatened species such as the red-shanked douc. This monkey is so colourful and endearing that The Body Shop created an entire campaign around it called ‘Find Reggie Love’. Using stunning images of the threatened primate, the in-store and online campaign promoted the message that every customer transaction would restore and protect one square metre of habitat in the forest.
“We want to focus on actively enriching the world’s biodiversity,” said Christopher Davis, Director of Corporate Responsibility and Campaigns at The Body Shop. “These areas of forest in Vietnam are biological treasure troves that are being destroyed through poaching and illegal logging. Bio-Bridges are an innovative way to create protected corridors of biodiversity that allow the wider forest to flourish and its inhabitants to breed and thrive.”
The work continues
The successful partnership continued in other areas of the world where wildlife and biodiversity are under threat, such as the Garo Hills in India. The Garo Hills hold an incredible amount of biodiversity and the new Bio-Bridge there will be used by a wealth of wildlife, such as the Endangered Indian Elephant and Western Hoolock Gibbon, to move safely between larger protected areas.
Then, for Christmas 2018, The Body Shop launched a campaign called ‘Trees are for life, not just for Christmas’, with every purchase in the festive season contributing towards protecting and re-wilding over 10 million square metres of forest in Armenia (with WLT) and England (with the Woodland Trust).
“The Body Shop have shown their commitment to nature conservation through a number of creative campaigns as part of their World Bio-Bridges Mission, and this sustainability award is very well-deserved,” says Dan Bradbury, Director of Communications and Development at WLT.
The Carbon Balanced Paper connection
Standing alongside The Body Shop, another key partner of World Land Trust is Carbon Balanced Paper, the industry-wide initiative that allows brands and organisations to reduce the carbon impact of their printed communications, and in the process generate funds that help World Land Trust to save the world’s most endangered habitats.
Carbon Balanced Paper is supported by a number of paper merchants that offer high quality papers suitable for all printing needs and marketing campaigns. The carbon impact of the production and distribution of these papers is balanced by World Land Trust, allowing your company to include a unique logo on your print to demonstrate your commitment to the environment.
In the eight years it’s been running, more than 2,000 brands have used Carbon Balanced Paper to offset their carbon emissions, including Unilever, Scottish Power, Anglian Water, Dulux and Specsavers, helping to protect land and forests that offset over 50,000 tonnes of CO2.
So whether you want to enhance your company’s environmental credentials or your morning beauty routine, you can help preserve the world’s most threatened habitats while you do it.
- For more information on Carbon Balanced Paper, email: info@carbonbalancedpaper.com
- For more information on World Land Trust, go to: www.worldlandtrust.org
- For more information on The Body Shop’s World Bio-Bridges Mission, go to: www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/about-us/our-commitment/bio-bridges
Featured image credit: Natalie Singleton
Article written by Sam Upton
