Household and Beauty products, it seems to me, have harder ethical standards to meet than most other industries. Things that are being used around the house, things used to clean and things that are being put in your body all contain various chemicals and substances that could be toxic or harmful to those who come in contact with them. For example, Windex can cause irritation to the skin or eyes if exposed to those areas. Other products, like hairspray, are highly flammable and pose certain risks to the safety of the people using them. These products have to be heavily regulated so that they do not cause permanent or fatal damage to those people using them.
A popular way of testing how harmful a product is is to test the product on animals to see the effects they have. This is considered by many to be very unethical, especially by animal rights organizations and environmentalist organizations. It is also very unattractive to the buyer if a company uses animal testing, as it is widely considered as immoral. Companies will generally take great pride in the absence of animal testing, because it shows great Corporate Social Responsibility and is overall attractive to the consumer. For example, a British soap company called Lush takes great pride in their eco-friendliness and good ethical standing. It gives money to climate change groups to compensate for international travel, does not package most of its products to avoid using plastic packaging, and does not import from suppliers who use animal testing. Lush is a very successful enterprise, as it has 702 locations in 44 countries. This is an example of a successful beauty products company that is ethically sound.
Article on the Lush chain:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eea38a54-144d-11e0-a21b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Bu8hjk4V
I've always been an animal lover myself and I know that if I knew a company tested its product on animals I would not buy it, no matter how much I liked that product. If a business can not take enough pride in its work to find a better way to test it than on innocent animals who can't stand up for themselves, then they wont be receiving my business. A company like the one you mentioned above who makes sure not to test on animals and is eco-friendly is not only attractive to me but should be attractive to other companies and should be what they strive to be like.
ReplyDeleteGood post and way to identify a great company within your industry! I'm actually a huge fan of Lush and am very familiar with their CSR outreach. Good start!
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