Anita Roddick (1942-2007) is the founder of The Body Shop and for many years was a prominent activist for environmentally-conscious consumerism and corporate responsibility.

Anita Roddick pioneered the belief that businesses have a responsibility to work towards social and environmental change.

Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop, a naturally inspired skin- and hair-care business, in 1976; the company went public in 1984 and now has over 1,900 stores in fifty countries with 77 million customers. She has worked on many educational and activist campaigns, including an international campaign against Exxon-Mobil, and a “Choose Positive Energy Campaign” with Greenpeace and the Intermediate Technology Development Group. She also launched the New Academy of Business at Bath University, with the aim of reforming business education.

Roddick was named Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2003. She wrote and contributed to many books, including Business as Unusual (revised, 2005); Body and Soul (1991), and Take It Personally: How to Make Conscious Choices to Change the World (2001), an anthology dealing with globalisation.

Anita Roddick died on 10 September 2007.

Recent articles

The degrading conditions of young women in Bangladesh's textile industry are shocking evidence of the need to force international corporations to observe human, workers' and women's rights. Anita Roddick calls for a new campaign that starts with insisting on maternity leave for those who make the world's clothes.

(This article was first published on 8 April 2004)