Word: roddick
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...time she died of a brain hemorrhage on Sept. 10, at 64, Roddick and her husband Gordon had turned that first Body Shop into a global retailing phenomenon, the Starbucks of cosmetics with nearly 2,000 stores in 50 countries and revenue of $986 million in 2005. But more impressive than the numbers are the ideals behind them. In an industry that relies on people feeling bad about themselves to push products, Roddick made her millions helping people feel good and do good. To the Queen of Green, bath salts and foot lotion were just the hook...
...From the beginning, The Body Shop was against animal testing and for Third World development, getting its materials from small communities in poorer countries like Guatemala (aloe vera) and Nambia (marula oil). Over the years, the scope of campaigns that Roddick had taken up - and that Body Shop has supported in its storefronts - grew and expanded. Now a tube of lip gloss can increase awareness about domestic abuse and a bottle of perfume is a weapon in the fight against HIV. "She made shopping a political act," says her friend Josephine Fairley, co-founder of organic chocolate company Green & Black...
...Body Shop's lead, major corporations everywhere are now seeing green. "They were one of the first companies to have a values report," says Fairley. "Back then, companies didn't have values reports, they had balance sheets." But the birth of ethical business was not an easy one. Roddick's critics accused her ethics-over-profits stance of being nothing more than a marketing gimmick. And the one-time Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year had an uncomfortable relationship with the whole business of big business: she once referred to financiers as "dinosaurs in pin-stripes...
...held throughout her life as a company head and an activist. Her very public criticism of the the same industry that had made her rich and famous, calling it in her 1991 autobiography Body and Soul a "monster selling unattainable dreams," would come back to haunt her. Although Roddick stepped down as co-chair of The Body Shop in 2002 (while staying on as a consultant), she was still accused of selling out, both the company and her principles, when The Body Shop was sold to L'Oreal last year for $1.3 billion. But as far as Roddick was concerned...
...Since the sale of The Body Shop, Roddick, whose sense of social injustice kicked into gear after she read a book on the Holocaust when she was 10, had been focusing on the charities and campaigns she held dear. Claiming that she didn't want to "die rich," she gave away around $6 million a year and planned to spend the rest of her time doling out grants and donations and lending her name to causes like stopping sweatshop labor and protesting the imprisonment of two of the "Angola 3" Black Panther members being held in a Louisiana state prison...