The Lush Ethical Charter

The Lush Ethical Charter

The Lush Ethos

In the Lush ‘We Believe‘ statement we say “We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on the products and making our mums proud.”

But in truth it is not just our mums that feel proud of our work, the people who work at Lush also feel pride and a sense of ownership of the achievements and core values of the company.  Our own pride in the company and our individual contribution to Lush leads to enormous levels of hard work and loyalty not often seen in companies and a trust from colleagues and customers that is hard to win.

We know that many people have come to work here because of our values.  For many, Lush is a place that best represents either their personal values, their priorities or their world view; a company that strives to do good business without exploiting people, planet or animals. In fact over time Lush has become an ecosystem of exciting and differing people and opinions. Our ability to create a warm and welcoming home, a safe environment where difference is accepted and fostered, is maybe our single greatest strength. We have attracted minorities who have come to us as a refuge from prejudice, bullying or marginalisation.  This wide and diverse group all find a place in the tapestry of Lush where we can forge a role that has personal value and meaning, whilst contributing to the whole.

No matter your position, we are all needed to work together for the future, as in the past, to build on the foundations of Lush, to push forward in all aspects of creativity, commerce, customer service and business integrity.  Keeping Lush vibrant, relevant and meaningful to its place and time in the world, means we must continue to innovate and change whilst keeping true to our values and ensure that Lush remains a place we all feel proud to work and contribute to.

Whether a customer or shareholder, we all expect Lush to innovate, adapt and rise to the challenges that an ever changing world throws at us – with a general expectation that standards should rise rather than fall.

EMPLOYEE CONSULTATION ON CORE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

One of the principal aims of the Lush Employee Benefit Trust (the EBT) is to protect the core values that enable us to maintain our ethical standards. To that aim, we are putting processes in place via the EBT to ensure that decisions are not made which may breach or materially affect our ethical practice without first taking the views of the staff of all Lush companies into account.  This also allows for us all to be thoroughly briefed about the issues behind any major proposed changes so that we can make a meaningful contribution to that decision and the leaders of the business can make an informed decision having considered all our views.

There are certain values or principles we regard as so core to our philosophy that they should not be changed without proper consideration and consultation.  If the directors of Lush consider that any such change is likely (and it would not in any way fetter their discretion or cause any of them to be in breach of their directors’ duties or any duty of confidentiality to do so), they will ask the Trustees of the EBT (the EBT Trustees) to seek the views of the Lush Group Employees and will seek to take those views into account when considering what action to take in relation to that proposed change.  When requested to do so by Lush, the EBT Trustees will ask all the Lush Group Employees then on the payroll of all the Lush Group companies in all the countries where Lush carries on business whether they consider the proposed changes to amount to a breach or material change in our core ethical principles.  These core ethical principles are:

Animal Testing

Lush will never conduct or commission animal tests. Furthermore we will always choose to buy ingredients from suppliers who do not test on animals. Where there are laws and regulations which make non-animal testing difficult or impossible to achieve, we will challenge and campaign for true cruelty free legislation in all markets.

Lush is a Vegetarian company

Only vegetarian ingredients will be used in products.  We also commit to ensuring that there are always some vegan options in our range.

Company tax policy

We commit to paying the proper amount of tax on time in all countries where Lush operates.  A copy of our current written tax policy is available on request.

Lush is a campaigning company

Lush actively campaigns on the issues of Animal Rights, Human Rights and Environmental Protection.

All Lush licensed territories are expected to campaign at least once a year on one of the core values through their shops and website.

Fair Wages for staff

Lush commits to exceed government minimum standards of staff wages and conditions in all countries in which it operates.

All Are Welcome, Always

Our statement of intent ‘All are welcome, always’ is our guiding principle on diversity and inclusion for staff and customers, where we hope to always be a place that embraces everyone.

Lush will always aim to employ and promote people on the strength of skills, abilities and potential without prejudice or discrimination of any type.

Commitment to Transparency and External Audits

Lush will contract regular third party audits of its Animal Testing Policy, its ethical and environmental practices as well as regular business audits.

EVOLVING ETHICAL VALUES AND PRINCIPLES

There are some core values in addition to those set out above, which are equally fundamental to the Lush ethical ethos, but which would be defined differently over time, being affected by new advances in technology, differing world situations and newly available inventions and solutions. These core values will have targets and policies which change from time to time to reflect these advances and changes.  They are:

A Living Planet

Lush believes it’s a part of the natural world, therefore its impact – be it through the ingredients we use, the way we manufacture and transport goods or how we generate energy – must give back more than it takes.

Fair business dealings with our suppliers

We believe fair trade is a trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect that seeks greater equity in international trade, engaging actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practices of conventional international trade.

Keeping product quality, core values, customer satisfaction and making a profit of equal importance

Lush believes in the right to make a profit, but when making major business considerations and adjustments, all aspects of Lush’s core values will be discussed and kept in mind.  A balanced Lush business will always try to find profit whilst upholding the core values.

Fresh and Handmade

We aim to have an innovative, effective range of products produced by hand using fresh ingredients with an end goal of completely eliminating the use of synthetic preservatives.

Naked products

Our goal of minimising the use of packaging means that we will always strive to invent and perfect naked products.

Digital Ethics

Lush will always endeavour to behave with an ethical conscience in our ever-evolving digital estate.  We embrace open-source technologies in everything that we design, build and release. We give back our research and code to open communities.  We commit to using conflict material free commodity hardware that has high output but a low energy consumption powered by renewable green energy across the group, where possible. We ensure that all of Lush’s staff and customer data is encrypted, secure and transparent. Our Customers and Staff have the right to know what information we hold about them.

Renewable Energy

The past reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear for the world’s energy needs has caused problems.  We will seek out and favour advances in new energy sources and solutions as they become available.

Recycled Materials

If we can’t make everything naked, then the next aim is to ensure that those products that do need packaging use the best and most innovative minimum impact, recycled or reused materials that are available.

Environmental policies

Lush will always seek to challenge itself over all its uses of the world’s resources. We aim to reduce and minimise our impact with policies that meet the needs of a changing and constantly evolving world situation. We will challenge and target ourselves in areas such as air transport, energy use, materials into landfill, recycling rates, pollution and waste outputs.

THE ETHICAL CHARTER COMMITTEE

Convening the Ethical Charter Committee

If an employee of any Lush Group company in any country where Lush operates raises a concern that any of the core values or principles in this Ethical Charter are not being adhered to by any Lush Group company this should be immediately reported to the Trustees directly or via ebt@lush.co.uk. The Trustees will convene to discuss and conduct an investigation.

If the board of Trustees unanimously agree that the company is in breach of a core principle in the Lush Ethical Charter, the EBT Trustees will inform the Board of Directors of Lush Cosmetics Limited (or any other company which may be the parent company of the Lush Group at the relevant time) (the Board) of the breach or likely breach and will work with the business to find a remedy for the breach or likely breach.

If the Trustees are unable to agree or following investigation, unanimously decide Lush is not in breach of the Ethical Charter (unless they reasonably consider the concern to be unfounded or a result of mis-interpretation  not amounting to a breach of the Charter), the EBT Trustees shall convene a committee (the Ethical Charter Committee) to decide whether or not the actions, proposed actions or inactions which are the subject of that concern amount to a legitimate risk of a breach to the Ethical Charter.

Members of the Ethical Charter Committee

On each occasion that the Ethical Charter Committee is convened the members will comprise of: two EBT Representatives from our Group retail business, two EBT Representatives from our Group Manufacturing business and one EBT Representative from our Group Support teams. These representatives will be selected at random from current democratically elected Business Area EBT Representatives whom our staff have elected to represent them and their voice in matters relating to the EBT and the Ethical Charter. The Chair of the Committee, who will not have a vote, will be one of the EBT Trustees.

Provision of information to the Committee

The EBT Trustees will as far as possible provide the Committee members with all the information and evidence available on the relevant Lush Group company’s activities in relation to the core principle brought into question which they will reasonably require to make a decision.

Decisions of the Committee and actions to be taken

The Committee will then decide by a simple majority vote whether or not the relevant Lush Group company is operating within the spirit of the Ethical Charter:

• if the Committee decides that the company is operating within the spirit of the Ethical Charter, then no further action will be taken; but
• if the Committee decides that the relevant company is carrying on its activities in such a way that it amounts, or is likely to amount, to a breach of the Ethical Charter the EBT Trustees will inform the Board of Directors of Lush Cosmetics Limited (or any other company which may be the parent company of the Lush Group at the relevant time) (the Board) of the breach or likely breach and the Board will, as far as reasonably practicable, take the views of the Committee into account when deciding what action to take in response to the breach or likely breach.

Notification to Employees

If at any time the Ethical Charter Committee is convened, the EBT Trustees will notify all the Employees then on the payroll of all Lush Group companies at that time of the concern it was convened to consider and the decision made by the Committee.

AMENDMENT OF THE LUSH ETHICAL CHARTER

We recognise that the Lush Group business, and the world in which it carries on that business, will evolve and change.  The Lush Ethical Charter may be amended from time to time to reflect that evolution provided that none of the Core Ethical Values or Evolving Ethical Values set out above shall be removed, disregarded or amended so that they cease to comply with or support the spirit of this Ethical Charter at the date of the of the establishment of the EBT without prior consultation with Employees.

Hilary Jones     Simon Constantine     Jack Constantine     Karl Bygrave

8 February 2018

* (and it would not in any way fetter their discretion or cause any of them to be in breach of their directors’ duties or any duty of confidentiality to do so)