ABSTRACT
The Body Shop published the results of its first ‘social audit’ in 1996.This followed its public commitment in 1994 to measure and report on its social performance as a way of holding itself to account and encouraging others to do the same.2 The published report, The Body Shop Social Statement 95, was part of a four-volume set running to over 300 pages that made up the company’s overall ‘Ethical Audit’ for the period, including environmental and animal audit reports and a document describing the method adopted.3 The underlying approach taken by The Body Shop in its social audit was to focus on the interests and perspectives of stakeholders and so measure the company’s performance from that vantage point, at least in part. Stakeholder dialogue was clearly a core element of this approach, without which the relevant data could neither be acquired nor validated. The Body Shop, very keen to adopt the most professional approach possible to avoid accusations of bias or incompetence, invested heavily in creating a highly transparent, systematic method for stakeholder dialogue that included the following:
We have been careful to avoid direct interpretation of results other than drawing attention to or summarizing responses which exceeded a rule-of thumb threshold of positive or negative perceptions. . . Where appropriate we have provided context and interpretation to avoid misconceptions. . . Results of surveys are set out in bar form for ease of interpretation. . . Throughout the text we have inserted comments and quotes from stakeholders. The quotes were selected by NEF (the external verifiers) from comprehensive digests of comments. . . from the confidential questionnaires. . . We will be convening meetings with our staff and other stakeholders. . . The results of these discussions will feed into future decision-making and priority setting.4
