Eco beauty company ‘appoints nature’ to its board of directors
A beauty company has appointed a director to represent nature on its board, giving the natural world a legal say in its business strategy.
Faith In Nature, which sells soap and haircare products, as well as household cleaners and shampoo for dogs, says it is the first company in the world to give nature a formal vote on corporate decisions that might affect it.
The decision by the Edinburgh-based company taps into a growing global movement to assign nature legal rights, although it has had little traction to date in the UK.
Simeon Rose, Faith In Nature’s creative director, said he hoped other businesses who take their responsibility to the natural world seriously would follow suit.
“We’re really happy to share details of how and why we did this” Rose said. We’ve always wanted nature to be at the heart of what we do, and this felt like the next serious step we could take to make that a reality.”
Working with lawyers from Lawyers for Nature and the US-based Earth Law Center, as well as a pro bono team of corporate experts at international law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP, the company updated its corporate documents over the summer to say that, as well as benefiting shareholders, it would do its best “to have a positive impact on nature as a whole” and “to minimise the prospect of any harmful impact of its business operations on nature”.
A new non-executive director will join the company’s next board meeting later this month to speak on behalf of the natural world. The first person to hold the position is Brontie Ansell, senior lecturer in law in Essex Law School and director of Lawyers for Nature, who told the Guardian her role would be similar to a guardian acting on behalf of a child in a court of law.
Ansell believes Faith In
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