To explore employee perceptions of their company as an environmentally sustainable brand, using The Body Shop as a case study

Abstract

With the growing issues of climate change and global warming, companies are continuously incorporating environmental sustainability policies into their organisations (van der Werff, Steg & Keizer, 2013). Thus it is important for companies to ensure that their employees understand and engage with their environmental sustainability philosophy in order to effectively deliver the brand’s environmentally sustainable brand identity to consumers (Rosenbluth & Peters, 2002; Raineri & Paillé; 2015). The research problem relates to evaluating how The Body Shop (an environmentally sustainable organisation) employees perceive the environmental sustainability philosophy and policies of their company. The purpose of this research is to explore how having a focus on environmental sustainability within a company needs to be incorporated throughout the organisation so that employees are also able to deliver on the brand’s environmentally sustainable brand identity (Rosenbluth & Peters, 2002). The reasoned action theory by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) was selected in order to evaluate how employee perceptions of their company as an environmentally sustainable brand are formed. The study was conducted amongst fourteen The Body Shop employees across seven Johannesburg branches, using qualitative surveys to collect the data from participants. The key finding of this research paper was that the majority of employees did not fully understand the environmental sustainability philosophy and policies of The Body Shop, which was found to be due to a lack of sufficient communication from The Body Shop, specifically regarding their environmental sustainability. This thus hinders their ability to effectively deliver on the environmentally sustainable brand identity of The Body Shop. This finding can assist The Body Shop, as well as other environmentally sustainable brands, to ensure that their environmental sustainability philosophy and policies are effectively implemented throughout their organisation.